CAD

Tech Soft 3D gets new funding, rolls out new SDKs for 2020

Tech Soft 3D makes stuff go round, or square. It has tools for data exchange, interoperability, and 3D development. The company has grouped its disparate development tools under the brand name of its lead technology, the HOOPS graphics engine. It offers a wealth of tools and capabilities packaged as HOOPS Communicator, HOOPS Exchange, HOOPS Publish, and HOOPS Visualize. The company’s … Read more

Autodesk celebrates business model transition

Autodesk had a very good 2019, thanks primarily to the work it has been doing in construction and AEC. But also the company says they have successfully made the transition to their subscription business model, grew their cloud-based services by a convincing percentage, and demonstrated they’re in a position to add growth.  A good argument for subscription: now that the transition … Read more

Dassault announces Q4 results and plans for the future

It’s been a busy month for Dassault, a notoriously busy company to begin with. The company announced its fourth quarter and year-end results for 2019; kicked off its first 3DExperience World conference, which the company has introduced to replace its very popular Solidworks World conference.  Dassault’s results for the end of 2019 show income from the Medidata acquisition, but there … Read more

Autodesk finds an edge in generative design

Autodesk has numerous small projects for its generative design program, including its collaboration with Volkswagen on a showcase 1962 hippie bus, ongoing work with Airbus, and a collaboration with General Motors on auto parts. Generative design allows designers to define constraints for a part, the elements that are absolutely required such as strength, thermal limits, size, material properties and then … Read more

Autodesk adds on to Fusion 360 with electronics design

Electronics is becoming a check-off capability for companies comparing CAD capabilities. Among cloud CAD competitors, most notably Autodesk and PTC (after its acquisition of OnShape), electronics design is needed to fill out the capabilities of online CAD in comparison to its older, more earth-bound competitors. Onshape added electrical design in 2018. SolidWorks teamed with Altium to offer a collaborative tool … Read more

Graebert steps-up to BIM

There are nearly three dozen CAD programs on the market that work like AutoCAD, but there is only one that comes close to AutoCAD's market size. Autodesk executives speak of 10–12 million versions of AutoCAD in use, of which 3/4 are, they suggest, pirated ones. So it may come as a surprise to learn that German software developer Graebert claims … Read more

Orbit Geospatial Technologies and Citylabs: Bentley’s acquisitions for reality capture

Citilab’s CUBE simulation software provides predictive transportation technology, helping engineers and planners to design and optimize safe, efficient, effective, and environmentally sustainable mobility systems.   Bentley's Year in Infrastructure (YII) is primarily a celebration and demonstration of the work the company’s customers are doing. Refreshingly, the company is able to demonstrate its tools at work in real-world applications and the … Read more

Vectorworks 2020 opens up connections to data

It’s the season for new CAD releases and given that it’s also 2020, every release is feeling momentous in its own special way. Vectorworks has found strong points of differentiation for its tools and this release makes the most of them.  Data visualization enables teams to communicate and understand design, its attributes, and the effects of changes. (Source: Vectorworks)   … Read more

SolidWorks 2020 continues weaving links to Dassault’s 3DExperience platform

What a company says about its strategy and its attitude towards its customers is always important. SolidWorks says every new release is built around customer requests. With the release of SolidWorks 2020, the company’s PR says, it has dealt with “thousands of enhancement requests.” But, just as important, this new release is also “seamlessly connecting” to the 3DExperience platform meaning … Read more