This is Depressing

This morning Indians woke up to the horror of the worst terrorist attack that we have ever faced. With more than a 100 people dead and hundreds more injured we still have a hostage situation at the Trident hotel.

Terrorist attacks have been fairly common here in recent times. We have had serial bombs blasts in crowded markets, trains, buses and buildings. These were carried out by cowards pressing a button from some safe place. But nothing like this - maniacs armed to the teeth with automatic weapons and grenades, opening fire indiscriminately at railway stations, on streets and taking hostages at 5 star hotels. This is unprecedented.

Personally, my feelings towards these kind of mind wreaking incidents have evolved over the part few years. First it was shock and disbelief. As the frequency of these incidents increased it turned to anger, first towards the terrorists and then towards the government for failing to keep us safe. As the terrorists continued to strike as will, it turned to helplessness. I now feel depressed.

There is a limit to how much we as a country can take. We crossed that limit years ago. I am sorry. I am just rambling. I cannot put my mind to doing anything worthwhile today.

This is depressing.

Autodesk MyFeedback Portal Hacked

This morning something weird happened at the Autodesk MyFeedback Portal. When I visited the landing URL (http://myfeedback.autodesk.com/), I was greeted with a hacker-like message: "Your Access To Autodesk MyFeedback Portal Has Been Denied! If you do not agree send mail to myfeedback@autodesk.com".

I found it weird since it did not give me a chance to log in to determine who I was before denying me access. I poked around, tried other inner URLs I knew and finally managed to get inside the MyFeedback Portal. As it turns out my account was not blocked after all. It appears that someone managed to hack the Autodesk MyFeedback Portal.

ProE.net

Today I started ProE.net, which I hope will become a network of Pro/E users. ProE.net is a Web 2.0 kind of a social network where Pro/E users all over the world will be able to interact with each other, discuss issues surrounding Pro/E and help each other out. By its sheer design, ProE.net is far more proactive than any other Pro/E related online resource out there. And thanks to it's independence ProE.net members are free to share their experiences and speak their mind in an open environment.

ProE.net offers its members a Web 2.0 experience like no other Pro/E related online resource. Among many things a member can:
1) Use the forums to ask and offer help and keep up to speed with all things Pro/E.
2) Post on the ProE.net network blog. If you always wanted to blog but never got down to doing it, maybe now's the time.
3) Create or join groups of members.
4) Chat with other online members.
5) Share photos and videos.
6) Post events such as user meetings, tradeshows, etc.
7) Invite other Pro/E users and help build the social network.

Membership to ProE.net is free for life. I am badly in need of suggestions on how to make this social network valuable to Pro/E users. If something crosses your mind, please drop me a line at deelip (at) sycode (dot) com.

What is ACAD?

An IMSI/Design employee dropped a few hints on A/CAD in a comment to my earlier post.

"We are introducing a new AutoCAD LT work-alike called A/CAD LT Express on Dec 3rd. We are using our code, not an ITC variant. And unlike the ITC, we are not targeting AutoCAD, rather, we believe we're a compelling alternative to AutoCAD LT... especially since our price is free."

So that answers the question whether A/CAD is just another IntelliCAD.

Free ACAD

Page 27 of the Nov/Dec issue of AUGIWorld Magazine has this advertisement.

What on earth is A/CAD? What is A/CAD LT? And what is A/CAD LT Express. And why is it free? There are (1) things I know, (2) things I don't know, (3) things I can tell you; and (4) things I can't tell you, thanks to some NDA which I regretfully signed.

(1) I know the answers to all the questions above, quite simply because I have A/CAD LT Express installed on my computer.

(2) I don't know how this advertisement found a place in AUGIWorld, the official publication of Autodesk User Group International.

(3) I can tell you that IMSI/Design, the makers of the TurboCAD range of products are upto something. And wary of the fact that they are taking on Autodesk, they appear to be doing it carefully. For example, they applied and got a trademark for "ACAD" this year. Incidently, Autodesk had two trademarks for "ACAD" which they abandonned in 1987 and 1992. So I guess Autodesk may not drag IMSI to court saying that they own the "ACAD" name, like how they think they own "DWG".

(4) I can't tell you things that I can't tell you.

According to the advertisement, A/CAD will be displayed in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel between December 2nd and 4th. I hear that another CAD vendor is having it's annual user conference in the same city at the same hotel at the same time. Gee... I wonder who that may be.

DWG Import for Inventor

Over these past few years my company, SYCODE, has earned the reputation of being a company that specializes in developing file import and export plug-ins for CAD systems. After all 91 of our 107 products are file import or export plug-ins. We get all sorts of requests from people all shapes and sizes wanting to get a particular file format in or out of their CAD system. Whenever possible, we fulfill these requests and then "productize" the feature so that we may help other users in the future.

Today we got a very interesting request - a plug-in for Inventor to import AutoCAD DWG files. I never thought I would see this day. After all the noise that Autodesk has been making about increased interoperability between their products, there are still some unhappy customers. This particular customer is not happy with the way Inventor treats his DWG data and wants us to solve his problem. Well, SYCODE became an Autodesk partner for exactly that reason - to solve customer's problems.

If we are able to solve this customer's problem you may very well find a "DWG Import for Inventor" on our products page. It almost sounds like an oxymoron.

Another Free 3D Parametric Modeler

I wonder how many of you heard about a company called ASCON and their parametric solid modeling system called KOMPAS-3D. I recollect the name ASCON from press releases but never really got down to figuring out what they were up to. Apparently, ASCON is a Russian company which released the first version of KOMPAS way back in 1989 (I was 14 years old then). They claim to have an install base of over 30,000 users which includes more than 4,000 corporate customers. They came out with an English version of KOMPAS in 2006 and now have resellers in 25 countries, with NOVEDGE being the only one in the entire North America.

So why am I telling you all this? Well because, I happened to notice that they have recently started offerring a completely free version of their product and have aptly called it KOMPAS-3D LT. They recently issued a press release to that effect but I somehow missed it.


The main difference in the LT version is that you cannot create assemblies. Also a few features like union and subtraction of solids is disabled. But apart from that the software is quite powerful and can give Alibre Design Express (Alibre's free version of Alibre Design) a run for its money (pun intended).

So if you are a 2D user and want to fiddle around with 3D Parametric modeling you now have another tool to play with.

What's new in AutoCAD 2010?

Ralph Grabowski has spilled a couple of beans on AutoCAD 2010:

"Just in time to head off the new 3D and parametrics expected in next March in AutoCAD 2010, version 7 of SketchUp (probably now the world's most popular CAD software) features ..."

Dinner With Autodesk

Jim Quanci, the person running the Autodesk Partner Program (second from left) was kind enough to invite me for the Autodesk dinner after yesterday's DevDays event. Unfortunately, he extended my Non-Disclosure Agreement to cover the dinner as well.

AutoCAD 2010

I am at the Bangalore airport waiting for my flight back home to Goa. I came here to attend the DevDays event held at the Windsor yesterday. DevDays is a set of one day events that Autodesk holds in various cities around the world where they show their partners (mostly Autodesk Developer Network members) the upcoming versions of their product range and offer indepth technical advice on the issues that may come up with porting their existing plug-ins to the new versions.

Anyone who attends DevDays is bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so I cannot say much. In fact, I cannot say anything at all. But I am going to flirt with danger here, drop a few hints and let you read between the lines.

Autodesk has hired a Product Manager for AutoCAD called Guillermo Melantoni whose sole job in life is to focus on advanced 3D functionality in AutoCAD. Do keep in mind that going by their self-imposed three year cycle, AutoCAD 2010 is when Autodesk changes the DWG file format. And that gives them a chance to completely rearchitecture certain portions of the software. One thing is for sure, AutoCAD 2010 is not going to be one of those casual upgrades.

Going by recent versions of AutoCAD, many of us got the feeling that Autodesk was working towards killing off AutoCAD and moving customers to Inventor and Revit. I am now convinced that AutoCAD is here to stay. I have seen the AutoCAD roadmap and I simply love the direction in which AutoCAD is headed.

It is my prediction that a version of AutoCAD in the not so distant future will have 3D direct modeling capabilities equivalent to (or probably better than) what we see today in SpaceClaim and Solid Edge ST.

Here is my advice to AutoCAD users who are thinking of dumping AutoCAD for a 3D solid modeling system - parametric or otherwise. Don't sign that check yet.

Gloom Boom and Doom

Dr. Marc Faber, investment analysis, entrepreneur and author of the Gloom Boom & Doom Report concluded his monthly bulletin (June 2008) with the following:

"The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate. If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money goes to China. If we spend it on gasoline it goes to the Arabs. If we buy a computer it will go to India. If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. If we purchase a good car it will go to Germany. If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy. The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes and beer, since these are the only products still produced in US. I've been doing my part."

Or you can do something that Americans are not quite used to doing - Save

SolidWorks Solution Partner

It's time to rejoice. Today SYCODE became a SolidWorks Solution Partner. 3DS Import for SolidWorks, our 3D Studio (.3ds) file import add-in for SolidWorks is now an official SolidWorks Solution Partner Product.

This means that we now get to use the SolidWorks Solution Partner logo on our Partners page. SolidWorks is pretty cautious about people using their logo. Although we have been a SolidWorks Research Associate (the entry level in the SolidWorks partner program) for quite a while now, we were not allowed to use the SolidWorks logo.

We are getting ready to announce another partnership - with PTC, but I will save that for another post.

DWGdirect and DRX Explained

In my previous post I briefly mentioned the DRX SDK and the DWGdirect SDK. There is a lot of confusion regarding these two and unfortunately the ODA is not doing a great job in explaining these two technologies. I am going to try.

The DWGdirect SDK is basically a clone of the ObjectARX SDK developed by Autodesk and which forms the basic framework of AutoCAD. The DWGdirect SDK has been used by the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium (ITC) to build IntelliCAD 7. It is also used by other ODA members to build CAD applications that they use in house or for their clients. The ODA prefers to call such applications DWGdirect hosted applications because they are built using the DWGdirect SDK as the framework.

I do not particularly like the fact that the ODA is calling their SDK “DWGdirect”, not because Autodesk wants to trademark “DWG”, but because the name seems to suggest that the DWGdirect SDK can be used to build software that stores it's data in DWG files (such as IntelliCAD), when in fact it can be used as a framework to build just about any CAD software. To give you an example, you can use the DWGdirect SDK to build software that reads and writes it's own file format. At SYCODE we are using the DWGdirect SDK to build the next version of TerrainCAD, our standalone terrain modelling software. TerrainCAD uses the OpenNURBS 3DM file format as it’s native file format and has nothing to do with DWG, apart from the fact that it can read and write DWG files among many others. The DWGdirect SDK offers the framework to store geometric data, show geometric objects in a drawing window, modify objects using grips, etc., none of which is related to DWG at all. So in my opinion the “DWG” in DWGdirect is misleading and I hope the ODA drops it for something more fitting. I look at the DWGdirect SDK as quite simply a framework to build a CAD application, not a tool to read and write DWG files. And quite frankly, I have a problem referring to TerrainCAD a DWGdirect hosted application. It just does not sound right.

The DWGdirect SDK is so powerful that any application built using it as a framework inherits a mechanism for third party developers to build custom applications (also called plug-ins) for it. That’s the main reason we are rewriting TerrainCAD using the DWGdirect SDK. So that third parties can extend the capabilities of TerrainCAD by means of plug-ins. These plug-ins are built using the DRX SDK, which is basically a subset of the DWGdirect SDK. Using the DRX SDK, programmers can develop plug-ins only, not entire applications. To get the DWGdirect SDK, you need to be a member of the ODA and pay them annual fees. But the DRX SDK is free and I love that fact. This means that when we build TerrainCAD using the DWGdirect SDK, anyone can use the free DRX SDK to build a plug-in for it. And the best part is that since IntelliCAD 7 is also built using the DWGdirect SDK, the same plug-in will work in IntelliCAD as well, or for that matter, any other DWGdirect hosted application like Bricscad.

I believe that this DWGdirect/DRX combination is a great Rapid Application Development tool for programmers who wish to develop and deploy powerful and robust software solutions quickly. At SYCODE we are looking at the DWGdirect SDK as a technology to build custom software solutions for our clients. Normally we design the custom solution as a plug-in to the client’s existing CAD system, or make the client buy another CAD system for which we can make a plug-in for. While this method works, it comes with the added headache of us having to upgrade our plug-in every time the client upgrades his CAD application, which is now an annual ritual. Moreover, we also have to ensure that our plug-in works with the service packs that the client installs from time to time. It’s too tedious and can sometimes get frustrating for the client as us as well. For example, we were able to port our SolidWorks 2007 plug-ins to 2008 only six months later, and that was a big problem for our clients. If we build our solution as a standalone application and make it scalable by adding features through plug-ins, life will be much easier. Moreover, our client can get a third party to further extend our solution. All they have to do is download the free DRX SDK and build a plug-in for our solution. The third party does not need to join the ODA, and neither does the client.

Like I said in my earlier post, the ODA is not just a “bunch of hackers”. They offer some real neat technologies and components. The sad part is that they are so consumed by Autodesk and the DWG file format that they seem to be forgetting the nice stuff that they have been developing over the years.

Take a look at their web site. This is what you see on the home page:
“The Open Design Alliance is a non-profit membership-based consortium of software companies, developers and users committed to promoting the open exchange of CAD data now and in the future. In addition to setting standards for CAD data formats, the ODA also focuses on the practical matter of developing software libraries of exceptional quality that enable ODA members to develop applications capable of reading and writing the popular DWG and DGN CAD file formats. ODA members use the following ODA software libraries to support their efforts of developing CAD solutions”
…and they go on and talk about DWGdirect and DGNdirect, about how these libraries can read and write DWG and DGN files. Absolutely nothing about anything I said above. No mention whatsoever about the DRX SDK. You need to click on a cryptic link called “Public Downloads” to even know that they offer something called the DRX SDK.

In my opinion, the ODA needs to take a serious look at itself. They have spent all this time, money and resources to develop a robust, powerful and scalable CAD platform and keep marketing it as a DWG read/write toolkit. Obviously, there is something seriously wrong here. Come to think of it, I cannot really blame people for considering the ODA as a “bunch of hackers” when they seem to believe it themselves.

ODA, look around. There is life beyond Autodesk and the DWG file format.

ODA Components

At the IntelliCAD World Meeting, Neil Peterson, the CTO of the Open Design Alliance (ODA) gave a presentation on the various components that his company has developed and is working on. Neil was the first programmer to be hired by the ODA. His presentation requires special mention because I believe people need to understand that the ODA is not just a “bunch of hackers” who reverse engineer the DWG file format and deliver pain to Autodesk. The ODA is far more than that.

Neil highlighted eight components in varying degrees of completeness that his organization is working on.
(1) DRX SDK: The DRX SDK is a framework to develop custom applications for DWGdirect hosted applications. There is a lot of confusion surrounding this. I will explain DWGdirect and DRX in a separate post later.
(2) ADTdirect: This is the ODA’s Architectural Engineering package. It supports DWG files created by Architectural Desktop version 3.0 through to Autodesk Architecture 2009. It offers full read/write access to all ADT custom objects such as walls, roofs, slabs, etc. You can also use it to create custom ADT objects from scratch. Normally, if you load a DWG file containing ADT custom objects in IntelliCAD it would show up as proxy graphics (basically bounding boxes). With ADTdirect these objects would appear just as they would in AutoCAD. Moreover, ADTdirect also offers full grip support for editing these custom objects. ADTdirect is being used in production by a number of ODA members.
(3) Facet Modeler: This is the ODA’s home grown light weight solid modeller which does not use the ACIS modelling kernel. You can create primitives like box, pyramid, etc. and do basic modelling operations like boolean operations, slicing, sectioning, etc. It stores the resultant solid data as Boundary Representations in the same way as how AutoCAD stored 3D solids.
(4) C3Ddirect: This is the ODA’s Civil Engineering package which depends on DWGdirect and ADTdirect. It supports DWG files created by Civil3D 2007 and 2008. Support for 2009 is in progress as well as other features such as support for grips, grading support (slope calculations), etc. They expect to have it ready in all respects in third quarter of 2009.
(5) DWGdirect.NET: This is a managed component which wraps most of DWGdirect functionality. This allows programmers to use languages like C#, VB.NET, etc. to access the underlying DWGdirect technology. I believe this is huge because this throws the doors wide open for a whole new set of programmers. The geometry and other supporting classes have already been implemented. But some database related stuff is yet to be worked out. The Beta release date will be announced by the end of this year.
(6) SpaModeler: This is a module which seamlessly integrates Spatial’s ACIS libraries (used by many solid modelers) into DWGdirect. However it requires a separate license from Spatial.
(7) DGNdirect: This is a library that offers read/write support for the Microstation DGN file format. Currently, the ODA offers read support for V7 and V8 and write support for V8. Apparently, even though Bentley is partnering with Autodesk, they have still not yet pulled out their DGN technology from the ODA.
(8) HOOPS Integration: One year ago the ODA has issued a press release announcing a partnership with Tech Soft 3D for integrating the HOOPS graphics engine into DGNdirect. Now they have integrated HOOPS into DWGdirect as well. So it is possible that IntelliCAD 7 may be running the same HOOPS graphics engine used by companies like Autodesk, SolidWorks, Dassault, PTC, SpaceClaim, Alibre, IronCAD. Although it is possible, I think it is unlikely since Redway3D is offering the ITC a far better deal for their graphics engine - 2,500 Euros annually per member without royalty and an option of getting the source code if anything were to happen to Redway3D, as opposed to Tech Soft 3D’s deal of a much higher annual fee coupled with royalty. I know the Tech Soft 3D numbers but would not like to disclose them here. Either way HOOPS integration into DWGdirect and DGNdirect opens possibilities for ODA’s members to develop high quality and robust CAD applications. But the DWGdirect HOOPS integration module will be available only in 2009.

It's past midnight here at the Dubai airport. My flight back to India leaves in another four hours. I am using the Starbucks Coffee outlet to keep me awake and online.