This morning I get a heads up on a new offering evidently in Japan only at this time.
http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/ja_jp/products/velocity/solidedge/design_pad/index.shtml
So I go there and do a little digging with scant result since the English press release is short on detail and the Japanese link sends me to a site that is in, you guessed it, Japanese.
What I do see in the press release however is pretty alarming. It appears that this could well be a foray by SE into the realm of the cloud where bad things are known to happen.
I think back over this past week to all the articles I am reading on “zwnet” with large companies like Sony, Microsoft, Amazon and Google all failing in significant ways to reliably deliver online cloud type services. It can’t be said with any shred of credibility that these companies are novices in software implmentation. In particular it is notable that Amazon has problems as that is the one DSS touts as being proof of the cloud’s infallible capabilities. I mention them because as to date they are the ones who have primarily pushed this nonsense.
I also read Affuso’s PLM World comments on the cloud where Siemens is stating that “they like what they see”. Well that was allright as long as it stayed on the NX PLM side of the fence where I don’t care to go.
Please cue up “Toccata in B Minor” at this time. Got it playing? Let us continue then.
So I read this Solid Edge DesignPad press release and now it is on my side of the fence. With no details on what exactly this is I have nothing but opinions and conjecture to offer today and these I will certainly state.
In my minds eye I try to think of what the reasons are to offer this. On the corporate side of the fence I see the subscription model as the solution to piracy, how to hold data hostage to prevent users leaving, how to keep users paying with a predictable cash flow for as long as they are in business to access their own creations. How to extract more money from the same customers while promising them they will spend less.
It’s all about the money and not one shred of it is about the customer. It’s like the corner store that offers to sell you furniture and you can pay weekly like they are doing you a favor when the reality is that you have just ended up spending far more than you needed to because you couldn’t pay cash up front at the real furniture store. If it was about the customer you would offer up front discounts so they could afford it.
So I am left to wonder things, all kinds of things, about costs. About autonomy and reliabile connections and on and on. I find the whole cloud idea a disgusting foray back into the land of Mainframe computing where many used to be held hostage to a large array of bad things. What started the whole PC revolution was users wanting to be free of the vast panoply of problems the old time cloud was. And will be today for those who go there.
I hope for clarification soon on just what all this is. Some things I do know for sure. On my own workstation I have great throughput, data security and fixed predictable costs.I update when I want to what I want. There is a personal equation here I go by. I buy permanent seats of software and do what I want when I want > They do what they want, charge whatever they can and give me excuses for failures from whatever source they may arise.
The really sad part about this whole cloud for cad thing is CAD companies making promises about reliability to the user when there is so much infrastructure totally out of their control. When in fact there is not one CAD company that has ever delivered a bug free product.
You may now turn off ” Toccata in B Minor”
Machined Audio Horn Lens 
Dave, I believe Solid Edge DesignPad to be the same ‘ole Solid Edge that you and I are accustomed to, but with a time limited license (one year lease) that can easily be purchased via an internet store (and thus easily renewed). It is not a cloud based system. It drastically lowers the entry price to start using Solid Edge, but it must be renewed annually to keep using it.
Hi Ken,
That sounds good. I had not heard of any cloud like things for SE and so this story took me by surprise. I Could not find much info about this online so I was hoping someone would chime in with clarification.
Hi Dave
My understanding of this program.
“..Solid Edge DesignPad makes it the ideal entry point for those new to 3D CAD as well as a solid business model for short-term or open-ended projects….
If you are a CAD person who need to have a synchronous editor for a particular job that will take a month or two, you will not need to buy the full product.
Also if you own a license of SE and need to add temporary workforce, you simply add a another temporary seat.
….
..
.
I’m sure you would find other situations when a temporary license could be needed.
What is not clear and this is probably why they test in japan before making w world deployment, what will be the cost for someone who own a license ( already pay annual maintenance), versus someone who paid occasionally to access a “synchronous editor”
The lease per month will probably be higher than if you decide to make one payment.
The same for someone who is a casual user versus someone who own a license.
So if you plan to use the software for more then let say 6 month ( I’m speculating has no details are available in a language we can read), may be you should think about buying it instead of leasing it…..
How that sound?
Now could make sense and I hope it is what SE intends. The big problem with renting or leasing though is unless you have someone allready trained in the use of SE is on whose dime does training occur? And does support incur extra charges? The idea of picking up a temp seat for allready trained users on a particular project could be appealing but again as you say what is the cost? If it ends up being over say half the price of outright ownership wouldn’t most elect to spend the rest and have a tool without a time limit?
Seats of software are registered against a component like a hard drive and you can always add a second shift and not rent additional software to double your output and not have to spend any more money on another workstation. The temp guy is going to have to have something to work on afterall so no savings there. I am happy that as you represent this it is not about the cloud but it still just does not make all that much sense to me economically. If you find out actual costs or find an actual user of this to tell us how it works would you be so kind as to post that info here?
Nothing to fear, Dave. This is simply a way for customers in Japan to easily rent the desktop software, rather than paying the full license upfront. Our team in Japan has had requests for an offering like this.
Hello, I’m a Japanese Solid Edge user.
I read the page. And it seems to me that
Ken is right. And it also saids that
DesignPad lacks in some functionalities
(live section, frame design, rendering,
loft, sweep, helix, and surface modeling).
There’s no cloudy things around there.
No clouds are good clouds I always say. You are the first to talk of actual feature sets. Is it your opinion that lack of functionalities could prevent this from being a real replacement for a seat of SE? If it was meant to cover peak demand situations without having to buy a permanent seat to do so I would think it would have a full feature set. What shortfalls or pluses do you see from your point of view?
DesignPad is not really for “peak demand” or that kind of thing as some have speculated. It is largely for a different set of users who need good solid core mechanical design (but maybe not all the bells and whistles) and are not able or interested in a “big” upfront payment of buying software. Remember, “big” is not the same for all of us. Different markets/users exist with different needs and different price points and buying models.