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eDrawings an a Mac? - Yes, we saw it at SolidWorks World. An awesome implementation, but because we use and love our Macintosh system, we may be slightly biased. We also had a chance to speak with the development manager for the product, who said it was not that difficult a port to the Mac, because eDrawings was relatively isolated from the operating system except for the UI, which closely resembles a native Mac UI. The software is in Beta now and has not been announced yet. We could not resist asking about converting SolidWorks to the Mac. His comment was that because of substantial dependencies on the operating system, alas, it would be much more difficult. If you are at SolidWorks World, do not miss this demo!

HP speeds large format printing using double swath technology - printing 42" wide full color E size drawings in less than a minute. The two rows of 4 print heads each, cut the previous time in half. The print quality is excellent and at a price around $10,000 is most reasonable.

While we had heard about the cosmicblobs software, Dassault Systems software selling for $39 and aimed at bringing children on board the 3D world, an actual demo is most impressive. Children between the ages of 9 and 14 are the target audience. Scott Harris, one of SolidWorks' founders brought the product to fruition. Harris noted that a complete rethinking of how graphics shapes are represented went into the product. From what we were able to discern, there is little carry over of the shape representation into future engineering CAD systems. This is a must buy. www.cosmicblobs.com

SolidWorks added a new combination package to its lineup - SolidWorks Office Premium - containing all of SolidWorks Professional plus COSMOSdesigner and SolidWorks Routing and costing only $2500 more that the Professional version. COSMOSdesigner sells stand alone for $3500 and includes a complete linear static analysis system for parts and assemblies. Motivated no doubt by the success of COSMOS with SolidWorks users, this packaging offers excellent value.

DWGgateway, a new free software component from SolidWorks, installs itself into AutoCAD in only a minute or two. It enables AutoCAD versions back to AutoCAD R14 to read, edit, and save AutoCAD dwg and dxf files created by more recent versions including AutoCAD 2005. www.dwggateway.com

What we think>> This acquisition seems to be a natural one for UGS. The company should be able to speed the integration of the Tecnomatix MPM solutions into its excellent Teamcenter offerings. The combination will put UGS in a much better competitive position with Dassault Systemes Delmia offerings. Large customers, with extensive manufacturing investments, could certainly benefit from better manufacturing planning and simulation, and should carefully investigate these MPM solutions. Such solutions, particularly when coupled with a well integrated product development system can offer substantial payback.

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New products: InnovMetric Software's PolyWorks V9 will have a fully automatic scan alignment tool, whereby users of close-range fringe projection systems and desktop laser scanning systems can align a new scanned point cloud with respect to a set of already aligned scans without being required to either pre-align the new scan with the mouse or match one or several pairs of points. The new outstanding alignment technique requires only a few seconds for execution and has a success rate that exceeds 95% in InnovMetric's internal benchmarks. www.innovmetric.com

Capvidia's new PDQWorks verifies that models exported from SolidWorks will satisfy the quality requirements of the receiving CAD System (CATIA, Pro/E, UG, IDEAS, SolidWorks, etc). The model quality and conformity can be verified at any stage of the design. For example, in a CATIA to SolidWorks to CATIA workflow, imported CATIA parts are modified in SolidWorks and verified with PDQWorks before they are exported back to CATIA. All quality guidelines and manufacturing requirements required by CATIA are in the SolidWorks part. www.capvidia.com

UGS' JT2Go solution provides a set of no-cost 3D viewing products enabling companies to globally share detailed 3D product and manufacturing data using the lightweight JT format. JT2Go enables anyone to view JT files. JT2Go can be downloaded directly to any desktop by visiting www.JT2Go.com. Lightweight JT files can be generated by all major computer-aided design (CAD) authoring systems - including UGS' NX and Solid Edge - providing 3D data in a CAD-neutral format for high-performance viewing.

Upgrades: Fluent released GAMBIT 2.2, an upgrade to Fluent's geometry and mesh generation software. This version provides improved geometry construction and clean-up tools, state-of-the art automatic mesh sizing, and paving and boundary layer meshing. www.fluent.com

NavisWorks JetStream removes the expense and inconvenience of streaming large CAD models over the internet. NavisWorks JetStream can automatically convert file formats to its own .nwd files, which can be streamed without any need for pre-preparation of the model or third party server hosting. With NavisWorks JetStream there is no set up time, no ongoing costs, just create .nwd files with Publisher JS and open the URL in Roamer JS or Freedom JS. Once the model index has downloaded (size varies depending on the original file format and metadata), navigation can take place as the rest of the model downloads on demand. NavisWorks software can be used to review large models on a standard desktop or laptop PC by anyone involved in a project without special CAD skills or software. www.NavisWorks.com

Kubotek USA began shipping KeyCreator 4.0, adding translators for SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventor to the standard package that currently includes AutoCAD (DXF, DWG), Parasolid, SAT, IGES and STEP. KeyCreator version 4 continues the evolution of CADKEY. This version also provides upgrades focused on productivity, as well as numerical control improvements. North American pricing for KeyCreator version 4 systems begins at $3495 including one year of maintenance. www.kubotekusa.com

Moldflow Plastics Advisers 7.1 software contains new features and enhancements that allow users to obtain greater analysis and results resolution, model and analyze annular hot runners and networked runner systems, visualize surface defects more easily and expand the links to Moldflow Plastics Insight (MPI), Moldflow's in-depth simulation products. At the heart of MPA 7.1 is Moldflow's patented Dual Domain technology, which allows users to work directly with 3-D solid CAD models without the need to create a finite element mesh analysis model, saving model preparation time. www.moldflow.com

Adobe Systems new Adobe Acrobat 7.0 software updates the Adobe Intelligent Document Platform, providing users the ability to assemble documents from multiple sources, create intelligent forms, and collaborate on projects inside and outside the firewall, among other capabilities. Adobe Systems also announced Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server, which enables organizations to manage document policies by determining who can view a PDF document, and whether the recipient can modify, copy, print or forward the document. The software provides assurances that only intended recipients can open a protected document. Together with Adobe LiveCycle Document Security software, LiveCycle Reader Extensions software and Acrobat, they enable more secure communications via electronic documents, ultimately allowing organizations to improve operational efficiencies and deliver enhanced customer service, while mitigating risks. Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server is available immediately starting at $50,000 U.S. www.adobe.com/security.

SolidWorks teamed with StereoGraphics to add stereoscopic support as a standard feature in SolidWorks. The new visualization feature allows SolidWorks users to visualize and communicate their solid models in Stereo3D when using CrystalEyes electronic eyewear from StereoGraphics. True stereoscopic depth perception, like having the actual model in the room instead of on the computer screen, accomplishes this feat by using an appropriate CRT monitor or DLP projector and CrystalEyes electronic eyewear. The new stereoscopic capabilities will be available in a SolidWorks Service Pack, and then in the next major SolidWorks product release. Selected SolidWorks resellers will offer StereoGraphics products to provide a turnkey Stereo3D solution.

Parasolid version 16.1 offers capabilities for product design, enhanced ease-of-use and expanded support for the Linux operating system. Key functional enhancements include: embossing, new locked-profile sweeping and B-spline surface extensions, additional B-spline capabilities to enable more versatile curve construction, increased flexibility in limiting, configuring and ordering blends, and increased local control of facet density and refinement. www.ugs.com

UGS and its D-Cubed subsidiary announced new releases of 2D Dimensional Constraint Manager (2D DCM) version 47.0 and Profile Geometry Manager (PGM) version 3.0, which contain new enhancements to improve function and performance. Detailed descriptions of the enhancements are available online at: http://www.ugs.com/products/open/d-cubed/latest_releases.shtml.

NX Nastran Version 3, the UGS' software solution for advanced FEA, has major enhancements in analysis solution performance, adds the ADINA non-linear structural analysis solver technology, and improves both its analysis efficiency, and integration with other analysis tools. Desktop-only versions of NX Nastran Version 3 are available for use with the latest releases of NX digital simulation solutions, including NX Scenario, I-deas NX MasterFEM and Femap. www.ugs.com

Marketing: Elysium's CADfeature provides the technology to translate a CAD model's design intent, features, parameters, and feature trees between dissimilar systems. Elysium's feature-based translation product enables designers to translate both geometric model data and individual feature information as well as design intent. CADfeature translates feature information from Pro/ENGINEER, I-DEAS, Inventor, and UG to SolidWorks. The resulting translations in SolidWorks are fully functioning and editable models. www.elysiuminc.com

What we think>> Your editor, Ray Kurland, stopped by Elysium's booth earlier today at SolidWorks World to find out if this really worked and how well. Cecil Lewis of Elysium demonstrated the CADfeature. The software requires a license of both products to work and uses the API's of each product to export and import the features. If a feature does not "map" as a feature in the destination software, Elysium turns it into a b-rep surface model and continues the import. I like this because it enable batch imports to work instead of stopping for user instructions. Any changes to the model are clearly indicated. We saw a Pro/E assembly model with a handful of parts exported and imported in just a few minutes, with the assembly tree intact on SolidWorks.

Gibbs and Associates demonstrated GibbsCAM 2004+ including the new TMS (Tombstone Management System) and Machine Simulation modules during the SolidWorks World 2005 Conference. The TMS module targets programming multiple parts fixtured on a tombstone, which has become a common machining practice in high throughput, lights-out facilities. A SolidWorks-to-GibbsCAM transfer add-in allows models to be directly transferred to GibbsCAM for NC programming with a single menu selection within SolidWorks software. www.GibbsCAM.com

Control Engineering magazine's editors named COSMOS 2005 as one of the most significant innovations of 2004. Control Engineering chose COSMOS 2005 based on its service to the industry, technological advancement, and market impact.

Competitive wins: U.K.-based Roman Showers reduces product development time and helps customers experience innovative shower design concepts with SolidWorks and COSMOSWorks. A key feature for Roman is that the software allows engineers to test different concepts with glass designs to see if they are practical, safe, and easily manufactured. SolidWorks handles large-scale mold designs for the shower doors, as well as the minute details to ensure components fit tightly to prevent leaks. Roman uses COSMOSWorks to test different tolerances to see how their products will stand up to everyday use, as well as unexpected stress. www.roman-showers.com or www.CADConnect.co.uk or www.solidworks.com.

Dorner Manufacturing, a Leading conveyor belt maker, uses SolidWorks 3D PartStream.NET service. Customers can search through more than 75,000 3D models of conveyors to find, configure, and download the right one in minutes. Engineers and designers from around the world can custom configure conveyors to fits their floor plans. Dorner chose the 3D PartStream.NET service because it delivers the flexible self-configuration that lets customers quickly find the conveyor that best suits their needs and download it in the file format of their choice. Said Gary Wemmert, Dorner's director of marketing. "The best part for our customers is that they now have a parametric model that they can download in any design format and insert in their assembly line designs to ensure an exact fit in just a couple of minutes. Previously, it would have taken them at least two days working with our engineers to configure the right part, which would keep our engineers from designing new products and waste our customers' time." Dorner also expanded its marketing reach and visibility thanks to SolidWorks' 3D ContentCentral (www.3dcontentcentral.com), an online directory of suppliers offering downloadable 3D part models.

Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) won the America's Cup Season Championship title. In a competition that ended in October, ETNZ beat Alinghi, the 2003 America's Cup Champion, BMW Oracle, and four other boats to take a step closer to challenging Alinghi for the trophy in 2007. ETNZ engineers used SolidWorks to design components, structure, and hardware that make up the racing yacht - including the hull geometry, the high-grade steel keel fin, solid lead keel bulb, and deck hardware. COSMOSWorks significantly reduced the time and cost of building expensive prototypes of the keel and other key equipment on board. ETNZ uses COSMOSWorks to analyze highly loaded appendages, such as the keel fin, which is four meters long and must support a weight of nearly 20,000 kilograms.

Designers working on Sagrada Fam'lia Cathedral in Barcelona SPAIN, started in 1882 by Antoni Gaudi, are using CATIA to machine the complex granite used in building the highly complex stone structure -- considered one of the most mystical constructions in the world. The construction has been under the auspices of the Sagrada Fam'lia Foundation and for more than a century, work has been ongoing to complete Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece by interpreting the large-scale architectural models he prepared during his final years. IBM Business Partner gedas iberia s.a., an information technology consulting and solutions company, and the Sagrada Fam'lia Foundation are now using CATIA V5 to aid in the construction of the unfinished church. www.gedas.com or www.ibm.com

Mark Richey Woodworking and Design, Inc., a leading manufacturer of quality, high-end architectural millwork, standardized on Autodesk Inventor Series. The company uses Autodesk Inventor Series to create, manage, and share high-quality designs for custom architectural millwork. Mark Richey has been able to streamline production, reduce errors, and accelerate client approvals for greater productivity and outstanding customer service. Autodesk Premier Solutions Provider M2 Technologies helped Mark Richey integration EdgeCAM from Pathtrace for computer numerically controlled (CNC) manufacturing. Mark Richey plans to adopt Autodesk Vault and Autodesk Productstream data management software for more efficient re-use of successful designs and greater collaboration with the extended manufacturing team. www.autodesk.com

Burton Snowboards switched to SolidWorks for its new binding designs. The company purchased COSMOSWorks to ensure bindings keep riders safe and performing at their potential. The company's bindings division switched to SolidWorks software this summer after engineers found they could design parts faster with SolidWorks than with other software. Engineers also discovered that SolidWorks designs regenerated more quickly and offered superior surfacing features. www.solidworks.com

Krones AG, the world's largest manufacturer of beverage bottling lines and packaging machinery, purchased an additional 250 seats of Solid Edge. The existing 2D CAD systems will be replaced at all five of its German sites. "With its trend-setting simple and intuitive user interface, numerous focused applications, handling of large assemblies, excellent standards-based drawing production and comprehensive Application Program Interface (API), Solid Edge is exactly the right system for us," said Gerhard Dietlmeier, Manager of Information Management CAD. "The 2D module, which is fully functional even without a 3D model, allows us to modify existing 2D data quickly and easily without the need for remodeling." www.solidedge.com

Besser Company, a leading concrete products equipment manufacturer, standardized on SolidWorks and COSMOS. Besser previously used a variety of mechanical design software packages, including Autodesk Inventor and Pro/ENGINEER. "Engineering managers at each site consistently rated SolidWorks software superior in two critical areas: ease of use and overall functionality," related Tim Farley, Besser Company's director of engineering. One of SolidWorks software's greatest strengths is its ability to automate model development using template designs and parameters and, when necessary, simple Visual Basic code - unlike the locked-down proprietary code of other packages. This design automation will provide a configurator (template) which can be used by staff throughout the company to "plug and chug" to create designs. This will give engineers more time to work on compelling engineering challenges, according to Farley.

Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG (HDW), a leading shipbuilding company, purchased 200 licenses of NX and Teamcenter software along with related services. for all product development in its submarine division. The company's decision followed a comprehensive comparison between the company's former system, and UGS. HDW evaluated: general functionality, shipbuilding specific requirements, interface to SAP business software, CAD and PDM integration, and the ability for a long-term partnership. www.ugs.com

Comau Pico, a global supplier of industrial automation systems for the automotive manufacturing sector, selected MatrixOne as its standard PLM environment. Comau Pico's adoption of MatrixOne PLM comes after several successful implementations of MatrixOne in other business units of the Comau Group, the largest automotive production system supplier in the world. Several of the Comau Group's Italy-based business units, including Powertrain, Body Welding & Assembly, and Robotics, are already taking advantage of MatrixOne's Web-based PLM solution, enabling their remote subsidiaries access to the common, centralized technical data repository. www.matrixone.com

Swingline, the leader in workspace productivity and a business unit of ACCO Brands, Inc., will deploy Aras PLM to automate their engineering change control, document management and corrective action processes. Swingline will automate business processes critical to new product development and brand introduction providing dashboard visibility into the portfolio of ongoing projects. Browser-based progress reports are displayed in a single screen. Status details are based on roll-ups that provide the ability to drill down to the deliverables to take action. The capability to communicate specifications worldwide in a secure format over the Internet drives down costs and reduces cycle times while protecting competitive company information. Aras PLM includes business ready solutions with the ability to modify applications without programming for quick deployments that deliver rapid results at a low total cost of ownership. www.aras.com

Financials: IBM will acquire procurement services company KeyMRO from its three shareholders, Schneider Electric, Rhodia, and Thomson. This acquisition enhances IBM's capability to deliver procurement and strategic sourcing services to clients in both Europe and North America. Schneider Electric, Rhodia and Thomson have signed 7-year services agreements with IBM for the provision of key procurement services for indirect supplies. Indirect supplies include such items as telecommunications, information technology, business travel, office supplies, marketing and advertising, manufacturing maintenance and repair expenses and professional services, among others. They do not include a company's purchase of raw materials.

RAND Worldwide and Dassault Systemes (DS) concluded their arrangement announced last October, whereby Dassault Systemes acquires RAND Worldwide subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland, plus the subsidiary Rand Technologies C.I.S., Inc., as well as 10% of the shares of Rand North America (with the result that Rand North America will be owned 70% by Dassault and 30% by RAND Worldwide), for total proceeds of approximately Euro 32 million (approximately C$50 million). This eliminates of all outstanding debt owed to Dassault Systemes. RAND Worldwide transferred the acquired subsidiaries and approximately 240 employees to Dassault Systemes.

What we think>> This places significant sales and support personnel in these countries directly reporting to DS. It seems that there is a potential conflict with IBM, which manages the worldwide sales for DS. We anticipate, as it has done elsewhere, that DS will supply most of the support for its PLM product in these countries to and through IBM, rather than selling directly to customers. Thus DS maintains it long standing relationship with IBM, while enhancing customer support activities. Expect both IBM and DS to more aggressively market their for fee customer consulting.

OnCourse sells TekSoft and Cimtronics to Geometric Software Solutions Co. Ltd. (GSSL). The acquisition is funded jointly by GSSL and the TekSoft management team. Cimtronics will be spun off into a private company. TekSoft plans no major changes in direction and will continue to develop, distribute and support the ProCAM and CAMWorks products. With GSSL as a strong financial partner, TekSoft will have the resources to increase marketing, advertising and publicity. In addition TekSoft will be able to create new markets by building the reseller channel in areas that lack distribution. The current strategy of selling through resellers will continue. Cimtronics, Inc., a TekSoft direct reseller covers several major markets in the Midwest and West and was the top U.S. TekSoft reseller in 2004. Cimtronics will continue to sell TekSoft products and plans to increase sales. GSSL has over 800 software professionals employed in its offshore development centers in India. TekSoft sells its products through 140 resellers in 40 countries and has an installed base of over 30,000 licenses. www.teksoft.com

What we think>> Several years ago Teksoft was a leading NC software package for SolidWorks. Its (at the time) unique capability to completely automate the NC machining process using feature recognition and pre-stored NC sequences for those features proved highly appealing to customers who were more interested in a quick NC job than squeezing every last millisecond out of the machining process. The acquisition by OnCourse seemed to have stalled its development and allowed other software vendors to catch up. We look forward to renewed vigor by TekSoft and although the acquisition announcement focused on new sales, we hope to see some exciting new technology from the company.

PTC, in its continuing return to good financial health, two weeks ago reported revenue of $169.2 million for the first fiscal quarter ended January 1, 2005, up 8% from $156.8 million for the same period last year. This revenue growth was driven by year-over-year growth in license, service and maintenance revenue across all major product lines and geographies. Net income for the quarter was $19.2 million, compared with a net loss of $26.5 million in the year-ago period which included restructuring charges of $21.6 million. Cash and cash equivalents grew to $334.1 million at the end of the first quarter. Total revenue for design solutions was $123.0 million, up 8% from the first quarter of 2004. Design solutions license revenue of $32.5 million grew 9% year over year. Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire saw particular strength in the entry-level package for small and medium businesses, which also resulted in a drop of the average selling price (ASP) for Pro/E licenses. Total revenue for our collaboration and control solutions in the first quarter was $46.2 million, up 8% from the first quarter of 2004. Collaboration and control solutions license revenue of $14.4 million grew 5% year over year. Windchill Link solutions license revenue grew 32% year over year and represented 50% of overall collaboration and control solutions license revenue.

The reseller channel delivered $33.2 million in total revenue during the quarter, a 9% year-over-year increase.
PTC's revenue forecast for the second quarter of fiscal 2005 is between $170 million and $175 million, with operating expenses expected to be approximately $150 million. www.ptc.com

On the move: People: Christopher L. Gorgone, to Moldflow Executive Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, formerly a consultant for the Nuzzo Group.

Shantanu Narayen, to the newly created position of president and chief operating officer of Adobe Systems Inc., formerly executive vice president of worldwide products.

Michael Coleman, to CEO of TekSoft, Inc., formerly VP of ESEC and TekSoft's VP of Sales prior to that.
Gary Fulton, to head of New Business Development of Cimtronics, formerly a TekSoft co-founder and president for 23 years. This management reorganization is part of the just completed acquisition of TekSoft and Cimtronics from OnCourse Technologies by Geometric Software Solutions Co. Ltd. (GSSL). GSSL had a business relationship with TekSoft for 10 years and is TekSoft's CAMWorks development partner.

Ilya Mirman, has resigned his position as Vice Preisdent of marketing of SolidWorks. Mirman is exploring new opportunities with startup companies.

Pat Kruse, to lead the integration of Tecnomatix Technologies into UGS, formerly UGS executive vice president of the Americas.

John Graham, to UGS Senior Vice President and Managing Director for Americas, formerly vice president americas sales of Capgemini.

Partnering: Autodesk and Microsoft will cross-license patent holdings, allowing increased access to each company's respective patent portfolios. Through this arrangement, Autodesk and Microsoft will promote the exchange and implementation of patented technologies in many areas, including data management, collaboration, and design data management.

SolidWorks - 3D Systems: SolidWorks becomes the first CAD provider to enable end-users to print in 3-D directly from their workstations to 3D Systems' InVision 3-D Printer. The InVision 3-D Printer can detect the presence of SolidWorks software on the host computer and automatically add a "Send to InVision" option to the SolidWorks' file pull-down menu. www.3dsystems.com.

UGS and ADINA R&D, Inc. have entered into a strategic technology relationship that enables UGS to leverage the ADINA non-linear structural analysis solver software technology into NX Nastran. UGS will tightly integrate ADINA technology within NX Nastran and provide global marketing, sales and technical support. Said Jim Rusk, vice president, UGS Digital Simulation Solutions, "This new relationship is welcomed by customers because advanced nonlinear analysis enables users to address problems as simple as a plastic catch analysis and as complex as a car body roof crush." UGS initially launched NX Nastran in September 2003, based on the MSC.Nastran source code. www.adina.com or www.ugs.com.

UGS added Design Automation Associates Inc. (DAA) into the UGS Partner Program as a North American Sales Partner, with DAA becoming UGS' first reseller to specialize in selling NX Knowledge Fusion software and related services. DAA and its founders have a long history with UGS in using their knowledge-based expertise to develop custom solutions for a wide variety of clients that provided a clear competitive advantage.

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