The CAD Insider

Bloggers Get the Scoop

It's hard for the press to compete with bloggers. There are so many of them. They report on each and everything. Sometimes it's trivia (what I ate for breakfast), sometimes it's borderline news (Lynn Allen attends SolidWorks World), but it can be the real choice stuff (enhancements shown for SolidWorks 2009).

Never was this quite as apparent as during January's SolidWorks World, where bloggers were invited and welcomed.

My own epiphany came during the presentation of the next release of SolidWorks software -- the single most anticipated main stage presentation during the annual user conference. Normally, I make an attempt to note the most important new features of the next release. But all around me were hard core SolidWorks users and many of them were doing the same thing for their blogs. What chance did I have, being a very infrequent SolidWorks user, knowing what was really important and be able to explain it properly?

In the audience were the real experts. I spotted and introduced myself to Matt Lombard, the man who wrote the book (the SolidWorks Bible), and also had the pleasure to meet the prolific Mike Puckett, who may have beat all in the number of blog entries during the conference, and Josh Mings, loved in the SolidWorks blogosphere for his off-the-wall humor. I met Ben Eadie but he was very busy filming every bit of the proceedings. Previously, I had met Ricky Jordan, a blog veteran. There were more, but judging from the ones I met, the bloggers collectively form a voracious and eager group whose product IQ is on another scale.

Maybe its not a fair competition. The press coverage will come later. Or, maybe serve as background for articles they are writing. Unlike the blogger, the press will not bang out a post in between the last class of the day and the first beer. No, they will write articles, thoughtful, considered, insightful pieces that will be on subject and mechanically correct. That is the theory, anyway.

But judging from the comments on this series, who cares? Bloggers are users. They read each others blogs not just because they are brothers, but because they can learn something from other users, something that will help them do their jobs easier or better. I have to presume that like them, users are also reading blogs -- instead of articles by the traditional press.

If that is indeed the case, who is traditional press writing for?

Bloggers -- Kids in the Candy Store

Bloggers bring an excitement that has been been missing in the coverage of the CAD industry.

I am reminded of this as a room of journalists sit silently and impassively during a demo of Autodesk's MCAD software at World Press Days 2008. I have arrived late so I am sitting in the back row and I have to look over several rows of heads, many of them bald or gray. Several are diligently taking notes -- quite a few on special reporters notepads they must require at journalism school.  I see a digital recorder has been turned on. Some of the demo jockeys giving the presentations are are visibly bursting with excitement. So much to show and so little time. I'm sure they are dying to know if the audience likes what it sees. But it looks like they are going to have to wait for the articles to appear to know.

It's a far cry from the recently completed SolidWorks World, where bloggers were invited to all press events. When new software was introduced, I could tell immediately if a new feature was going to be a hit or a miss by their the bloggers' reaction. "Cool," or "sweet" was heard more than once. A lack of reaction was significant -- a polite indifference if not a condemnation.

By contrast, bloggers -- or should I say pure bloggers -- were not invited to Autodesk World Press Days, despite the incredible number of blogs devoted to Autodesk software as well the support Autodesk has shown bloggers in the past. A number of us journalists had blogs, to be sure, but those that only had blogs had to stay home.

If Autodesk does not see bloggers as real press, they are not alone. The Society of Manufacturing Engineers, which hosts a number of trade shows including WESTEC, makes it pretty clear that bloggers need not apply for press status (needed to get free admission) by requiring "proper press credentials" such as position on a masthead. I suspect many bloggers don't even know what a masthead is.

But what bloggers do know is how to apply CAD software. Almost all of them are full time users. How many journalists can say that? It may surprise readers to learn some journalists and editors never use CAD software. Some of the journalists I've met at CAD press events write for technology publications but may only have a fleeting knowledge of what CAD does. I wonder if they can make any sense of some of the stuff they are being shown -- or why they are not bored out of their minds! However, more than a few pure bloggers can write well and write often. At its best, blogger coverage of press events can be detailed, thorough, even insightful, and by its nature, fast.

It seems obvious a good CAD blogger would be worth inviting to a CAD press event. Am I missing something here?

Autodesk Pushes Interdisciplinary Application

SAN FRANCISCO (Autodesk World Press Days), Jan 13, 2008 - In the AEC demo shown today, Autodesk led off with a design study of high rise towers that were modeled in Inventor -- an application considered by most to be exclusively for mechanical design. Then a train station concept was manipulated in Maya, long a favorite animators/modelers. The remaining applications showed more of the traditional AEC applications but in the MCAD demo that followed, machinery designed in Inventor was brought into a Revit building model.

It's not just for MCAD: a high rise tower concept done using Inventor leads off the AEC demo at Autodesk World Press Days 2008

Such interdisciplinary applications were not isolated incidents, but oft repeated to the point of becoming a minor theme of the press event. Autodesk seems to have seized on the idea that users of its AEC software should also be using MCAD software, and to a lesser extent, vice versa.

Autodesk point: why not use the best tools for the job? Certainly, all the really cool new building designs are curvaceous -- a stretch for traditional AEC applications but very possible with MCAD tools.

Of course, it would be in Autodesk's best financial interest if architects needs surpassed the capabilities of their AEC software. They would be only too happy to sell Inventor to them.

But pity the poor architect. Once all he had to learn was AutoCAD, and he probably felt that had taken a lifetime to master. Now, an architect risks falling behind unless he learns 3D, BIM, rendering, collaboration, and more.

Never mind the cost of all this software -- and the bigger book cases needed -- how can one hope to be proficient in AutoCAD, 3ds Max, Inventor, Maya, Revit, Civil3D and NavisWorks? They all have different interfaces, commands. And what a headache to transfer data! Even some of these Autodesk applications cannot read each others' native data formats.

Autodesk appears to be somewhat aware of this burden. One highly placed Autodesker has said there is a long term commitment to achieving more of a commonality among the various applications to reduce the training burden. "But don't expect them all to look the same," they added.

An alternative would be to add capability to applications the user was already familiar with. Couldn't curvy shape technology could be made available in a Revit pull down menu or icon?

Now, really -- how much profit would there be in that?

Journalists and Bloggers-- Old School Meets New School

CAD Insiders, many of them veteran journalists, find themselves increasingly in the presence of bloggers at CAD events. It is not unusual for  bloggers to be granted the same rights, privileges, and perks that the trade press has enjoyed for years. For example, the recently concluded SolidWorks World in San Diego, the press room, long the bastion of "traditional press," was frequented by bloggers. Same for the press dinner. Journalists are accustomed to full, free access to conference classes (though most do not attend), ditto the bloggers. Journalists are used to hobnobbing with top executives at CAD companies -- but I saw those same execs giving equal face time to bloggers.

So how is this going over? Major CAD companies have indeed recognized blogging as valuable. Has their treatment of bloggers given bloggers cred? Does the old school resent the intrusion? Do bloggers play by the rules -- or do they even have rules? I'll try to examine some of these issues in an ongoing series of posts. And as usual, I welcome you to chime in with your opinion.

I hope to discuss the following topics:

• Who knows more about the software, blogger or journalist?
• Who knows more about the industry?
• Should bloggers be considered press?
• Does the press look down on bloggers?
• Do bloggers look down on the press?
• Who does better in quality? Quantity? Timeliness? Insight?
• What is the role of blogger and journalist in the future?