2008: Wide-Ranging Autodesk lawsuit boils down to three letters: D-W-G

Aug. 3 | In 2008 Autodesk filed a federal lawsuit against Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks, opening another front on its DWG litigation war. While several grievances were cited, the suit was really about Autodesk trying once again to gain legal control over those...

2008: Northwest small manufactures plan to invest in PLM

Aug. 2 | A new survey of SMB manufactures in Washington State and Oregon reveals a positive outlook about regional and national economic conditions and a perceived need to more completely implement PLM and ERP systems. If SMB manufactures in other regions have...

2008: CAD Society Award Recipients All Have Historic Ties to Autodesk

Aug. 1 | The three recipients of the 2008 CAD Society awards all have a historic connection to Autodesk, but in very different ways. Current Autodesk CEO Carl Bass is honored for industry leadership; former Open Design Alliance Executive Director Evan Yares is...

2008: Dassault sees simulation lifecycle management as silver bullet for complexity

Jul. 22 | In 2008 Dassault Systèmes announced plans for Simulia SLM, a new product suite for performing and managing simulation processes; SLM = Simulation Lifecycle Management. It was to be an expansion of the former Abaqus product line leveraging Dassault’s...

2008: RIP Autodesk Mechanical Desktop

Jul. 21 | When Autodesk Inventor was initially launched, Autodesk said it would keep Mechanical Desktop alive for three more releases. When it finally announced an end-of-life for the venerable product based on AutoCAD, three more releases had turned to 12. From...

2008: Autodesk and Bentley exchange software libraries to improve interoperability

Jul. 20 | In 2008 Autodesk and Bentley Systems agreed to direct exchange of software libraries and the reciprocal use of each other’s Application Programming Interfaces. It remains as the largest single company-to-company interoperability agreement in the...

2007: The Way of Rhino, Part 4: The Passion of the Rhino

Jul. 15 | No product specification sheets; no PR announcement until two months after it shipped; a list of new features that covers 34 pages; Universal Deformation Technology. What CAD product could possibly be defined by these characteristics? Finally, we let...

2007: The Way of Rhino, Part 3: Tracking the coming perfect storm in CAD

Jul. 15 | Just as it takes more than a butterfly in the Azores flapping its wings to launch a hurricane toward Houston, it takes more than one contrary CAD company to shake up an industry. Robert McNeel and Associates are tracking six indicators they believe will...

Alive and well inside Siemens: A 2007 interview with Tony Affuso

Dec. 2 | Siemens PLM software CEO Tony Affuso discusses corporate culture, openness in PLM, and takes a shot or two at Dassault Systemes. Originally published in CADCAMNET in 2007. By Randall S. Newton September 2007—CADCAMNET sat down with Siemens PLM Software...

The Way of Rhino Part 2: Behold the CAD Whisperer

Nov. 29 | Second in a four-part series, originally published in 2007 in CADCAMNET and Engineering Automation Report By Randall S. Newton Money is like water, it flows along the path of least resistance. To move either in a specific direction, you must either provide...