The CAD Insider

Lynn Allen at SolidWorks World: Is it Glasnost?

Lynn Allen, the queen of AutoCAD, caused quite a stir when she showed SolidWorks World 2008 in San Diego. Blogs lit up with Lynn sightings almost immediately, complete with tabloid-style photos. Tongues wagged about Autodesk spying. Some SolidWorks employees grumbled how they themselves would be welcomed at Autodesk Univeristy (they wouldn't --AU gatekeepers are infamous for intolerance of competitive companies and dissenting individuals). 

Lynn Allen, queen of AutoCAD, with Rainer Gawlick, emcee of SolidWorks World 08 and head of marketing for SolidWorks.

But Lynn was open and forthright in her role. She was not here to spy, nor hiding her role as evangelist for Autodesk. She just wanted to see what was going on, maybe even pick up some pointers for AU. She even graciously agreed to and sat through a tough interview by SolidWorks user and and blogger, Mike Puckett.

Though Solid Works conference organizers were getting a bit nervous from sensation Lynn's presence was causing, most CAD insiders felt SolidWork had once again took the high road by keeping the doors open when a lesser company would have slammed them shut.

Will Lynn's visit and treatment at SolidWorks lead to a more civilized behavior by Autodesk to SolidWorks? Maybe it has already started. There were no Autodesk pranks this year, like the previous year when SolidWorks users had to endure in-your-face Inventor ads on every taxicab in New Orleans.

SolidWorks First Ever Press Day

SAN DIEGO, CA, Jan 20, 2008-Though SolidWorks has invited press to its annual user meeting for many years, this time they chose to declare an official SolidWorks Press Day, held in advance of the main stage presentations. It was a decision many SolidWorks employees may have regretted as they may have rather been cheering their home team, the New England Patriots, who were winning a playoff game on their way to the Super Bowl.

"Most technology companies do not like press talking to their users," said Jeff Ray, CEO of SolidWorks, who seems intent on continuing his company's longstanding success with the trade press (see previous post "How to Treat the Press")

However, a mild fracas erupted over the use of video cameras, which were banned for some of the day's events but not others. Leading the protest was Rachael Dalton Taggart, of Strategic Reach, who asked pointedly why she could not film for her CCNtv show while all manner of cell phones and digital cameras were in operation and could be taking videos.

As it was, the press day was a mixed success. Jeff would have liked to have an informal, town hall "PowerPoint-free" style but the crowd of over 150 was too large. We were offered little in the way of new announcements, sneak previews, or anything really too exciting to present to our readers. Perhaps SolidWorks did not want to steal thunder from the main stage the next day.

But not giving the press a bunch of new stuff to feast on and ask about may have left room for some prickly subjects to pop up in the resulting Q&A:

• "User interface -- ribbon technology. why  didn't you deliver the old way?" Many SolidWorks veterans have expressed displeasure at the new UI. "I'm surprised we're not getting a lot more negative feedback," said Jeff.
• "Can you explain why adoption of SW08 has lagged previous releases?" asked a blogger/user.

We heard how this year's show was the biggest ever with 4,400 enrollments, beating the previous record of 3,600 set at New Orleans.

Rounding is the Devil in the Details

Those little bitty fillets (AKA rounds, blends) so common on castings and molded parts can be ever so confounding to the conscientious designer trying ever so hard to complete the solid model. During the customer presentations at the PTC Wildfire Launch, one customer estimated 20-30% of their modeling time goes into creating -- or trying to create -- those devilish details. Multiply that across the sizeable Pro/E user base and you may get an idea of how just how welcome a magic wand would be. PTC says that magic wand will take the form of Auto Round (TM). If it is as good as is claimed, I have no doubt that Auto Round will be the single most popular enhancement  for Pro/E user in Wildfire 4.0.

According to PTC, the following part, which would be practically impossible to round for a beginner, would take an intermediate user an hour and a half to fillet. Put into the hands of an expert, it would still take 20 minutes to get the last pesky round in place. PTC says Auto Round will do it in 40 seconds.

Cynics will point out that the part could have been carefully selected  for success. But how would Auto Round work in the real world?

Callaway (the company known for the most brutishly powerful custom Corvettes) claims a 35-40% reduction in rounding time in the design of  the manifold shown below, and 60-70% reduction in another using the Auto Round feature. It may not solve every filleting problem, but even when it doesn't work, Auto Round will offer useful suggestions in how to proceed.

CAD insiders will no doubt compare this to SolidWorks attempts to solve complex filleting problems using their trademarked SWIFT, introduced about a year ago. Both companies appear to alleviate complex rounding problems for their users.

Now what we need is a head to head comparison!

PTC Embraces CoCreate

Despite it's billing as a Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 4.0 Launch, most of the buzz at the annual PTC press event was about CoCreate. PTC had acquired CoCreate late last year. Media types and analysts came loaded with questions and PTC executives were only too happy to discuss the acquisition, like parents of a new baby.

"There are 2 types of modelers and we are inventors of both of them," said a proud Jim Heppleman, Executive VP of PTC.

Scene outside PTC HQ outside Boston, Massachusetts

As most CAD insiders know, PTC made its fame and fortune with parametric feature based modeling, whereas CoCreate throughout its long existence has championed plain old solid modeling -- no parametrics, no history tree. They had been calling this "dynamic modeling" modeling (which PTC is now calling "explicit" modeling). While PTC has been the more successful financially, each type has had its ardent supporters. Lately, dynamic modeling (by whatever name) has generated quite a bit of coverage by the trade press, much of it due to a concerted lobbying effort by Kubotek and SpaceClaim.

Despite its roots and because of the CoCreate acquisition, PTC is embracing "explicit" modeling so hard I'm afraid they may soon be changing their name from Parametric Technology Corporation. Hmm, maybe Product Technology Corporation would not be a bad idea. They could at least keep all their monogrammed towels, logos and stationery.

Last year, a product like CoCreate may have been derided for lacking "design intent" or being just too simple to handle real world design. But if you think that a sudden about face and selling a product based on a concept previously dismissed might be a bit awkward, you haven't experienced the amnesia companies develop to deal with inconvenient past claims. In fact, in calling CoCreate easy to use and boon to small firms, PTC came very close to admitting their flagship product, Pro/ENGINEER, was hard to use. "What could be simpler than a CAD products that has no parametrics?," asked PTC at one point.

PTC was not fraid to sling some mud at others, with SpaceClaim taking the worst shot. "Let them cut their price 6 more times trying to get their first customer," said Heppleman.

PTC confirmed that there is no plan to merge products after the acquisition, though certain technologies will appear across product lines. However, the OneSpace name will fade away.

All present resisted the urge to propose renaming CoCreate as Pro/CREATE [credit Mathew Palicki on Ralph Grabowski's blog.].

Autodesk Unveils Customer Briefing Center

After seeing the technology that Autodesk will use to show its software in its newly minted Customer Briefing center, I pity the company that has to demo to potential customers with just a laptop.

The Center, which is to serve as a model for future centers in various Autodesk locations (I hear the next one is will be in San Francisco), uses all manners of dazzling high-tech. A visitor is greeted with multiple interactive touch sensitive displays on which they can take a product through various stages of the design process. Software will be shown on a massive 15 foot HDTV display located in an area that, with a touch of a button seals the area as monolithic slabs rotate 90 degrees to form a wall.

The overall effect is "Wow!"

At this point, the potential customer has got to be thinking "If this company put this much technology into the room, their software must be amazing."

Buzz Kross, SVP of Autodesk's manufacturing division, cuts the ribbon for the new Product Briefing Center.

The event, which took place in the newly located offices of Autodesk's manufacturing division in Lake Oswego, Oregon (near Portland), was marked with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by 120 people. It was mostly customers, several high school students (who were taking part in the FIRST robotics competiton, which Autodesk sponsors) and a smattering of press, It also included members of the state governor's office.

Autodesk has been operating in Oregon for 10 years, starting first in nearby Tualatin.

See official press release Autodesk Opens Customer Briefing Center in Oregon on TenLinks.com