3D CAD NEWS

Since 1999 Apple has been hounding online news site ThinkSecret, which has a reputation for reporting on new Apple products and initiatives long before the company speaks publically on them. In 2005 it sued the publisher for exposing trade secrets. Today the publisher, a college student named Nicholas Ciarelli, settled with Apple by shutting down his website.

A terse statement was jointly issued by Apple and Ciarelli today:

December 20, 2007 - PRESS RELEASE: Apple and Think Secret have settled their lawsuit, reaching an agreement that results in a positive solution for both sides. As part of the confidential settlement, no sources were revealed and Think Secret will no longer be published. Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret’s publisher, said “I’m pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits.”

Ciarelli is an undergraduate at Harvard University, and has been an editor at the student newspaper The Harvard Crimson. ThinkSecret was his labor of love as a self-admitted rabid Macintosh fan.

(left: ThinkSecret Publisher and Harvard Student Nicholas Ciarelli)

This sets a terrible precedent. Apple already stands alone in the computer industry as the most paranoid about its image and its ability to control news about its products. Now they have succeeded in using an army of corporate lawyers to shut down a college student’s blog. This is corporate bulling of the worst sort, as well as a show of haughty contempt for the rights of a free press in the United States.

The phrase “amicable settlement” strongly suggests that Apple paid Ciarelli off. You can’t blame him. What would the average college student/blogger do if, while fighting a lawsuit from one of the biggest companies in the computer industry, they offer cash to make you just go away?

ZDNet’s  Larry Digman put it well today:

I can’t blame Ciarelli. When it comes to lawsuits Apple has a cannon and ThinkSecret has a pea shooter (if that). Why wouldn’t you want to put this lawsuit behind you? But a shutdown sets a bad precedent. Every time a blog writes something a company doesn’t like–Apple is a big stickler–or leaks information a publisher will have two choices: Shutdown and save your financial life. Or get destroyed by an army of lawyers.

 

This week at CADCAMNETtv, Greg Smith, our Big Mac Guy (you’ll understand the double meaning when you watch) gives an overview of both Parallels and VMwareFusion running Windows XP, with AutoCAD and Rhino software, on a Macintosh.

If you’ve ever been curious about whether you can run your CAD system on a Mac, well this might give you pointers. However, be warned that only a select few Windows CAD products will actually run on the virtual machine, but at least it opens up the options a little more from what we have now for CAD on the Mac.

To watch the review, go to www.cadcamnet.tv; Greg’s review is about half way through the broadcast. If anyone knows of any other CAD products that work on the virtual machine, please do share!

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3D CAD News has learned Siemens PLM Software, the former UGS, has decided to postpone the release of NX 5 for the Macintosh OS X environment. Instead, Siemens will next release NX for OS X  as part of the NX 6 release in 2006.

The original plan called for the release of NX 5 for the Mac after the release of the Leopard update, now scheduled for October 26. But a source inside Siemens says doing so would have meant releasing a beta version of both NX 5 and NX 6 for the Mac to early adopters for testing at almost the same time. “We are releasing [NX for the Mac] with NX 6,” said the source, who did not want to be identified. “This gives us time to incorporate some additional functionality based on customer feedback from our early adopters.”

Our sister publication CADCAMNet gave NX 5 an enthusiastic review earlier this year. As reviewer Al Dean noted, NX 5 sports a new user interface, Active Mockup, Requirement-Driven Design Validation, and many more features. Beyond the specific new features, Dean said NX 5 “removes ambiguity, maximizes knowledge retention, and reduces the time invested in learning.” We can only imagine at this point in time what goodies await the (rarely) patient Mac users who want the power of NX in OS X, now that they must wait for NX 6.

NX 5 as it appears in Windows. 

Alright, so Punch Software makes a whole series of ‘home design’ products which we all see at CompUSA, Walmart etc. But today, they announced full 3D software for a simple $99. Now, back in November 2006, they acquired CADSoft Solutions Inc (CSI) and, we believe, acquired Tim Olson with it. CSI used to develop ‘conceptual design software’ much of which was used by other vendors. Indeed, IMSI’s TurboCAD for MAC product is reportedly built on CSI’s code.

ViaCAD, as the Punch product is known, is a Windows and Mac-based product, that claims that it makes 2D and 3D design easy and fun. The image (below) of things that have been created in ViaCAD are surprisingly complex, so we would be interested to see just how ‘easy’ they are to create.

 

Industry commentary: Will $99 3D CAD software actually be any good? Well, we already have free 3D from Alibre Design Xpress which according to its many users is well-received, usable and functional (if slightly limited in assembly size.) We have affordable 3D software from Rhino, FreeDesign, IMSI and Alibre, and all of these kick butt in terms of creating in 3D. And despite all of that, any article you read has the mid-range CEOs being entirely dismissive…we suggest that they should, perhaps, try some of this stuff out.

Yesterday, Cocreate released its Mid-range 3D CAD software for free for a limited time. (The download is for a limited time, not using the software which is for as long as you want.)

The ViaCAD software seems good and has a pedigreed background - developer Tim Olson is not in the habit of developing crap software. We are sure he has not done that in this case either!

 

For $99 can we really go wrong? The software won’t be out until March 07, but I have a feeling I’ll be buying it at CompUSA even if just to try it out.