The CAD Insider

Autodesk SIM Squad – Serious About CAE

BOSTON, MA, May 25, 2011 (NAFEMS World Congress) – You have to have mad analysis skill to get your paper accepted at NWC, the annual gathering of uber-analysts from all over the world. Organized by UK's NAFEMS, it takes place along Boston’s waterfront, last year it was in Greece. It alternates between US and Europe.

A look at the program guide confirms the esotoric and exclusive nature of FEA work. Papers bear titles that include contact stress accuracy, eigenvalues, nonlinear anisotropic, fluid/structure interaction…I don’t expect to see CAD users roaming the isles.

The SIM Squad makes its debut at the NAFEMS World Congress in Boston. From left, Brian Zias, Rita Schnipke, Ryan Abel, James Herzing, Bob Williams, Al Duff. Not pictured: Xiaoshi Jin.

What the heck is Autodesk doing here? Oops, I said that out loud. Who happens to hear me but Bob Williams, member of the Autodesk's newly formed SIM Squad. I expect to hear how the SIM Squad will be leading CAD by the hand into the lofty realm of analysis. I expect to hear "democratization" a lot.

But I am wrong.

“Autodesk is an analysis company,” he says. “We’ve acquired half a billion dollars* worth of simulation technology.”

Autodesk is even presenting 2 papers at the conference.

Autodesk at first seemed to have formed a small army. The SIM Squad has 61 members total, 7 of which 11 are at the conference. However, only Bob and one other Sim Squad member do this full time (the others have “day jobs” at Autodesk). There is a big job ahead.

Bob tells me the SIM Squad was organized not just for the users (which you might think after visiting the website) but just as importantly, to educate the sales channel… and Autodeskers themselves.

Tell me about it! Bob doesn’t realize that is my pet peeve. I’ve sat through too many demos as CAD vendors (not just Autodesk) push the limits of responsibility in their push to put analysis tools in the hands of designers. I’ve seen obvious modes of failure ignored, incorrectly applied or unexplained failure theories...Oh, don’t get me started.

The SIM Squad would achieve a large measure of success in just toning down the “anybody can use it” rhetoric and teach respect for the careful and well done analysis. That would go a long way in convincing the analysis world that, yes, it has arrived. Respect is earned, especially in the analysis crowd.

This is going to take more than T-shirts.

More information:

• Official SIM Squad Site at www.autodesk.com/simsquad 
• Interview of SIM Squad's Bob Williams by Autodesk's Rob Cohee on YouTube

* Most of that was for Algor, Moldflow and Blue Ridge Numerics, the rest was split up between Plassotech, Solid Dynamics and some other investments.

 

Autodesk 123D. Pt 4: Autodesk is Taking on Google

SAN MATEO, CA (Maker Faire) May 21, 2011 - Autodesk chose Maker Faire - the annual gathering of inventor, hobbyists and craftspeople - for the public debut of 123D, its consumer design software. I didn’t know what to expect at Maker faire. Maybe Autodesk did not know either. The consumer market is fairly new territory.  

Google SketchUp at Maker Faire. SketchUp is a favorite amont DIYers.

 But not so new for Google, who was there in a big way with SketchUp: a trailer, a stage and several exhibits, and big crowds. It turns out that SketchUp has achieved a widespread acceptance among the attendees of Maker Faire – and judging from that, probably with the entire community of makers, as craftsmen, hobbyists, tinkerers and inventors are being called.   

CAD insiders know SketchUp well for its architectural application. Its ease of use has helped to make it the most popular conceptual sketching tool in the world. For massing studies, I hear it has no equal. Like 123D, it is free.

I find John Bacus, product manager of SketchUp, to explain its accidental success with the maker audience. He is showing showing Skpr*, a spidery looking remoter controlled robot, to a bunch of kids. On the big screen is a 3D model of  Skpr. But seeing is not believing.

“Is it even made with SketchUp?” I ask John, incredulously. I suspect the model to have been imported. “SketchUp is not really a serious mechanical modeling tool, right? I mean, It’s not really a solid modeler. It’s not even precise, like CAD software.”

Mechanical modeling? Yeah, we do that. John Bacus, product manager of SU.

“Yes, it was made in SketchUp,” he says, sounding as if I was not the first unenlightened person he had encountered. “It is manifold geometry, not solid. But it has all commands like add, subtract [AKA Boolean operations]. Besides, does it matter what’s under the hood, as long as it can model what you want.”

Hmm. John may have a point. But I am not ready to quit.

“But it can’t be as precise,” I say.

“It’s every bit as precise as other CAD products.”  John counters.

“Can it output to standard formats?”

“Like what?”

“DWG”

“Yup.”

“But they’ve got 4,000 free models,” I say, admitting to being impressed by the amount of content Autodesk was giving away for free with 123D.

“We’ve got 4,000 chairs,” says John disdainfully. “Have you seen 3D Warehouse?”

Damn. Sounds like something I should have known about. Is it possible there is a vast repository of free 3D models? Has a parallel but invisible CAD universe been created without my notice? I excuse myself and scurry over to take a look 3D warehouse.

I’m not surprised to find many, many buildings in 3D Warehouse (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/). After all, that was SketchUp’s reason for existence. Google bought SketchUp back in 2006 to populate Google Earth with models of the built world. Therefore, there are also civil projects -- more than a few. A search for Golden Gate Bridge finds 228 models. Ok, it is the most famous bridge in the word and I shouldn’t be surprised to find so many people honing their modeling skills on it. Let’s try something rarer. Didn’t Autodesk include a model of a dolphin with 123D? A search for “dolphin” in 3D Warehouse yields 181 results. Granted, one is the Swan and Dolphin Hotel in Orlando, FL, but even after you discount such irrelevancies, there’s still a whole lot of Flippers.

And speaking of chairs...John was being modest. A search for chairs comes up with 14,317 entries. There are 34 models of Adirondacks!

Who knew? Hundreds of piston models. Google’s 3D Warehouse provides an incredible number of mechanical parts. Autodesk’s 123D will have to play catch-up.

But let’s get back to mechanical design. I look up engine and get 894 results. Some are in complete cars. Let’s drill down: pistons. There’s too many to count. Speed reducers. Only 5? What a let down.

Clearly, Autodesk has quite a bit of catching up to do. SketchUp users have been busy for years adding mucho models…tens of thousands of models, if not more --- all of them freely downloadable. Combined with Google’s unmatched ability to search, models are incredibly easy to find.

The comparison of SketchUp and 123D may be a bit more complex than I thought. These products will need to be put to the test.

----

*Get it? SKP is the Sketchup file extension.

 

RhinoFabLabs Help Rhino Users Fabricate

The University of New Mexico became the latest RhinoFabLab last week (see announcement). With  recent coverage of TechShop (some of it right here), I was reminded that RhinoFabLab concept has been around for quite some time.

When did RhinoFabLabs get started? And how are they different from TechShops? From FabLabs?

I sought out Robert McNeel, CEO of the company by the same name that makes Rhino. Bob tells me RhinoFabLabs started out as and still serves as a online support group for Rhino users who need to fabricate their designs, especially the more challenging ones.

"The online Rhino user community has always been an important part of what you get when you buy Rhino," says Bob. "With RhinoFabLab (www.rhinofablab.com) we are just trying to make it easier to find information and/or the Rhino users that are most involved in the nitty gritty of the fabrication."

"With RhinoFabLab, we are also trying to make it easier for Rhino users to find the fabrication experts willing and able to help them get started with digital fabrication."

"20 years ago, this was done with online bulletin boards. Now we have the Web. The tools have changed," says Bob. The tools Bob is referring to are the online tools, not the laser cutters, drills. lathes, etc.

"But is RhinoFabLab more than an online community? What about the machine shop, like the one in University of New Mexico," I ask impatiently.

"Right, so for the last 2 years or so, we have been certifying machine shops," says the ever-patient Bob. Indeed, to get a RhinoFabLab logo, you have to fill out an application and undergo an inspection. First of all, to be certified as RhinoFabLab, A shop must also be affiliated with an official Rhino training center. "We wouldn't want to put our name on it and then find out that no one there knows what Rhino is."

What's the difference between RhinoFabLab and others, namely TechShop, or FabLab-inspired workshops?

"Well, clearly we cater to the Rhino user," Bob tells me. "Also our users are actually using the labs in actual production of parts. At FabLabs, they may be making using their shop to make shop tools. TechShops may be making model airplanes or boats. RhinoFabLab users are actually making parts for the actual boats themselves."

"Of course, hobbyists and tinkers are welcome," Bob hastens to add. "Especially those that appreciate industrial grade processes and tools."

So, for Bob the lines are clear. The other shops are used by hobbyists and tinkers. Rhino users are into serious manufacturing -- or architecture, as in the case of UNM.

Different, but to some extent, similar. Like the FabLabs inspired by MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, RhinoFabLabs  uses "tools that cover the various leading-edge industrial methods and materials needed to design, analyze, and fabricate almost anything." This according to the Rhino site.

The emphasis on manufacturing may explain why most RhinoFabLabs are overseas. I see only 2 in the US, but several in Latin America. There may be more in Europe and Asia but at the time of this writing, I was not able to see them on the RhinoFabLab website.

"You have to go where the manufacturing is," says Bob. "Just not a lot of it in the US."

Are RhinoFabLab open to the public, thinking of TechShops "gym membership" model?

"To the extent that they are in schools which are public institutions," says Bob.

"Will the shops have only Rhino products?

"We don't have any restriction on what type of organizational structure is behind a RhinoFabLab," Bob says. "Of course, there is no reason for them to sign up if they don't want to offer some kind of services to the general Rhino community."

"Will you tolerate Inventor being used?" I realize I may be goading Bob. Autodesk is McNeel's competitor. But I must know. Autodesk's almost overwhelming support of TechLab threatens to crowd out competitive products. Will RhinoFabLab play that game?

"We realize people use other software," says Bob. "We don't demand exclusivity in RhinoFabLab. We understand that people need many software products to design and build products. RhinoFabLabs are open just like everything Rhino related. Open support forums, open files formats, open SDKs, etc."

Find out more about RhinoFabLab, including how to get certified as one, here at http://www.rhino3d.com/arfl.htm

 

123D, Pt 3: First Look

By the time you read this, Autodesk will have lifted the veil off its 123D consumer design product. Targeted towards the hobbyist, craftsman, tinkerer, inventor...it will be available for a very popualr price: $0.

Here is an early look. Graphics and descriptions are preliminary and were supplied in advance of the product release.

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The interface. With commands for Extrude, Constrain, etc., it doesn't seem dumbed down enough for your average Joe.

123D appears to be based on a solid modeling engine, as commands such as Sketch and Extrude are shown. According to Autodesk, a shelling command will be available to save material for parts that will be sent to 3D printers.

 
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A generous amount of common objects will be included as editable models so uses can either start their designs using the models as a base or use the models as is in  assemblies. Also included are scenes that can serve as backdrops.

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About 2,000 fasteners are included, as well as a couple thousand structural shapes, tubes, pipes, and other hardware. Again, very generous of AutoCAD. Note parts are in DWG format.

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Ikea or Autodesk? Piece your 3D shape with cardboard, a little glue and and an Exacto knife. This dolphin pattern will sell for $45.

Though some designs,like this chair, will be available for free. 

If you just want to make something from an existing design, you can download some projects for pay from Autodesk partners but some simple projects will be made available for free.

123D is Windows based. But I expect a Mac based version is not far off.

More information at www.123dapp.com.

Next: 123D Debuts at Makers Faire.

 

Autodesk 123D, Pt 2: A Maker Resurgence

Curiosity piqued by Carl’s announcement of 123D, I head to Autodesk to hear more. I’m full of questions. I am introduced to Tatjana Dzambazova, Autodesk’s fair haired, super-driven-yet-quite-personable Sr Product Manager, Consumer Products Groups, who, despite being in the final phase of product launch, pushes aside her stack of executive summaries, product descriptions, etc., to make time for me.

I am full of questions. What technology is it based on? Is it solid modeling? Can I see it? But it appears Autodesk is not quite ready to show the product. I wonder if Carl totally jumped the gun? Usually, Autodesk is full of information after an announcement. I am told more details are to follow “soon.”

 
"What can I show?”The lovely Miss Tatajana dares not reveal details of Autodesk’s recently announced 123D before the official launch.

But I do manage to get an understanding of the basis of 123D, who Autodesk hopes to help, and how it intends to gain.

Tatjana gives me a run down of the genesis of 123D. She looks familiar. Perhaps we know each other in her previous life, she volunteers. She was once in charge of Revit. She is modest. She has authored several books on Revit. However, her life is now 123D. She has been following the “maker movement” for some time. She was at last year’s Maker Faire, where inventors, tinkerers and craftsmen show their stuff. Over 40,000 attended the event held south of San Francisco. That sort of crowd dwarfs even the biggest CAD show (Autodesk University gets what, maybe 7,500 attendees at the most?). I imagine someone saw gold in them there hills of San Mateo.

 
The official product site, www.123app.com. Note the care taken to ensure hardware looks decidedly non-Apple.

But the maker movement goes back further. Way back. Wasn’t God the original Maker? Since, mere mortals have followed suit, starting with simple tools, moving on to complex machines, peaking in recent history in the industrial age and mass production. But those who call themselves “makers” now seem to be the ones who want to make things themselves –- personally --- often with their bare hands, taking back the right to do so from factories and assembly lines.

“We as a people have become disengaged from the act of production,” says Tatjana.

Makers take pride in craftmanship, uniqueness. They want to be able to have an idea and be able to give it life in the real world. Maybe it’s a new invention. May be it’s a variation of an existing product. Maybe it’s just a backlash against packaged goods, low quality, being told what to buy, everyone having the same thing, wearing the same things, when a collective quest for low price breeds big-box stores and a thousand unnamed foreign factories making inferior products with numbing uniformity… Ok, Roopinder's getting carried away. Now, where was I?

It’s not the first backlash against mass production. The Arts and Crafts Movement sprang up in England in the latter half of the 1800’s, hoping to revive skilled craftsmanship and stop what it saw as downhill trend in quality and public taste as result of mass production. I’d have to say the public won, bad taste and all, and the Movement more or less fizzled. Handmade goods increasingly were seen as quaint, backward.

Fast forward to modern time. Inventors, tinkerers, hobbyists, DIYers, and craftspeople have kept the flame alive. Autodesk hopes for more: a confluence of trends that will make the small flame a conflagration.

The ordinary person today has at their disposal tools and information they have never had before, not only software, but the Internet, cheap computing, the cloud – and all knowledge just a few clicks away. Let’s say you want to make a better mouse trap. Take pictures of one with ordinary point-and-shoot digital camera, upload its images to Autodesk's Labs Project Photofly to create a 3D model. Tweak the design using Autodesk Inventor at a TechShop (a DIY workshop with monthly membership) and actually produce a working model right there on the premises. Should you not want to or think you might injure yourself on TechShop’s formidable machines, any number of rapid prototyping services can make a plastic replica of the part. Da Vinci did not have it this good. Even if your brilliance extends only as far as the idea phase and you are totally challenged in its creation, services like Ponoko (which bills itself as a personal factory) will handle all of it –and even help you market and sell it.

Autodesk has partnered with both TechShop and Ponoko in what appears to be its bid to be the preeminent design software for the maker market.

More information soon. The official product site is www.123dapp.com, where the information is disappointingly lean at time of writing. But Autodesk does promise to email you when 123D is available.

Inforbix Aims to be the Google of CAD Metadata

Oleg Shilovitsky maybe best know to us as the most prolific blogger on the subject of PLM (see plm thnk tank and Beyond PLM). His posts are familiar to readers of TenLinks. But Oleg is about to embark on a new venture, this time with a commercial software product. Along with partner Anatoly Savin, Oleg will soon make available Inforbix, a data search tool still in beta, recently received the recipient of Top Technology Award at COFES 2011.

The Inforbix interface is elegant. Any resemblance to Google is purely intentional.

Oleg’s Inforbix is a multi-purpose application for the metadata found in CAD models.  I saw Inforbix’s search function. Let’s say you want to find a angle bracket in your company’s library of CAD models, you would type in “angle bracket” into Inforbix and the software would find it, or things like it. It aims to do for CAD data what Google has done for the Web. More applications are under development, performing PDM and CRM functions to slice and dice metadata.

Isn’t there already software that does this? Yes, there is, says Oleg, but nothing that looks across all applications. For example, PDM Express will do this for SolidWorks models, Vault possibly for Inventor models, but what if your company has a mixed bag of CAD apps?

Seems like a good angle…Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before!

The interface seems easy to use. You just type in the search term, and hit go. The program looks through its index to find results. Like Google Desktop, it needs to spend some time creating this index after you install it. Once created, new models are added to the index.

The product is in beta. Oleg hopes to get it into production next quarter.

For more information, see www.inforbix.com

 

TechShop: Stairway to Inventor Heaven

Come up with a great invention and make a million. Who hasn’t thought that?  But often great ideas never see the light of day. A would-be inventor may not have the equipment to turn the dream into reality. A working model, or prototype, may be required.

TechShop in San Francsciso, is located on Howard St, a few blocks away from the Civic Center.

TechShop aims to address this shortfall. A brainchild of Jim Newton, himself an inventor, TechShops are do-it-yourself workshops loaded with equipment, tools, software, and some know how. The original TechShop was in Menlo Park, CA (hmm… wasn’t that the name of some other inventor’s place?) and the idea has spread. TechShop seem to be popping up all over the place. Other TechShops have been added in Raleigh-Durham, NC, San Jose is on the horizon, a Detroit TechShop will open this later this year.

As I live close by, I went to visit the San Francisco version. A bit too close to the city’s seedy Civic Center neighborhood, I was glad to be buzzed into a protected chain link enclosed parking lot. Inside, the TechShop is well lit and clean.

The San Francisco TechShop occupies 17,000 square feet on 2 floors. 

I am greeted by Joe Menard, TechShop’s COO. I learn that TechShop SF already has 600 members even though it has only been open since January. Where are they all, I wonder out loud, glancing around and spotting less than a dozen people. “Day jobs," explains Joe. I am told the place really starts buzzing after 3pm.

The TechShop is big. This is not some craftsman's dingy dungeon basement workshop. There’s two floors of machines, shop tools, computers…separate rooms for electronics assembly, conferences. The ground floor houses the machines you'd find in factories, not Home Depot. On the second floor are computers with design software. Autodesk Inventor is prominent (more on that later) but also there is Adobe Illustrator, and more. You can sketch in 2D, silk screen, make circuit boards, create solid models, cut metal, plastic, turn wood on a lathe, use a CNC machine, even operate a huge water jet cutter (it wasn’t working but when it does, it can cut through steel an inch thick).

A CNC machine. Yeah, we got that, says Joe Menard, TechShop’s COO.

You can't afford this sort of workshop. Not many people can. I read that founder Jim Newton wanted to create a dream workshop, himself being frustrated by lack of tools with which to build his own inventions.

Everything under the roof is available for unlimited use, just as long as you join up. Membes pay a monthly fee. “It’s like a gym membership,” says Joe. Maybe an expensive gym membership, I think, as individual memberships start at about $100/month, but how many gyms have a rapid prototype machine?

Can anyone walk in off the street and start operating this, I ask, eyeing a scary-looking CNC machine. Not exactly, explains Joe. Members have to take a basic safety course and then be certified. Certification requirements vary by machine, depending on risk and complexity. Joe shows me a business card size piece of metal that has been cut out to show a logo. “That is what someone has to make to be certified with this machine, he says. It’s like their final exam. Certifications are tracked. Members who are not certified cannot operate a machine. Currently, the Dream Coach at the tool crib is supposed to ensure you are certified before giving you a key, but TechShop is planning a badge swipe to automate this in the future.

What about consumables? Like the material used to make 3D prints. TechShop sells some of the materials. A small shop near the front desk is starting to sell plastic sheets and some additional basic building material. However, I think most members would probably come in with their own raw material. 

What does it take to set up a TechShop. We’ll do it for about $2 million, says Joe. About $750k goes towards the purchase of equipment. But there are no current plans for TechShop franchises - only corporate owned stores.

Autodesk and TechShop

TechShop members use Autodesk Inventor. Autodesk is a serious TechShop partner.

Autodesk seems to have jumped into TechShop with both feet. It has donated many licenses of its Inventor software. And computers. A pallet of HP desktops sits in the lobby awaiting unloading. I find out later Autodesk may also have invested in TechShop though noone will tel me how much. Autodesk banners fly in the shop and on the website.

Not surprisingly, Joe is sold on Autodesk Inventor. “You can make anything with Inventor,” he says. Maybe after you convert it from SolidWorks? I note that one of the classes offered is called “SolidWorks to Autodesk Inventor Migration.” There are also classes Intro to Inventor, Intro to Sketching, Intro to Assemblies. All are 3 hours long. Many of the 8 seat classes are already full. Inventor classes are 3 hours long, and free to members.

I used to teach CAD and I know 3 hours is just scratching the surface. But, hey, it’s free is good and while it may not be enough to get a job using Inventor full time, it’s good exposure. That, combined with enough motivation and effort, should at least allow a would-be inventor to create a rapid prototype.

Recently, Autodesk added further solidified their partnership (pun intended) with TechShop. Autodesk CEO Carl Bass announced 123D last week, officially throwing his hat into what appears to be a revivival of the maker movement. Both TechShop and Ponoko (which bills itself as a "personal factory") got a lot of mention, as part of Autodesk strategy to "decocratize" design (meaning: reach millions of consumers).

More PIx

TechShop’s Noah Chittin mans the front desk. “It s a workshops, you pay dues like a gym membership.” Front desk made in TechShop.

All these toys at your disposal, providing you pass a basic safety course, and possibly certification in some of the machines

 

I’ve dreamt of table saws with this much surface area. The SawStop is the safest - the blade stops when encountering anything soft --like your finger.

 

An upstairs accommodates assembly and design.

 

A NextEngine noncontact 3D scanner is available.

 

You can even make apparel designs at TechShop. Not shown are several sowing machines.

 

TechShop instructors and members crowd into a CAM course being taught.

 

And when you are ready to call a press conference to announce your million dollar invention -- complete with prototype -- TechShop makes conference facilities available.

Autodesk 123D, Pt 1

Autodesk CEO Carl Bass announced 123D on May 6 in New York in an interview in Wired Business Conference. 123D will be a Windows desktop application for design, but unlike Autodesk’s other software created for professionals, 123D will be targeted towards consumers. It is currently in beta testing. 

According to Bass, “There are tens of thousands of people –if not more—who want to make something.”

Autodesk aims to give this software away. That’s right—free!

Mentioned in practically the same breath was a connection with TechShop, a DIY workshop that seems to be popping up all over the US, and Ponoko, a web-based service that bills itself as a “personal factory” ready to build custom products for you.

Free CAD software is nothing new. TenLinks has operated a directory of free CAD software for years (see FreeCAD.com). Autodesk’s own Labs have been making lots of apps available at no cost. Nor is Autodesk the first billion dollar CAD vendor with a CAD giveaway. Dassault has been giving disbursing DraftSight since June of last year. 

But what if Autodesk is onto a runaway trend? Is everyone now making things they may only have dreamt of?  Is your average Joe already off his butt to invent the better beer bottle opener? Is your aunt ready to churning out quilted handbags in small production runs? Have lovers started making one-of-a-kind wedding rings for each other? Is some genius 10-year old about to create a world saving invention because now -- and only now -- can he not only visualiaze the idea, but also have have holy triumvirate of software, hardware and tools that allow him to hold it in his hands?

This is the so-called “maker” movement. It has many people people buzzing. It has inspired a couple of magazines (Make). It has a annual event (see Maker Faire) that draws 45,000 attendees. A website (Etsy.com) seems to sell every imaginable product --all custom made. And now, big companies are getting interested.

Clearly, Autodesk hopes to ride a wave it sees building. It was back in the 80’s that Autodesk rode the PC wave to the rapid and revolutionary success of AutoCAD. But Autodesk is not a giant content with its present size. From its leadership position in professional fields, it can see so many more people who do not use its software. And it thinks why not?

I had to find out more about 123D and the maker movement. Luckily, the product manager for 123D was available to see me in Autodesk’s Market St Office, in San Francisco, just a beautiful ferry ride away.

Next: Autodesk’s Tatjana Dzambazova Talks About  123D

 

Who's #1?

LAS VEGAS, NV (PLM World), May 3, 2011 - I am herded into a a Tecnomatix presentation at Siemens PLM annual user meeting. The speaker wastes no time in declaring Tecnomatix the world leader in DM. That's digital manufacturing, if you must ask. I'm watching the presentation and it looks good, robots on assembly lines, digital mannequins...but #1?

We get that a lot. So many products, all of them clamoring for a way to differentiate themselves, all superior. The conference itself has been hailed as the #1 PLM conference in the world. I flash on big conference claims, AU, Autodesk's national user meeting and conference is the biggest CAD meeting I know of. SolidWorks World claims to have the biggest MCAD conference...

I feel obligated to check out the Tecnomatix claim, especially after just Tweeting the speakers claim. I start where everyone does: Google. Yes, Tecnomatix is listed on the first page of the Google search for digital manufacturing (although not by name, it is listed as a Siemens PLM application)... but not before Dassault's DELMIA, its arch competitor. The vaunted #1 spot in Google belongs to 3D Systems, for whom digital manufacturing takes on a whole different meaning: rapid prototypes. In fact, a couple of the article presumably about digital manufacturing are prominent, one listed ahead of the Tecnomatix entry. They are either about DELMIA or written by someone at Dassault.. It seems Siemens PLM will have to first convince Google of its eminence.

But great as Google is, it certainly is not the final arbiter on digital manufacturing market share. I look for "digital manufacturing market share" which turns up a CIMdata 2006 market study (hmm, not terribly useful). I am getting mired. I realize the speaker has concluded his discussion and I remain mostly none the wiser about Tecnomatix... which is really the reason I am sitting here. Dang!

It occurs to me to ask the vendors to tone down their claims. I want to tell them not everyone can be #1. Oh, yeah, that would work. Hahaha.