Tag Archives: Dassault

Hey Roopinder, Solid Edge is Over Here!!!!

Posted on May 7, 2012 | 2 comments

I enjoyed reading Roopinder’s article today.  http://cadinsider.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/05/solid-edge-gets-mentioned.html

Roopinder is capable of making some tongue in cheek comments and today and I am more than a little amused by the slap he gives PLM World on the way by to his arrival soon at the SE University in Nashville.

I have been involved with SE now for four years and the changes have been huge with the pace of change accelerating. Things that I can’t talk about of course as it is the prerogative of SE as to when news is released. Suffice it to say that I speak with great confidence that this year will see a number of long-awaited changes happen and as you express a desire for SE to bust out I think you will be well pleased.

I think of your article and it is a reminder of the recent past and I reflect in my mind’s eye the events I have personally witnessed or have been told about by those who were there.

   PLM World never really gave a flip about SE and SE was shoved into the corner of the big hall where the Red Headed Stepchildren go. There to be casually observed from a distance with disdain. SE at the last Summit in Cincy in 2005 had I believe somewhere close to 500 attendees. When I ran all the sessions for SE at PLM World a few years back there were 37 SE users in attendance. It was a direct reflection of the regard for SE at Integraph and then UGS especially when the investment banker idiots took over and dictated policy based solely on milking the cash cow for immediate gain and not planning for the future. I also hear stories about how UGS wanted SE because of the Synchronous Tech they were developing and once they had it wondering what to do with this software company that came with it.

This was where UGS found themselves when Siemens bought them out. Siemens does have some slight involvement with manufacturing as far as I can tell. Perhaps just maybe they bought this software bunch to integrate and use to their own benefit both in streamlining their own operations and selling that same expertise to others for a profit? I think it is so.

So we flash forward a few years and as you will see in Nashville this June it is now a different ballgame. Really you saw this last year and you know it is not the same game anymore even though I certainly wish the pace of change was faster.

The first time a pure SE event was held after being removed from PLM World a lot of users who would have attended were sitting on the sidelines waiting to see if the change was for real. I figure on many more this year as we all left last year with a good report and users now believe and have expectations that things are on track.

I look forward to seeing you again at the true venue for SE where you can look forward to a number of announcements about the future of SE. It is no longer the software you’ve never heard of and the big push is just about to begin.

If you are an SE user and you have a chance of being there all I can say is when the reports come out you will regret not going. I speak not only with confidence but with knowledge that this will be the best pure SE event ever and long-awaited and exciting things are in the offing. It is nice to be with a company that has a direction and a plan and happens to care about geometry creation.

Hey, no cloud, no kernal change and no goofy delusional immersive experience Frenchman taking his iPhone out of his pocket, know what I mean:)

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Yessirree, the TOTALLY Secure and Reliable Cloud

Posted on May 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

You know it does get monotonous sometimes reading day after day irrefutable proof that the cloud is the biggest clear and present danger to the health and well-being of any companies IP. It is the equivalent of the unlocked door, the open safe, the forgotten/stolen laptop, the lost hard drive, the thieving employee and the corporate spy network all rolled into one for easy use by those who mean you harm.

It is hard to imagine how many classes these cloud sellers have to go to in order to sound sincere while they tell you these whoppers about secure, reliable, cost saving blah-blah-blah ad infinitum ad nauseam.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/microsoft-kicks-chinese-company-out-of-vulnerability-sharing-program/11853

Why in the world Microsoft invited a known felon to the church picnic I have no idea. You would think they might have known better. So you have this software giant whose products are incorporated into the vast majority of every software companies products, like CADCAM for those of you in Rio Lindo :), inviting criminals to sit in on the planing and security meetings.

So where exactly will the breach come from that will destroy your companies IP? There is only one way to avoid the pervasive and porous ISP jeopardy out there and that is to stay offline with your stuff. Period.

OK cloud purveyors, please tell us once again without any proof how secure all this is. You all keep talking one thing and reality keeps saying another so don’t you think perhaps it is time to demonstrate that you believe in what you sell because you know it works? With clear legal stipulations and clear language putting your money where your mouths are as evidence?  My fingers are drumming on the desk right now as I patiently extend my three plus year wait for proof for another day.

Funny thing is that on the way to the Cloud PR department there was the legal department and the lawyers in that room said don’t make any promises you can’t keep.

If I was China I would help to fund every cloud company I could. Heck because I am such a nice guy I would even provide them equipment to run it all on. It is always so convenient to go shopping online rather than having to drive all over the place.

 

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The value of cheap labor to the end buyer.

Posted on April 27, 2012 | 4 comments

Won’t be a long post today and nothing to do directly with CAD. It does however have a lot to do with how your business functions. The ability of leaders in the manufacturing sector of the USA to manage actual factories and produce here has become too much work for many. Primarily MBA and CPA types who understand the dollar today and for the next ninety days as they manipulate things for the dog and pony show at the stock market with the goal of getting more money for themselves in salaries and bonuses they have not truly earned. It’s true believe it or not and their compensation is way out of line with historic norms.

Unlike an Engineering grad running a factory who understands processes and the real end result of stupid cost cutting measures these guys only seem to see cheap labor and parts as the Holy Grail of efficiency.

Two anecdotes come to mind here and they happened to me. Years ago I had a Lincoln SP250 mig welder. Nothing but trouble and I replaced torches and liners with great regularity with invariably short-lived results before erratic wire feed would ruin my days again. At this time Lincoln had been taken over by Bankers who used MBA and CPA types who ran the company according to “cost-effective” savings in components. I struggled with this sorry machine for a few years when one day I get a call from my distributor. He tells me he has the solution to my problem. It turns out that the idler roller on the wire feed drive was made of UHMW which flexed under load allowing for erratic feed speeds. The new replacement one was of Delrin and was rigid enough to do the job.

Lincoln had done this to me in other areas on other machines over the years but this was the last straw. This MBA CPA mentality had made my work and I suffer for years because they could save a dollar on a critical part. The end result of this is that I have never and will never look at another Lincoln machine again. They can’t be trusted to be worried about my bottom line too.

This week I am looking for an air dryer for my new Haas VF4. Shop around and then remember a great big Ingersoll Rand plant north of Nashville. So I call the local Ingersoll distributor and ask about a 25cfm unit. None here but one in North Carolina. Alright do you have anything close to that in stock here? Well no. We have one listed in our catalogue but we won’t have any more of those until JUNE.

OK, the light goes on and my next question is “where are these made”?  The poor lady dreaded this question and it was easy to hear the hesitation in her voice as she admitted that they would have to wait for the next slow boat from China. Parts are the same way and so you run the risk of being shut down because your critical replacement part may well be waiting for the next shipping container to be filled. But these bean counters saved production costs, or so they think.

Ended up with Zeks who makes the units they sell here in the USA. Oh, and they have lots of spare parts too. Ordered it Wednesday and it shipped from the factory Thursday and I will have it Monday. The real kicker is that it was $1,500.00 for a 64cfm unit and the Ingersoll “wait for the MBA CPA China shipping container to arrive” 25cfm unit was almost as expensive.

So all you bean counters at Ingersoll Rand, what is your profit from me now when you have just lost any chance at my business because you care nothing for my business?

Have you ever noticed how so much of this stuff from China never seems to reflect that deep CPA MBA generated cost savings to the end buyer? Or if it is cheap the quality is so wretched that at the end of the year you spent more by having to buy three instead of just one which would have been higher priced but domestically produced.

My whole point in this post today is to let the world know that this guy looks at more than just initial price and so perhaps should the rest of us. It is time we stop hamstringing ourselves with unacceptable quality and support and demand that the people we do business with think of our bottom line to. Ask where it was made and how it is supported before you buy and determine before you buy if your business afford to wait for the next slow boat of parts.

I could fill page after page of things I have seen and personally had to deal with because rather than dig in deep and figure out how to do things more effectively MBA CPA types just slash and burn and look for how to manipulate numbers for their next quarters bonuses. It’s not a very stellar ability to bring to the world of manufacturing.

My old Haas VF3 was built in 11-93. My 18-year-old Haas still has every part available for quick “no boat required” delivery with a superb best in class support network. It is reasonably priced and tons of factories make tons of money with these things every day. But then Haas is not run by CPA MBA degreed idiots.

Since the only thing many of these guys understand is money may I suggest you do like me. Deprive them of your money where ever possible till they get things right. Often wondered who was going to buy their made in China crap if no one was working here anymore anyway.

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So, WHO owns this stuff you put on the Cloud?

Posted on April 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

COFES as a group seems to be defending the cloud as a robust solution. Evidently many of the attendees and associated companies produce something that will depend upon the clouds usage to create income for their companies.

Dassault and Autodesk are telling us that they will be forcing their customers to the cloud. Yes I know that you hear two stories about what will happen with customers especially with Dassault’s SW but I think Jeff Ray was the most honest of all the Dassault officers when he made his famous when it hurts enough all users will migrate to the cloud statement.  There is no ambivalence by these companies and they want to forcibly squeeze you of every dollar they can by legal methods. Prove me wrong cloudies.

I think that forced income from pay for play is the primary motivation here without regard for customers. Perhaps contempt for the idea that these products should be of greater benefit to their prospective customers over what they have now would be another descriptive thing that could be said RE the cloud offerings.

Today we have more bad indicators of just how rotten the cloud will be for CAD.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/your-data-your-rights-how-fair-are-online-storage-services/4877

I think Google is the poster child for manipulating your stuff to their benefit without compensating you for the use of your stuff. If you will note in this article the various companies and their positions on data ownership there are some rather chilling claims laid to your stuff by some of these. Remarkably they are at least talking about EULAs whereas the cloud embracing CAD companies have yet to spell anything out other than vague grand sounding promises and threats.

Dropbox is the online cloud storage program most of the people I know use and it appears to be the most benevolent at this time but will still be using things like the Amazon servers.

Amazon, the server that most of the cloudies talk about using has this statement in the EULA.     “We may disclose Your Content to provide the Service Offerings to you or any End Users or to comply with any request of a governmental or regulatory body (including subpoenas or court orders)”.

Think about the ramifications here for just a moment if your company or products data is stored on the cloud. Where by law it can be accessed by those with connections. Governments like China will be able to demand access to your stuff under some legal umbrella and even if you are not charged with anything the fishing expedition will have divulged all your IP.

Look at all the fraud going on around the Whitehouse with Democrat bundlers getting all kinds of access to Executive branch favors with a possibly corrupt influence peddeling attorney General enabling and protecting them. The head of GE for instance meets with Obama on a pretty regular basis and I am sure he would never use his influence over croissants would he. So now you have your competitor donate $100,000.00 to the DNC and he gets access to your stuff through a court order. OK, tell me this is paranoia if you wish cloud guys but here it all is in black and white and legally binding.  Once your data is gone it is gone. Unlike problems with your bank you can never be made whole or reimbursed for your damages. The Patriot Act means this can happen and you won’t even have the privilege of notification or appeal before it is a done deal.

Back in December I wrote this.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/london/defense-giant-ditches-microsofts-cloud-citing-patriot-act-fears/1349?tag=mantle_skin;content

Next up is this heart warming story of BAE, a trivial and inconsequential itty-bitty defense contractor. It seems that yes, security does matter. And here we see a perfect example of why anything that uses the cloud is not secure period. There are just so many provable roadblocks between the promise and the reality and so much of it totally beyond the control of any software author from the infrastructure they do not own to governments they can’t control who don’t give a flip about your security.”

OK cloud purveyors. It is time to start telling us exactly what you intend to cover or not cover. What really are the risks and benefits and what are your ironclad guarantees of buyer indemnification.

My prediction is that there will not be one single detailed response because these cloud companies know all about these problems and don’t care. They just want you locked in to pay for play. This myopic business model is quite staggering in its lack of forward vision and I wonder if these cloudies can see past immediate cash in their pockets to the future. It will be hard to get subscription cash from companies who have gone bankrupt due to loss of IP.  It will be even harder to get cash from those wise individuals that will not be sticking around to be fleeced.

What a deal. Not secure, not reliable and not cost effective. Pssst, hey guys, I got some stock in the Brooklyn Bridge I can let you have cheap!

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Cloud Fraud for you, BIG Shopping Cart for Chinese

Posted on April 19, 2012 | 2 comments

So I read all the puff pieces from COFES this year and with the exception of Deelip there was hardly any mention of the failure of the cloud. Mike Payne no sooner gets done with the propaganda bit of the cloud is reliable, just trust me, when the Techsoft demo immediately after Mike’s PR deception fails because, well,  because the cloud does not work reliably. I applaud Deelip for being basically the only one I have found who attended COFES who states what happened there. http://www.deelip.com/?p=7485#comments in case you missed it.

So we have all the self promoting fanboys who run around extolling the wonders of the cloud that were there and who will not talk about it.  But today I want to talk about something besides the prevalent cloud companies fraud of making service delivery promises they know they can’t keep.

How about security? The NSA and the military are two groups that have to have security. It’s not an option. They both believe that only by avoiding the web can you be secure. They do not state to do so under special conditions. They do not have a single cloud software producer to recommend to you as being secure because none of them are. Enough of you guys reading this have work for or contacts with someone who produces things related to national security. Go ask them when their companies are going to the cloud with their important stuff. I think you will find they are not.

Cloud companies would prefer you not read any further so if you work for one check out now. You don’t want to know the truth anyway.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Richard-Clarke-on-Who-Was-Behind-the-Stuxnet-Attack.html

First let us look at the situation with Iran and their nuke program. There are some governments that do not like the idea of nutty jihad kook muslim’s running around with nuke’s who think they are going to get a lot of virgins in Heaven if they use them. So they just whip up this little program called Stuxnet and deliver it to the kook’s. Now the kook nuke sites are pretty high security I suppose so the best way to deliver your package would be the web I should think. The rest is history.

All major companies spend a lot of time and money on R&D. All major companies according to Mr Clark give it away as a result of putting their stuff in places where the web can access this. OK you cloud guys, Oleg and the rest, prove this man wrong. Where is your proof of security? Oh I forgot, silly me, you have all your stuff secure at a farm and under your total control. Lets just disregard the idea that nothing is secure here once it leaves this farm and pretend we are an employee of a cloud company.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/dell-ships-motherboard-with-malicious-code/6901

Uh Oh, you mean we may not be? Yes that is exactly what the little voices from the back of the auditorium keep shouting out and you guys ignore because you want to make some money. This is the fraud associated with these cloud companies that bothers me the most. They have to know about these things and have such scant regard for customers that they would rather lie about their products and say anything they have to just to make a sale.

The wisdom of MBA/CPA types that have shipped our industrial base to China so they can have bigger bonuses is another large problem. Ever wonder why we flew into Iraq so easily at the start of the Gulf War? This is the story I have been told. Air Traffic Control was sold to Saddam by the French. Included in these and made in the USA were pc boards and or software put in these and then shipped to France and then to Iraq where they thought they had state of the art defense systems. Well they were but not quite like they thought. Just before the planes went in the command to shut down or look elsewhere or just ignore (or whatever they did) was given and our guys flew into airspace untracked. Yes I know stealth bombers but that was not the only thing going on.

This same mindset that said ship our jobs over to our enemy looks only at today’s savings. China is in case you have forgotten by the way someone who wants to dominate the world and subjugate it. They don’t want just to be the leaders economically they want a world of vassals. They feel no compunction whatsoever about stealing everything they can get their hands on and the state sponsors tons of hackers to do that.

This same MBA/CPA mindset now is saying that we can save you money if you will just believe us and go to the cloud. They have no regard for your long-term future and can only see today and your money. The idea that the cloud is technically impossible to be reliable or secure is something they would really prefer you ignore.

Question for the day. What is the difference between con men and a thief? Answer, con men  are polite and want you to think they are offering something you need or want to get your money.

You CAD guys who are faced with being told you will have to work with software in the cloud had better start waking up to the jeopardy self-serving and short-sighted companies like Autodesk and Dassault are putting you and your companies in to.

Your turn cloudies. Let’s hear from the fan club that will once again ignore these issues.

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CAD and planning for Stability and Reliability

Posted on April 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

Watching all the PR stuff with COFES 2012 this week and reflecting on choices. I see the benefit of the cloud in small ways for CAD in things like taking perhaps an IPad like device to a job site and looking at details for a job. Maybe even simple work there but nothing complicated for sure. And the work done there would still be archived and organized back at the place of business.

Looking at the failure of the cloud in a spectacular way at COFES where they surely ought to have been able to deliver reliability if it was humanly possible. Evidently at this point in time it is not. It brings me to thinking about the CAD world and how we make choices for what we use and the ramifications of those choices.

I have been watching with great interest the Dassault debacle over their cloud implementation attempts. Tons of resources poured into stuff customers don’t want any part of. As clarification here I have no idea how this is all being received by Catia users as I am primarily interested in midrange MCAD. I can guess though by seeing Siemens picking up more customers than Dassault is. Insofar as the SW users go there is huge anger over all this mess. Nothing is for sure from the kernal to the way software will or won’t have to operate on the cloud. Dassault regularly sends out conflicting statements of future intent. I think in part this is because they are deciding if they want to even be in a truly cadcentric market or do they think they can make more money with social media driven “experiences”.  In the mean time whole careers built on cad design and geometry creation are in jeopardy as users are faced with cloudy places they don’t want to go to, bugs that are not fixed and emphasis seemingly on everything but robust geometry creation. You don’t think lots of SW users feel this way look at maintenance renewal rates  and comments from people on the web that were huge fans a few years ago who today are not.

Dassault also has another huge problem in that Synchronous Tech which is based on the parasolid kernal is owned by Siemens. There are things in there that make ST the best all around direct modeller out there that are not for sale to competitors. Now DSS is faced with SW having to work on a kernal with features missing or push to their own kernal. All the talk made about not to worry about the parasolid kernal and SW is I believe just a smoke screen. They are already way behind on implementing direct editing and if they don’t do something they are going to get their rears thoroughly kicked. So their choice is to change kernals for the “new” SW Catia Lite and give all the buyers the thrill of having to learn a new program GUI plus failed translations for years to come along with being beta guinea pigs for direct edit developement. Or you can stay with SW traditional and pay fees each year for meager cosmetic improvements until they end it entirely.

Autodesk is now telling everyone they will have to go to the cloud if they intend to use Autodesk products. I am not seeing in statements lately any ambiguity here and so while they are not giving lots of details I suspect it is all about pay for play and the end of things like permanent seats of software. This also means by the way the end of true data ownership by authors because if there are no permanent seats there is no permanent use of their own intellectual property either. Ya gotta pay to play forever no matter how egregious the conditions Autodesk creates for you are in this wonderful new world. I think I can make these types of statements with a high degree of certainty by the way as none of the cad on the cloud companies have lifted a finger to dispel numerous real concerns.

Don’t know a whole lot about ProE or Creo as they are just there and have a fairly large user base and not a whole lot going on. I guess here but perhaps it is a legacy user base that feels more comfortable with what they know over what may work best. Creo does seem to be a company looking for a place to be and a marketable identity.

So this leaves Siemens as the last of the big four software companies. When I bought into Solid Edge it was for the power I saw in direct editing. What it has become in the three plus years since then is a whole lot more.  I see consistent planing with a goal in best in class geometry creation. There are things coming up in the near future that even the most diehard surface modeller from SW will have no complaints about ending this last perceived lack of ability. SE is already the best all around implementation of direct editing out there. It is the best midrange MCAD modeller right now for mechanical parts which is the vast majority of all MCAD. The only thing lacking outside of the soon to be fixed surfacing is the integration of  other products. This too though has become a priority and will be fixed in the near future.

Oh, and can I say that there has been no mention of forced use of clouds here?

While many are faced with huge and disruptive changes I can say that this is not the case here with SE and I assume NX although I don’t use NX or keep up to date on it. No kernal change forthcoming. Mature direct editing. An emphasis on geometry where developement funds are used to my benefit and not to create pay for play cloud crap or “Minimoys”. Everything I see and hear is strictly business and that business is geometry creation. Bass at Autodesk/Inventor is telling you what you are going to get like it or not. Bernard of SW/Dassault capers across the stage with his IPad and tells you that you are going to like “immersive experiences” just because he says so. ProE/Creo ???? don’t have a clue. SE on the other hand is all about what you want and need to do your job in the most effective way possible.

I made a choice to move to SE from VX/ZW3D for CAD because it was a logical decision based on what benefited me in part creation and especially in ease of working with imported geometry and existing part changes. What it has become since then regarding the trashing of users by Dassault and Autodesk and the go nowhere philosophy at Creo is a whole lot more. It has become a stable future with a company that has a plan that includes my desires and needs with a product that is tremendously useful and quickly improving.

There are a lot of you CAD users out there who are faced with bad things and you have some choices to make that will affect the rest of you and or your company’s future. If stability, capabilities and reliability of the software you use combined with a corporate management philosophy that includes user needs and input along with a clear and concise roadmap for the future is important to you, I think you should have a look at SE. I have been well served and you will be to.

Let me add something here. I don’t get freebies or software or anything from Se that any other user does not get. I pay my way entirely out of my own pocket in every area. This blog happened primarily because most of the time I truly enjoy working with SE. Yeah thats right nothing is perfect. And I believe there should be a greater user community out there for SE so I am willing to spend some time helping it along. I recommend and support SE because it has proven itself to me to be tremendously beneficial to what I do for a living.

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