Flomerics/Autodesk - No Deal!!

There has been a bunch of speculation on the future of Flomerics. More news has been released this morning that it looks like the deal with Autodesk is not going to happen. Not surprised really as I said in previous posts, just doesn't seem to make any sense for both Autodesk and Flomerics.

It does look, however, like Mentor Graphics is still in the running. This makes a bit more sense to me considering Flomerics has had such a history in the electronics industry. But Mentor is also in discussions with Cadence for a merger/acquisition. Big decisions to be made, for sure. Definitely fun to watch, especially as a spectator and not one of the guys that has to sign the deal.

Seems like everyone is scarmbling to find a new home recently. Acquisitions seem to be happening weekly in the CAE industry. Certainly seems to be the trend to have a few big boys swallowing up everyone and have a monopoloy on the market.

Sounds familiar. Pretty sure we have seen this before.

The “Ribbon Bar” is hitting the CAE Industry by Storm

I have enjoyed a week away with the family and had a chance to do some surfing around to see catch up on the latest and greatest. I was talking to a buddy the other day and the topic of whether we liked the new ribbon bars that were rolled out with the new Office 2007 products. Whether fortunate or unfortunate, I was late in having access to the Office 2007 suite of products. My first introduction to the ribbon bars was with Spaceclaim 2007. It was only after a few months of driving Spaceclaim that I really appreciated that they simply adopted the latest thing coming out of Microsoft. Like them or hate them (Microsoft that is), I think they hit a homerun with the ribbons interface.

Like everyone, I was a bit frustrated when I tried to create my first spreadsheet and power point presentation. I still find myself "looking" for things, but in general, I am getting it. But more importantly, as products (SolidWorks 2008, SnagIt9, Spaceclaim, now Inventor and Solid Edge ST) are all rolling out their flavor of the ribbons interface, I am really enjoying it. I know there are the elitists out there that hate when all programs look and act alike. However, I have to admit, I find it refreshing that the framework is relatively the same and allow each individual vendor to maximize the potential.

Surfing around, I stumbled across Inventor's "preview" of the Ribbon UI on their Labs site. Above is a quick demo. I am becoming a huge fan of the ribbons interface. I think it is the next big thing for the CAE industry. Pretty exciting to see what the vendors will do with the basic infrastructure.

SnagIt! 9: Nice!!!

Techsmith continues to amaze. Each time a new release of Snag It comes out, they include a bucket of new features that really increase productivity of the tool. The new interface takes on the look and feel of ribbons, a spin-off of the Office 2007 interface.

When the "ribbons" UI was released, I really struggled to get my first few spreadsheets and presentations together. But the more I use it, I love it. Especially the more companies that adopt and tweak the platform, the easier everything will become. In my world, SolidWorks, Spaceclaim and now SnagIt have all jumped on the train. I just saw a sneak peak at the new Solid Edge with Synchronous Technology and they have jumped on as well. I am a big fan of creative new fresh interfaces, but I am also a huge fan of completely intuitive interfaces that respond exactly the way we as users, expect them to respond.

There is a cool video that highlights all of the new features in detail.

But if you are not already a SnagIt user, just download it for 30days - I am convinced you'll be hooked.

Flomerics/Autodesk Merger???

Always interesting to see when news of a merger is "leaked" to the press.

Not sure how much merit to give this news or if it is similar hype to Yahoo/Microsoft debacle? Obviously, not on the same scale.

But in my world, it is actually much bigger news. Always trying to look at things from every angle, I am trying to figure this one out.

So, Autodesk's claim is to be the father of Digital Prototyping. With their acquisition of Alias on the design side and then Plassotech on the analysis side, I can see a common theme. They seem to be building momentum. So far so good.

Then there was the recent announcement that they were purchasing Moldflow??! A bit of a stretch as Moldflow is a pretty sophisticated analyst type tool. But, I have always felt that if done properly, Moldflow could be put in the hands of the design community. Always a difficult task when you have a "big boy" product that is priced fairly high, the tendency is to develop an "Express" tool to tease the user base. Exactly what has happened there.

So at least it appears as though Autodesk is not only jumping into the analysis business, but they are trying to make a big leap. Pretty tall task. They are trying to convert some of their AutoCAD customers to Inventor, but they are now exposing them to some specialist type of analysis tool. AND, they sell majority of their products through a reseller network. What SolidWorks did with COSMOS seemed unheard of at the time, but they seemed to do a great job. But, what COSMOS does and what Moldflow/Flomerics do are drastically different. Not sure it would be possible to push these products through a channel?

Continuing with that theme, we now see that Autodesk is entertaining the idea of acquiring Flomerics. Trying to be open minded here, but I am searching for the logic. Ok, so historically, Flomerics has had tools (Flotherm, Flovent etc) that were geared almost strictly for the analyst-only community. They acquired NIKA to give themselves some exposure to the design community. NIKA has modules that are geared toward Pro/e, SolidWorks and Catia V5 users. They also have a general module for everyone else. The general module uses SolidWorks on the front-end...! Hmmm.. So, where does the Flomerics "solution" fit in with Autodesk's grand scheme. I am obviously not privy to the logic, but seems like a cluster to me.

Anyway, all this merger stuff is great fun to watch.

Autodesk France does it in style

I was fortunate enough to participate in an event hosted by the largest Autodesk reseller in France. They conducted the event at Chateau Rajat. That is Rajat Castle to us Yanks. Simply amazing. Typical event, there were break out sessions in various rooms showing all the cool latest goods rolling out of Autodesk - Revit, Inventor, Autocad etc.

We were given the opportunity to present CFdesign for Inventor to a small group. Below is a quick link to a lightening quick demo of an exhaust manifold flow analysis in Inventor 2009.

After the event, a colleague and I sat in one of the grand ballrooms working on a few projects. It was really cool to be sitting in a castle that was a few 100 years old (new in French terms) connected wirelessly to the outside world. Clearly one of the small perks of being a road warrior.

A New Found Respect for GPS Systems

I have spent the last few days navigating my way through France. Normally, I am fortunate enough to be riding shotgun while one of the local guys does the driving. Not this time. I have driven from Switzerland through quite a few towns in France all with no map whatsoever. I got the tip from a colleague to rent a GPS with the rental car. Enter the TomTom.

I used to think that GPS devices were just another gadget that the hi-tech geeks were carrying around. But I have to admit, I would have been literally lost all week without it. It is super simple to use and has worked so far seemlessly.

I have travled by car from the middle of nowhere in France to the other side of nowhere in France and many cool places in between. The TomTom is super easy to use and has a 1000 extra features that I almost crashed a few times trying to check out a few times on the fly.

It is amazing how simple it is to use and how accurate it was even in little towns/villages in France. It helped me out quite a bit on round-abouts. Those things kill me everytime. I feel like Chevy Chase in European Vacation just doing loops until I just pick an exit.

Couln't help notice how hot these things get. I had it plugged in majority of the time in the car, but when I would stop for a bite I would take it with me. Quite a bit of heat being generated in these things. Above is a model I did quite a while ago for a "fish finder" company. Same general idea, about 5x bigger in size than today's GPS gadgets, but relatively same deal.

Goal is to make these things rugged as hell, air/water tight, cool looking and extremely dependable. No small feat for a designer. Apparently, I need to get on it as everyone in Europe seems to have one of these guys. Might need to jump on the bandwagon as I am sold.

Google Docs: My Future Office Tool?

I have been using Google Docs quite a bit lately. Everything from Documents, Spreadsheets to Presentations. They are Google's answer to web-based Office tools. Another check mark for On-Demand software tools for me to check out. As expected, Google Docs are pretty simple and straight forward. They have a good-majority of the tools that are in MS Office, but are definitely missing some of the bells and whistles.

When MS released Office 2007, my emotions have gone from excitement about the new interface, to frustration when looking for certain everyday features, back to excitement. I really like the interface. I use Power Point quite a bit and really like the insert image, text boxes etc features. It definitely has a "next generation" look and feel about it. Makes total sense that SpaceClaim modeled their interface almost exactly the same. The same can be said for SolidWorks, definitely has an Office 2007 vibe to it. So, if I like Office 2007 so much, why jump over to the dark side and check out Google? Well, simply put, I was curious. But the biggest niche that Google docs fills for me is the online collaboration.

Each document can have one or more "collaborators". So, a team can access and update a living breathing document all at the same time. I can even see when a member of my team is currently working on the document. This is huge for me. I travel quite a bit and work remotely when I am in the office. So, having this collaboration ability is huge. Their are many other positives to list about Google Docs as well. For example, they have the ability to work offline and sync as needed once connected. They seem to work well with MS files both ways (they open and save out). Plus check out below you can link You Tube Videos to them.

Pretty amusing that the biggest limitation of Google Docs is exactly what I do not like about MS Office. That is that Google still lacks some of the advanced features that I use in Office. I am clearly not a power user of the Office Products, but like everyone, there are certain features that I have found that I rely on and use all the time. Google will get there with time as they seem to be constantly updating.

Plus, did I mention Google Docs is free? Anyway, check them out.

Wow, Dassault Systemes Announces V6 & PLM 2.0

I look forward to the daily CAD industry emails that I receive everyday. MCAD Cafe and Tenlinks are my favorites. I usually look at them for about 10 seconds scanning for something to pop out at me. Not exactly sure what I am looking for but mostly related to the new releases of CAD, CFD related things and the next big thing. Check out the link on V6 coming out of Dassault.

Being a bit obsessed with web based on-demand software lately. This idea of PLM 2.0 is really interesting to me. I have seen alot of companies advertise these "web tools" or their "collaboration environment" but from what I have seen, they are not being used as mush as they could and should be. Almost every company in the world, small and large, has another "foreign" site that they deal with. Whether it is another site within the same company, a supplier, potential client - we all are dealing and struggling with the idea of communicating our ideas, designs, models with other locations.

I have only seen the video coming out of DS so far, but I am anxious to see what this PLM 2.0 movement is all about.