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The Thumb Wrestling Continues

Published
by
Josh
on October 23, 2007
in Business
.

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Usually, CAD business can be pretty boring. But occasionally even the most subtle movement and conversation can get interesting. Recently Autodesk had a summit on manufacturing. Sound’s exciting huh? Well, Upfront.eZine posted some highlights that have sparked the fires of speculation. If what AutoDesk says has any merit you’ll be jumping the SolidWorks ship, but does it have any merit or is it something else entirely?

My CAD is better than your CAD
They summit focused on AutoDesk’s Digital Prototyping concept, the state of CAD/CAM and plans for the future of their products. The points that got the others going was their apparent intention to combine Alias, their high-end concept/surface modeler purchased in Jan 06 used mainly in the entertainment and automotive industry, with Inventor, their mid-range mechanical 3D modeler.

Frankly you may care less. I do, conceptualizing is just one aspect of the process. One that isn’t always used. I need a fast modeler that gets info down even quicker for manufacturing. You may think, like me, “I wouldn’t use Inventor if it had new car strapped to it.” Regardless how one feels, this would put a diamond ring on an ugly bride.

More frustrating than revolutionary
The other questions and their platform ideas are even more revealing. I’t’s nothing new and hardly leading technology. I’m trying to give AutoDesk a chance here. I like good competition, but all the answers they gave failed to promote any type of cohesive idea as to what the blazes AutoDesk is trying to do or how it’s going to innovate CAD. I literally feel like I’m looking at a pile of dirt, and they are saying, “Hey…psst. Look here at this pile of dirt. It’s gonna change the way you think about dirt.”

So let’s speculate
What’s Dassault gonna do? Do they care? Maybe between the yawns. If you have a solid business plan, you keep on target and evaluate change within the industry to maintain that focus. They’ve made acquisitions of their own that have made their PLM approach strong, even if it doesn’t solve every issue. Not to mention their continued move to CAD on the Web with their recent relationship with Microsoft even though I think that was a bad move. Even if AutoDesk had viable plan for advancing 3D design, the focus seems to be on the competition, rather than the innovation.

I don’t think Dassault, or SolidWorks, views what AutoDesk is planning with Inventor/Alias as a threat. However, if they actually do or if they are innovating some things to pass the competition, there’s two things I think they would do.

  1. Innovate the web
    I have no doubt that we could see versions of SolidWorks products online. Bernard Charlès, CEO of Dassault Systèmes announced at the Delmia Conference they would see this with Delmia, their digital manufacturing suite, in version 6. Imagine if that was announced at SolidWorks World 2008. The 3DVia technology, that will allow this to happen still needs some work, but it’s a step in the right direction. I happen to think a relationship with Google would be good in this regard, and maybe that’s a possibility, even though they’re using it with Microsoft’s Virtual Earth.
  2. Innovate the Peripheral
    As long as paper is needed, 2D will be needed. It’s (currently) easier to view things on a sheet, markup, passed around, spit-on and print a new sheet. What’s going to change this is how we view and interact with out content. Things can not always be accessed from the web, but you make a relationship with someone like Sandisk, that makes portable storage devices, and another that creates advanced visualization technology, like Virtual Devices and you eliminate the need for a screen, keyboard or maybe even paper.

These are just a couple ideas I think Dassault may be heading in. I think AutoDesk is trying everything they can to keep up. One thing either always need to keep in mind is the user. The CAD giants will have their own feelings about what any of the competition is doing, but what do you care about and where do you want technology to be innovated?

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Viewing 14 Comments

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    Hi Josh-

    Another great post. I'm still amazed whenever I see Inventor mentioned. I've been consulting since 1999, and in that time, I've NEVER encountered ANYONE that has used Inventor, let alone even MENTIONED Inventor!

    Devon
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    I'm still a bit leery about the whole "paperless" idea that's been going around for years. So many companies have been touting it, yet I don't know of any that have really achieved it. There's something about having an actual piece of paper in your hand that you can touch and feel. I don't know that it will ever go away completely.
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    Thanks Devon. I gave a SolidWorks demo one time to a customer, an Inventor demo was right after. The Autodesk reseller was going to give them Inventor free. The customer still chose SolidWorks.

    I'm not sure what it's like now, but I got a bad taste in my mouth when I used it in 2000. From what I hear it's not any better, but SolidWorks has come a long way since 2000 as well.
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    I am ready to go paperless at work. I am about to finish going completely paperless at home (once I get a good digital backup system working).

    I'm not sure it will ever happen, but if it does, I will be thrilled. We should all be carrying Thinkpads instead of Notepads.

    As for Inventor/Alias, I doubt it will mean a huge shift for current Solidworks users. It would take a serious improvement for us to shift to a new system; and that's probably true for most facilities. They may start getting more of the old AutoCAD users, who would choose Inventor over Solidworks...
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    Hey Bruce, I know what you mean. I think paper will always have a place. It is fun and interesting to speculate about it though, like what technology would actually have to change instead of the practices changing. There's still nothing like getting a letter in the mail, but we still mostly use email now.
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    Josh,

    My Professor was recently showing a video (more of a sales pitch) of Inventors Digital Prototyping. I couldn't believe that they are pushing this so hard. I sat there and watched the video, and saw no new technology at all. They kept going on about how you can use the software to analyze your design. And I was thinking, Am I the only one that has been doing this for years? Doesn't everyone look at their assemblies and notice if things collide, or if things don't fit? Is there some new technology there that I'm not seeing? or are they telling me that I can now do what I've been doing for years, but now with a specific name?
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    I think you've fully missed the point. You are arguing that Dassault is going to respond to a high end surface modeler with web based PLM? Apples and Oranges. The threat of web based stuff has been around for years, and for the larger collaborative enterprise stuff it makes sense, but Alias is specialist end user software, not really compatible with the whole enterprise web collaboration business, except through a viewer.

    Digital Prototyping is as you say, old news in an old wrapper, but suddenly some clueless executive latches onto it, and claims it is Autodesks response to PLM. PLM is the broader scope. Digital prototyping, in its generic sense, has always been somewhere in between PLM and end users.

    SolidWorks could also be said to be involved in Adesks "Digital Prototyping" because between CAD, FEA, CFD, PDM, it is not just end user software, but it is not to the point of manufacturing simulation, ERP/MRP, accounting and inventory and all that makes up PLM.

    I believe SolidWorks does consider this Alias-Autodesk matchup to be a threat or at least competition. Autodesk is SW's main competitor, and before purchasing Alias, Autodesk had very little capability in high end NURBS surfacing. All they had was 3DSmax, a mesh modeler/animator/renderer, and the miniscule amount of surfacing you can do in Acad/MDT/Inventor.

    Alias is head and shoulders above SW when it comes to serious swoopy shapes. Using it to ship more Inventor is just another example of toying with numbers, but I fully expect SW to have a response to the Alias offering, probably taking on Rhino while they're at it.

    Non-history based, NURBS concept/production surface modeling. SolidWorks has no presence in that market, and it only makes sense that they don't want to let Autodesk/Alias walk away with it. I don't believe that Dassault's acquisition of Icem is completely unrelated. There must be a link of some kind. While it may be mainly to help support the Catia level products, in the planes trains and automobiles markets, I would be very surprised if SolidWorks didn't try to do to Alias what they did to Pro/Engineer 10 years ago - midrange product, 20% of the cost, with 80% of the functionality.

    Like Icem, Alias is used in the automotive industry, but it is also used in product design, which places it squarely in the same market space as SW.

    The paperless discussion is also interesting in light of Alias, Icem and swoopy shapes. Complex shape design has been paperless for some time now. I rarely ever do a drawing, much less print it out. Some industries will continue to require paper drawings, but molded plastics and complex shapes do not benefit much from it.
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    Hey Matt, thanks for commenting. missing points is something I do often :) I hope I wasn't arguing either. I'm thinking that, in addition to possibly adding nurb-ification to SolidWorks, they will bring the capabilities online.

    I'm proposing that what they seem to be doing (in conjucntion with the Icem/CBModelPro/VE and hopefully Google/MOI/Rhino relationships) is moving their products into an online atmosphere. Hopefully it's online/offline sort of deal, with the browser as the platform, instead of the web app as a platform. Really the whole programmable web debate.

    Dessault seems to be moving this direction with 3DVia, 3dXML, Delmia, and some of the SolidWorks Labs experiments. I have other opinions about this and what it can become, but, I admit, they are probably a little idealistic. whichever way it goes, it's gonna be interesting don't ya think?
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    I used to do quite a bit of work for a large company (until a certain CEO drove it into the ground, outsourced huge projects, cost thousands of people their jobs, and then took a golden parachute to leave) whose entire RD department and in-house prototype manufacturing groups were paperless. Their time to market was incredibly fast. We would design something and have metal prototypes within 2-3 days! We had full confidence in our CAD files because of the system we used to check them. Someday (maybe soon) I'll write a book about this method.

    Devon
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    If somone looks at Digital Prototyping equipement prices have been going down and i expect that a big shift will happen soon (5 years) when many non usual firms can have a 3D printer at hand. From an architecture firm to Design Product etc. For that is essential a good all around modeller, something that is far from existing it yet. The Perfect Modeller today would be Clay Modeller: Z-Brush(Autodesk have Mudbox)+ Subdivision Modeller: SoftimageXSI?Autodesk have 3dsMax or Maya)+ Surface Modeller:ICEM? (Autodesk have StudioTools)+ Solids Modeller:Catia? (Autodesk have Inventor). Later we will have a 3D printer in every house maybe in 15-20 years...
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    I probably didn't take enough time to explain my thought process above. I'm looking at this stuff going on in the wide world of CAD and thinking, yeah, Autodesk is a competitor and they are thinking of mixing high-end with low-end. And then I'm wondering, is doing the same thing really what Dassault would do to be competitive? Well, maybe, but (here's the jump!) what would they do to keep innovating? It may be a separate topic, but if being competitive is the focus, there's gotta be more than copying what others are doing. But who knows, Microsoft added tabbed browsing to IE7 to match Firefox. (I still use firefox though)

    I don’t think I’d ever use Inventor again, but if it had Alias features at the same price, I may take a second look. I don’t do too much surfacing in SolidWorks; it’s too time consuming for what I typically do. Being able to do mechanical design and easily add organic surfaces for constraints, interaction and other variables is something that would appeal to me though. I think that is where SolidWorks needs to grow and where they could gain even more users across different industries.

    Ya know, what I'm really tryin' to get at is that, I don’t think Dassault has to completely match what Autodesk is doing in order to stay competitive. I imagine the same would apply for SolidWorks. SolidWorks started with a different approach and made 3D CAD affordable. Just seeing the speed at which technology is changing lately, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens next.
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    I added this blog to my favorites, I will make sure I visit it at least once a day.
 

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