Novedge Pulse™ of Ralph Grabowski

At the end of a Q&A with the CAD media, Virgin ceo Richard Brandson complained to us about the low number of women in engineering, and challenged us to do "something" about it. He didn't know what that "something" was, but in a room filled with a majority of  [more...]

I recall being surprised when I "upgraded" from a 1996 Chrysler mini-van to a 2002 Honda mini-van. The Chrysler was just about bottom of the line; I had to pay extra for the cassette player and cruise control. The Honda cost nearly twice as much and should have benefited  [more...]

Ray Kurland interviews Aaron Kelly about DraftSight, and we learn these facts:DraftSight division has 24 employees and is expected to generate a profitAnnual maintenance fee is $250 per user, for those wishing direct support and access to the APIsBy making DraftSight  [more...]

by Roopinder Tara, Tenlinks.comCAD companies are eager to put analysis in the hands of designers. It's scaring me to death.Yet Another CAD/FEA DemoA bunch of us editors are sitting through yet another demo of how easy analysis is, being done on an automotive piston.  [more...]

by Rooponder Tara, Tenlinks.comAutodesk's headquarters are in San Rafael, CA, about 20 miles north of the Golden Gate bridge. San Rafael (pronounced san raFELL, not san RAFFYel) is in beautiful Marin County (pronounced maRIN not MARin). Its easy to fall in love  [more...]

Several CAD vendors are on the verge of releasing the OS X version of their software for the Macintosh line of personal computers, and I've been able to try out some of them on a new acquired MacBook. If you are used to only CAD on Windows, I thought I'd give  [more...]

It turns out that nanoCAD 2 got installed on my computer, after all. It appears that some of the unintelligible (to me) dialog boxes may have had to do with additional options unrelated to the installation process. I found nanoCAD in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Nanosoft\nanoCAD  [more...]

Now that Bricsad for Linux is official, and not just beta, I thought I would try it out again.As I noted in yesterday's post, the software is officially supported for specific dialects of Linux. That's because there is a different installer for each:Ubuntu  [more...]

(What is this, Labour Day? CAD vendors are making me labour at blogging their new releases.)Graebert may have been the first to release an OS X version of an AutoCAD workalike, but Bricsys is the first for Linux, with support for Fedora 12+, OpenSuse 11.1+, and Ubuntu  [more...]

When I was in Russia a year ago, one of the companies I visited was Nanocad. CEO Maxim Yegorov showed me a beta of their free AutoCAD-like CAD system, called "nanoCAD 2." (The name was tied into the the "nano" trend of the time.)The idea was to make money from selling  [more...]

Adding a touch of gold to fencing in Graffiti Alley, Gent, Belgium. Mother stood patiently by as her two young ones spray painted, getting aerosol sprayback in their faces. The city encourages graffiti in this alleyway, and the art changes nearly daily. [more...]

by Jay VleeschhouwerAutodesk has reinstated the availability of AutoCAD on the Mac, as expected since at least December 2008. At that time, I wrote in a note:[We] could envision that as part of its product strategy for 2009 and beyond, Autodesk could reinstate  [more...]

So here we are at the SolidWorks Media Day, smack dab in the middle of the headquarters building off Baker Avenue on Concord MA. (Across the parking lot sits the building housing SpaceClaim.)We're getting an overview of the company's finances to start off the  [more...]

Miguel Helft of The New York Times is reporting this evening what was pretty much an open secret. It was just the timing we weren't sure about.Tuesday Autodesk has all kinds of media events planned for announcing AutoCAD's return to the Macintosh, this  [more...]

SYCODE is releasing its translators for Graebert's new ARES CAD program -- the first add-ons for ARES, as far as I know. The xlators handle the following formats:Export, import VTK (Visualization Toolkit)Export, import SKP (SketchUp)Export, import OBJ (Alias Wavefront)Export,  [more...]

 On one of my trips to San Francisco, I set my camera's mode to black-white. Taking photos in this mode certainly forced me to look at images in a different manner, for the emphasis is on the contrast between light and shadow. (Photo taken February, 2006.) [more...]

My daughter and her friends jumping for joy at summer freedom. [more...]

Whenever I write about ASCON's software, my fingers naturally type KOSMOS. Must be the result of growing up during the space race.ASCON today announces that it plans to ship KOSMOS KOMPAS-3D V12 in the second half of September. The Russian software company writes:KOMPAS  [more...]

It's not even Q4 and Autodesk is already cutting the price of its software through mail-in refunds. It's Q4 (Nov-Jan) that's usually the prime discount season, as Autodesk seeks to goose sales one last time before its fiscal year end.Today, the goosing  [more...]

Avatecvh Solutions has taken over Rand Worldwide to create the world's largest AutoCAD dealer.Avatech originally became a public company by doing a reverse merger of PlanetCAD. Five years ago, WorldCAD Access reported:PlanetCAD was renamed from Spatial, after the  [more...]

It's bad enough that Apple expect people to touch their trackpad with two fingers, because the thinking-differently company couldn't be bothered splurging on two buttons. Three-finger swipe for this, four-fingers for that... How's anyone gonna remember  [more...]

Photographed in Antwerp train station, Belgium, June 2009. [more...]

For Linux and Windows users, the QWERTY part of the MacBook is the same; your fingers, however, need to think different around the edges. Some keys have different meanings or are outright missing.Here's what the MacBook keyboard looks like. Take particular notice  [more...]

Windows has a messy variety of ways to install software. Linux has its rigorous method. And OS X has yet another method, one that initially will seem quite foreign to Windows and Linux users.Here is now to install ARES for Macintosh:1. Download the 30-day demo software  [more...]

In my previous post, I mentioned that the plot dialog box in ARES for Mac is quite different from the Windows version. At first, I had no idea what was going on, but then figured it out. I'd like to share my findings with you:1. Enter the Print command, and you  [more...]

Bricsys of Belgium, Graebert of Germany, and a third, unnamed CAD vendor (of another country) were in a multi-year race to see who would ship the Mac version of their AutoCAD-compatible software first. Today, Graebert won.ARES for Macintosh is available for download  [more...]

In this week's issue of upFront.eZine:1. CivilB Models Roadways with Surfaces2. PTC Purposely Vague on Project Lightning Plus lots more letters from readers about the suitability of iPads and Macs. You can read all about the business of CAD this week at www.upfrontezine.com/2010/upf-657.htmIt's  [more...]

After venting my fury at the MacBook's hardware design failings, I should admit that there are things that I do like about it. Here is the complete list:    1. It is utterly silent. No fan, no sound of the hard drive.That's all.Quiet computers are,  [more...]

Readers are submitting solutions to the problems I found with the MacBook and its OS X software. Thank you for those.I should add that I have found solutions, too, such as remapping the keyboard, finding utility programs, and so on. Here are two substitutes that I  [more...]

This crepes restaurant is open to passers-by on the street. It has proved popular, wtih line ups forming and the harried staff hurrying. Photographed during the Festival of Lights (fireworks) in Vancouver, Summer 2010. [more...]

Here's some more of that special love language financial analysts use during conference calls with executives of publicly-held CAD companies. Steven Koenig of Longbow Research LLC asks: ...maybe just a few other things I would love to get a little more granularity  [more...]

One of the many problems with public transportation is that it gets in the way of private vehicles, the ones whose taxes pay for the roads and subsidize the buses, street cars, and trams. They inhibit efficient travel by our cars, because they (a) block the curb lane  [more...]

In this week's issue of upFront.eZine:1. SpaceClaim 2010    - Bid Modeling for Sales Engineers    - Lean Product Development    - New in SpaceClaim 20102. Configuring Parts on the Cloud     - CAD FX (see figure below)Plus  [more...]

Taken in Washington DC, June 2000. [more...]