CAD Insider

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.

CAD Insider Gets Noticed

With the ratio of blogger to CAD user nearing 1:1, it's no wonder someone offers a service that ranks blogs. I got wind of one such service (blogged.com) when they sent me an award for CAD Insider and an 8.4 rating. That means "great" according to their rating system. Whew! I'm glad I had a few recent posts up, as that is one of their criteria.

Their criteria also includes "relevance of content, site design, and writing style." The judges are not named on the site but site claims "strong domain knowledge." CAD Insider was listed among technology blogs and there are about 10 pages of tech blogs with better ratings. I would have thought engineering would be better. I don't really expect CAD to exist as a category when it caters to the entire universe of subjects.

A search on "CAD" did yield a few other CAD blogs (SolidWorks Community got the highst rating with 8.9, Jeff's Blog, also about SolidWorks, was 2nd. I recognized BLAUGI (by the Autodesk international user group, 8.0 and Mistress of Dorkness, about AutoCAD, with 7.8. WorldCAD Access is listed, as are several other CAD blogs, but not rated.

Anyway, thanks to Blogged.com. It's always nice to get a good review. However, there's a whole lotta CAD blogs better than this one, so I hope their authors read this and submit their sites to this service.

What Happened to Head to Head Reviews?

With all that bloggers are doing, what is left for the traditional press? By their numbers, voraciousness and speed, bloggers seemed to have nailed event coverage. It wasn't even a contest. Ditto, tips and tricks -- the press just cannot compete with hard core users -- which most bloggers are. What about tutorials? Once the realm of CAD print magazines and CAD books, I'm seeing an increasing number of good or good-enough tutorials on blogs. In fact, a recent series of tutorials by Orhan Toker on sectioning of AutoCAD solid models may have saved a recent project!

Hey, what about product reviews? Sure, bloggers may post their impressions of a new release and though it may be technically classified a review, in most cases they fall short of  those 5,000 word, comprehensive reviews that were the pride and joy back in the glory days of the trade press. Most blogger 'reviews' end up being short, pithy vignettes, but still one could argue that the collective work of the blogging community reviewing a single product (as happens with AutoCAD releases) more than compensates for the massive reviews of old.

Though trade press may have lost ground in the above types of coverage, one way it could still shine would be to do comparative reviews: looking at rival products that help users make a buying decision. Comparative reviews, aka head-to-heads, are done for other areas, notably software, digital cameras, etc. The traditional press editors seem ideally situated to do this. Most magazine editors are showered with CAD software products and end up with shelves full of them. How about comparing them and helping out the befuddled user who is trying to graduate from 2D and needs to know the best 3D CAD product, for example?

Why are well done head-to-head product comparisons so rare in our industry? Only Cadalyst still does them. Still, I don't recall a comparative review between Pro/E or CATIA, Revit or ArchiCAD. Too big of a project? I don't think so-- there's typically only a handful of major players in any vertical market. Not enough interest? Hardly! MCAD and BIM are hot subjects. Too complicated to pick a winner in something so complicated as a CAD program? Well, I have heard that a lot. Yet, we (as a society) don't have any trouble picking out the best movie, best restaurant, best breed of a dog, Time magazine even picks the Person of the Year.

Care to guess what the real reason you don't see more head to head reviews?

Blogger Speaks the Unspeakable

Mike Puckett has done the unspeakable: he has taken on a CAD CEO.

Who is Mike Puckett? To call Mike a SolidWorks user is to not do him justice. Super user? Champion? Avenger? All those that disrespect SolidWorks had better hope they don't run into Mike. It's not like Mike is a scary fellow. He's actually a nice guy who I had the pleasure of meeting at SolidWorks World. But I hadn't dissed SolidWorks (lately) so I was not in Mike's sights. Not so lucky was an Autodesk representative who ended up answering to Autodesk's in-your-face anti-SolidWorks tactics of years past.

Mike's latest victim in Greg Milliken, CEO of Alibre, who aroused Mike's ire by first distributing anti-SolidWorks popcorn (?) at a trade show, and then (according to Mike's blog) impugning SolidWorks to Mikes face -- before Mike ripped off his civilian clothes and showed his SuperSolidWorks User uniform underneath. Mike documents Greg's transgressions here, so I don't need to repeat them. In response, Greg calls Mike a liar.

Yeah, it's a bit of a sh**storm. Our little private editors club is abuzz about it. Pro-Mike and pro-Greg factions are forming. I expect a lot more posts and emails. Much of it is about whether Mike was telling the truth. There's also: should we trust Mike? He hasn't been sworn in as a journalist. He doesn't know to corroborate the story. He doesn't worry about the newsworthiness of it. Is he crazy, taking on a CEO? Doesn't he worry about getting sued?

Mike doesn't have to worry about Greg pulling his advertising, either. Pure bloggers don't do advertising, so no worry about advertising pressure -- the secret and unstated fear of us all in the trade press.

Oh, to be freed from all those restraints! Maybe then we journalists could soar, seek the truth, go where the story goes, say the emperor has no clothes, dare to be controversial... Oh, wait -- that's the bloggers's world.

Mike operates without fear, a David among Goliaths, one user with a blog against all the guys in suits. He might not have learned to play the game, or know the give and take that we often taken for granted in trade press. He believes in the righteousness of his cause: the cause of the user. He may have underestimated the power of his written word and the size of his following. A few more posts like this and he may get beaten down by the wrath of CEO's and VPs, or field their veiled threats about lawsuits. His increased visibility may make him the target of the  perpetual positive spin of PR staffers. Or he may succumb to VIP treatment vendors lavish on their favorite media people, the travel and gifts, and learn there is more to gain by playing along than warring against.

I hope not. Whatever we may think of Mike's story, right or wrong, we are all tuned in. This is about as exciting as it gets in our world.

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?

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.