The CAD Insider

DP Technology 'Discovered'

May 12, 2008, DENVER, CO (ESPRIT World Conference 2008) Walking into ESPRIT's user conference, I feel like Christopher Columbus, having discovered a new land --never mind all the natives who seem to have preceded me. The natives number 325 at this annual event, by DP Technology estimates, and that includes resellers and DP employees.

Ever see a metal shaving in a corporate logo?

The DP in DP Technologies stands for Dan and Paul, a kind of homey start for what is now a multi million dollar software giant that vies with CNC Software (of Mastercam fame) for the lead in US CAM market. (Gibbs is the other home grown product, but as it has been bought by an Israel's Cimatron, we can conveniently not count it).

"It's a fractured market," explains Chuck Mathews, DP's VP of Marketing and R&D. Chuck sees ESPRIT as a leader among independant CAM vendors. The CAM market is split 3 ways: independent CAM vendors (like DP), integrated CAD/CM vendors (PTC, Siemens, Dassault) and strict NC adherents who program directly into their CNC machines. Who is leading depends how you slice and dice the data. Though one research firm does claim to sort out the billion dollar CAM market, (CIMdata) with an annual ranking, Chuck doesn't see their numbers as gospel as their rankings are based on unaudited data. What about Missler? Not much US penetration, says Chuck. Delcam? Big into molds, still not much US penetration -- except what they have done with acquisition.

I was hoping to bring back some news about ESPRIT 2009 but that won't be released til Q4 of this year. But a glimpse of it promised it to be an absolute whiz at 5 axis machining. In fact, Dan Frayssinet, CEO (the D in DP) says it made him fall in love with CAM software all over again, despite a 5 year absence of hands on practice.

I am now far better educated in CAM and DP Technology than before, with several misconceptions of ESPRIT now put to rest. I had thought this was a French company, first of all but it had been founded in US and is headquartered in Camarillo, CA. The founders were French, hence the name ESPRIT (French for liveliness and spiritedness, as in esprit de corps). And it took seeing the logo on the big screen to see that the spiraly thing was actaully a metal chip.

Sheesh, I've got to get out more.

Dassault Systemes: Elite Status Not Enough

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida (2008 COE* Annual PLM Conference) Dassault Systemes is a company best known for CATIA, which, in turn, is best known for designing airplanes and cars. CATIA's firm unshakeable hold on the automotive and aerospace design market is due to its power, depth and complexity. Its elite status in the CAD community is assured. However, it is precisely that status that Dassault needs to get behond in order to achieve the next stated goal: to provide the 3D software of choice among non-designers and non-engineers.

Dassault Systemes CEO Bernard Charles talks to himself in a virtual appearance at annual user meeting

Respect from engineers notwithstanding, there are only so many big auto companies and even less aircraft companies. How is a company supposed to grow in such a limited market? Dassault could mine its customers good will and sell more products to the exiting base (Dassault's portfolio does contain over 160 products), they can get new customers by acquisition (MatrixOne, SolidWorks, ICEM, etc.) but their goals are even more ambitious. Seizing on its roots in 3D technology, why not drive 3D data to the purchasing agent, to the sales people, to management? And once 3D has spread to the entire company and over the walls to vendors and customers, why not shoot for the sky: the consumers market?

I'm trying to imagine how Dassault products would appeal to consumers. I imagine a Game Boy version of CATIA, flashy and fun, but the image breaks up. Wasn't there a Cosmic Blob that did some fun modeling by SolidWorks? Whatever happened with that?

3DLive uses turntable interface for exploring components in an assembly

Bernard Charles, CEO of DS, shows the assembled audience some new stuff. Bernard is not here in person, but there are two of him on the screen. One is an avatar (surely you must have made one of yourself  on Second Life?) and the other is a video image. One of them apologizes for not being here in person, this being the first COE he has missed. But I think he is making a point. He is here virtually, in multiple ways, in 3D. Physically being here is overrated.

The Bernards go on to show me bold, brave, fun things, all 3D. One product takes not only disassembles a 3D model of a machine but puts it on a revolving turntable (see picture). Some one was eating at a Chinese restaurant when they thought of this. Not very CATIA-like, to be sure, but maybe because of that, its animated interface, uncluttered with menus and devoid of complex command chains, is easy to understand. If I was a purchasing agent, I wouldn't be scared of CATIA and 3D solid models any more. I'd be thinking "Yeah, I can do that."

I scan the audience for a response but these guys are like poker players. I can't quite read them. It's an older crowd than you'd find at the SolidWorks meetings. They are here to educate themselves mostly, add to their expertise of CATIA, of SMARTEAM and take that knowledge back to their companies. They need to make their landing gear parts, their automobile hoods, tame the bursting database that holds the metadata of an entire jet aircraft. They are many who are top guns with many years of CATIA experience, but right now they look like dads who are worried about their jobs or their work going overseas and how they are going to pay the kids college tuition.

Picking up tips and tricks in the classes are going to make them indispensable. When the virtual Bernards are finished on the main stage, they trudge off to the class rooms. Must learn more. Must work harder.

*CATIA Operators Exchange, the CATIA users group.