CAD Insider

DIY Hits CAD Show Coverage

It what seems to be an attempt at Do It Yourself, we were treated all last week to frequent reports from the Siemens PLM analyst event from a member of the corporate communications staff. If you follow Siemens' social media expert Dora Smith on Twitter, you got a play by play of the event: who was speaking and their subject. You may even have seen Dora's interview with Tony Affuso, CEO of Siemens PLM, and found out that Tony golf game was an "embarrassment."

Yeah, I'm jealous. I haven't met Tony yet. I might have interviewed him for our TopTen Questions series.

Though press and bloggers were not invited, analysts were. That was no big surprise about the press being ignored. After all, SolidWorks had already placed press second to bloggers during the v2010 introduction.

Though some grumbling was heard, most of the old school press are resigned to their fate. The days of being flown around the country, being wined and dined by CAD royalty and listened to as if you had a monopoly on wisdom because it said "editor" on your name badge -- that's SO over. Nowadays, you have to produce. SolidWorks and Autodesk have discovered that they get much more bang for their buck with bloggers. New to the game, impassioned about the product, dazzled by the attention of those on high who make the software they are lucky to be playing with, a software vendor can expect serious amounts of positive ink to flow out of the heady experience of a free trip to headquarters, an invitation to a conference expenses paid, being the first on the block with the latest release, etc. -- all the stuff  we old editors and reporters take for granted.

Siemens PLM has little in the way of a blogger community. But they have Dora, a one-woman force. She may well have melted her smart phone keys with her Tweets. Still, a bit of variety would have been nice. Analysts are important, especially for public companies, but I heard not a peep from them from the show. I'm sure they are saving the good stuff for their paying clients or for one of their thousand dollar reports.

If more CAD vendors insist on the DIY approach, I'm going to miss the spice that varied reporting types can add. I already miss Ralph's pithy comments as he updates his blog during the keynotes. I can imagine Matt telling Dan Staples on what it would take to make Solid Edge take off like a rocket, Martyn commenting on the interoperability (or lack of) between Solid Edge and UG, or Deelip cornering a product manager on Synchronous Technology trying to handle complex shapes.

Bloggers Go to War - Readers Lose

Last week, I was reading a post by an industry observer. This was a person I respect for his sharp mind and his encyclopedic knowledge. He has been in the CAD industry forever. A true CAD insider. The subject of his post interested me -- and by similarity, also the subscribers of TenLinks Daily. But I grew more dismayed as I read on as this post was peppered with jabs at another blogger. So frequent and pointed were the jabs that by the time I read to the end, I had forgotten what the article was about. I wanted to reread it but was pressed by a deadline. Many other articles had to be approved for insertion into the newsletter. With so many blogs, independent sites... plus vendor sites also publishing their material online, we are facing a deluge of material. In the early years of TenLinks, we used it all. But these days, rather than overwhelm our readers with a yard long daily newsletter, we have taken to eliminating links to articles that are may be irrelevant, uninteresting, insignificant, poorly written, hard to read... and in this case, maybe just a bit too personal.

Had I been an old school editor and these were articles I had commissioned, I would have edited the personal stuff out. But in my new job, I don't have that luxury. I can use it or not.

I'm not saying bloggers shouldn't write personal stuff. Heck, that is what blogs are for, right? You can write about your breakfast, your kid's birthday party, your feud with another blogger. Fine. It's America. We have free speech. Get it out of your system. I write personal stuff in mine sometimes. But I have to sort out what is going to be useful and/or interesting for my subscribers. So for their sake, I have to have standards.

Or am I being too high minded? The week before I didn't use an article that had a curse word in the title. But I only have to look at the magazines by the supermarket checkout to be reminded that negative material sells magazines. Being shocking sells. Maybe I should publish beach photos of CAD celebrities who have fallen off their diet, who got really drunk at the last conference, who is getting a divorce. There's no shortage... 

It makes me cringe but are you Interested?

Make the Call - Is the Old CAD Press Dead?

It's been painful couple of weeks monitoring the online space in the wake of the SolidWorks 2010 launch. It was bad enough that SolidWorks let the beta testers (almost all of them bloggers, it seems) scoop the CAD press but then it turned vicious as everyone wanted to pile on.

Examples:

• One popular blogger essentially called the CAD press a bunch of old, tired complainers used to being pampered by vendors but who do nothing but ask stupid questions and are loath to use the very software they are supposed to be covering.
• A SolidWorks blogger wholeheartedly extols the virtues of bloggers as the new media in contrast to traditional CAD
• Even a CAD journalist turned on his own, stating that the CAD press ought to stop whining. Become a beta tester or shut up.

There were a few weak peeps in response from the CAD press, most in the form of one line responses in the comment sections of the attacking blog posts or on Twitter. In the old days, such attacks would have been met with a barrage of withering prose.  A year ago a debate raged between bloggers and press in which one of the CAD press compared bloggers to less evolved beings. Bloggers were criticized as being barely able to dot their i's or spell, much less conform to "journalistic practices." I'm sure the bloggers were themselves puzzled at the lack of response. Like sadistic kids who are poking an old dog with sticks and wondering why it wasn't fighting back. Was everyone on vacation? Or worse?

Sadly, it appears the era of CAD press as we know it has expired. The SolidWorks press fiasco only puts a date stamp on it. There is no longer a functioning healthy body composed of members of CAD press. Many of the practicing CAD journalists have scattered, some wandering looking for work, abandoned by boarded up publishing houses. The last US CAD-dedicated magazine has stopped printing. I'm trying to think of who I know that makes a living writing only about CAD....

Meanwhile, the amount of information on the web is so great that the TenLinks organization can hardly keep up. Our list of bloggers is the biggest list we have -- and it's growing. Our editors find tons of articles every day -- as readers of our daily newsletter know -- and that's after we weed out stories of travel, what was for breakfast, etc. The number of articles from "traditional" sources is steadily shrinking.

So it's quite reasonable for a company like SolidWorks to court the "new media" and placing a higher value on them. They are SO much more productive (in terms of content generated). As bloggers themselves point out, they still have the passion for the product. They are eager -- not jaded. They are (mostly) not even cynical. They can definitely run circles around most any editor or journalist when using the software. Maybe they can't all form perfect sentences but I doubt if their audience even notices. We now have CAD experts talking directly to CAD users. The middlemen of publishing have been removed -- or at the very least, marginalized.

Will the CAD press be missed? The new media is good but are there things it's not good at? Is there no one out there who appreciates a well crafted, well written article? Who would pay to have it written? Would anyone pay to read it? Can the CAD press be revived? Should they be? If so, how can the members of the CAD press be useful to the community? Will the new media become the old media? Or is that already happening?

Bound and Gagged

Nothing get's my blood flowing like a big release of a major CAD program. I went across the country to see one. It was great stuff. Too much stuff. Drinking from a fire hose, as people are fond of saying these days. But I asked a lot of questions. I took a few pictures. I scribbled like mad, hoping I'd be able to decipher my scrawl on the flight home. I needn't have worried. I was permitted to publish nothing. 

Nada. Zip. Naught. Blank Bubkus.

My press contact told me the information was embargoed, a fancy way of saying "You're gagged." Damn! That explains why the web has been strangely devoid of any information about this great new release, though I knew from Tweets that many had preceded me. I might have taken consolation that at least I was not alone, but I was chafing under my own constraints. I had an evening and a transcontinental flight I could have used for a really good article, or more likely, a few blog posts. Back at the office, I was going to have a hundred things that will take precedence. I know my notes will be lost under piles on my desk... or on the floor. Yeah, I'm not proud of my office neatness. Or of my memory. "We're not releasing this until September 1," says my press contact. That might as well be September 1, next year, I think.

In the old days (remember print magazines?), this was the way it was done. It worked. The time between seeing the product and assembling an article was time to write, edit, rewrite, ask for fact checks, illustrations, confer with staff, etc. and put together a well researched, well considered piece. The pressure was off as everyone was given the same ebargo date so no rush to file the story. But this is the age of Twitter, Facebook, blogs. Information is not considered, much less processed or beautified. It is, I hate to say, thrown up. The first one with a Tweet and TwitPic wins.

So that's why bloggers had only been posting about their flights, hotels, drinking beers, etc. Whereas I was only chafing, I imagine they practically exploded from the pressure: all those wonderful features they were hearing about before any one else, at the ground zero of company headquarters, listening to the guys who made it. But holster those smartphones, please, and come out with your gags on.

Press embargoes need to just go away. They may have had their place at one time. Nowadays, progressive companies have learned to take advantage of the freedom of information, the excitement of something new and the willingness of people to tell about it.

Are You a Twit?

"Do you Tweet?"

Too many people were asking me that. Was I missing out on something important? As a tech journalist [using that term loosely], I realized I better get a Twitter account. Now that I sit through 2 sessions devoted to social media at COFES, I am glad I have not missed the boat. Yeah, I am part of a hot topic, and if questioned, I may even have some experience to share. At least I will not be wondering what they are talking about.

I also learn that Facebook is most popular in the over-45 crowd. I'm feeling doubly cool now. I had opened a Facebook account a few months ago. I was not about to share that so far I had only used it off topic. Where else was I going to record my finishing marathon times?

I also don't share that despite my occasional Tweet, I am still trying to figure out how Twitter can be useful for me -- and for CAD, CAM and CAE professionals. I was hoping to get some clues during COFES. However, social media is being accepted as a foregone conclusion, even though concrete examples of its usefulness are not forthcoming. Comfort is taken in "being connected," "collaborating," "community," etc. etc.

I want to shrink to the back of the room. The more hip attendees have declared their devotion to Twitter specifically and social media in general. Any last hope I have of sharing my experience and expressing my doubt is finally squashed as one loud Twit asks rhetorically, "Would you have questioned the use of the telephone when it was first introduced? Kids growing up...they don't question it ... they just use it." Many have already found 3rd party apps that enhance their Twitter experience (Twitterdeck, for example). Have you checked out Yammer? It's like Twitter, only for companies.

I resolve to check out Twitterdeck and Yammer. I type all this into my ThinkPad, which suddenly seems really big and really black, not at all like every one's iPhones, Blackberries, all very small, in chrome and white. Gee, someone needs a tech makeover. 

Cadalyst to Continue But Print Schedule Uncertain

After being cut loose from Questex, Nancy Johnson, editor in chief of Cadalyst, was looking at an uncertain future. Today when she briefed me on Longitude Media picking up Cadalyst, her relief was quite perceptible. 

Though TenLinks is totally online, I am still a fan of printed magazines. I would have been sorry to see Cadalyst go away -- as would over 60,000 subscribers. I asked when the next issue would be. Nancy told me that the production schedule is still being sorted out as the new company gets under way. The next issue would have been the March/April issue -- which is unlikely at this point. However, Longitude Media aims to continue the magazine as soon as financially feasible. Nancy assured me that the online version of the magazine, including tips, CAD tutorials, and e-newsletters, will not miss a beat. 

We just need to give Nancy a chance to put the pieces back together. She's got a lot to do, especially since she is the only one remaining in a staff position on the editorial side. Though not staff, most of the columnists and contributors will continue to write for Cadalyst, including Lynn Allen, Robert Green, Bill Fane and Bill Kramer (aka Hot Tip Harry).

See official press release from Cadalyst.

SIGGRAPH: Bloggers Need Not Apply

While bloggers are earning increasing respect in the CAD industry, that respect is hardly univerasl. I was denied press credentials at the recent SIGGRPAPH after I mentioned that I was the author of CAD Insider. I don't expect everyone to have heard of TenLinks, or the CAD Insider blog, especially in the world of animators and graphic artists that converged recently in Los Angeles, but an outright dismissal of bloggers did seem rather...how should I say...out of touch.

Could it actually be the conservative pocket-protector crowd of engineers and CAD users was actually more enlightened to the new age of journalism (arguably represented by bloggers) while the liberal ponytail crowd is stuck in a backward and traditional view of the press consisting of print journalists?

You might ask why would a CAD insider even attend SIGGRAPH, especially after such a slight. Well, as it turns out, in amongst the half dozen dancers on stage showing motion capture ("mo-cap") and all he purple well-endowed sword wielding babes (sorry, represented on posters only), there were some CAD exhibitors. Robert MacNeel was there showing off Rhino, MOI was there as well, so were several hardware vendors of interest to CAD users, such as HP, NVIDIA and BOXX.

I got in for free anyway, thanks to above vendors who vouched for me. It was a very exciting show, with eye popping graphics that would make most CAD users feel quite envious. The state of the art for graphics seems to be in the domain of motion picture special effects, 3D animation artists and gamers. But some of it is bound to leak into CAD, even if it is due only to the shame CAD software developers may be feeling about being outclassed by beautiful graphics being wasted on frivolous entertainment.

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.