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
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
At its annual DevCon event held this year in Milan, the Open Design Alliance brought its membership up to date on the significant development the organization has been doing at its members' behest. Established in the 90s by a group of companies competing with Autodesk in the CAD field, the ODA’s charter was to create an open option of DWG, … Read more
Autodesk Inventor is 20 years old. The company has released Inventor 2020 and in recognition that it's the 20th anniversary of Autodesk’s entry into the parametric CAD market to compete with market leader Pro/Engineer and upstart SolidWorks. At 20, Inventor is still one of the top choices in the segment but the engineering design field has changed with challenges from … Read more
Autodesk reported increased earnings and brought its income up out of the red and into the black at $40.2 million. With revenues up 30% to $797, the company pushed its ARR up to $3.07 billion. Total billings increased by 48% to $892 million. The company’s recurring revenue is at 97% of the total. And yet, the stock went down immediately … Read more
The marriage of CAD and metrology is the marriage of the digital and the real-world. It is transforming many industries including AEC and manufacturing. Hexagon, which has its roots in metrology, has addressed the digitalization revolution from the sky down. Founded in 1992 in Stockholm, Hexagon acquired ERDAS for their satellite-based geospatial technology and they’ve acquired the leading lidar companies … Read more
The Open Design Alliance’s season of press releases is here and the quantity of information is greater than ever as the organization follows up on the several new directions they have taken to support interoperability and communication in the CAD industry. The organization has moved into new territory with its Visualize, Web SDK, and BIM (Building Information Modeling) APIs. The … Read more
Design in cloud to fly over clouds
There was a time when the definition of a workstation was crystal clear and so was the decision about having one. If you needed a workstation, you knew who you were and you knew how to get it: ask IT. Alternatively, whine, bully, and demand it from IT. And, the machine you got would have a RISC-based processor, a customized … Read more
Hexagon is best known as a sensor company, making 3D laser scanners and articulated-arm sensors that check the fit of finished products. After a car comes off the assembly line, for instance, robotic sensors scan the exterior, looking for deviations from tolerances. Other sensors reverse engineer parts or create point clouds of buildings. The sensor industry prefers we speak of … Read more
Graphisoft is the Hungarian software company that began in 1984 when Gábor Bojár thought of designing buildings virtually in 3D. As a result, ArchiCAD became the earliest version of BIM (building information modeling) software. In fact, it was so 3D oriented that generating 2D plans was an afterthought. This year, Graphisoft will release ArchiCAD 23. Graphisoft is still headquartered in … Read more
By the early 1990s, the PC industry was still expanding and offering plenty of opportunity for all. IBM had lost its position of leadership and for a few years the market existed on commercial off the shelf (COTS) graphics chips from TI, and a bunch of XGA and VGA clone builders. In 1994, Number Nine, a small company in Boston, … Read more
