Tag Archives: Solidedge

CAM Tech Support Is Needed When It Is Needed

Posted on February 17, 2014 | Leave a comment

OK today you get to hear Dave vent again. An unprecedented action I am sure. But I think something needs to be made clear here about the value of time to customers VS the value of time to VAR’s and CAD CAM companies. This involves CAM and it has an entirely different concern than CAD and here is the situation as I see it.

You have a part and a deadline for this part and you need to cut it TODAY. It is not like CAD where there are other things you can do in the mean time. You have one goal and one purpose in life this day and it is to cut this important part. So the VAR and the software companies try to walk a fine line between being frugal with their costs and I get all that. I do the same thing and that is why when I have an $84,500.00 dollar mill sitting there and a customer breathing down my neck with a rush job I really really understand costs. The cost to ME when I can’t get timely support for whatever reason. There are other times when you have a part on the mill and a problem and you really don’t want to take it off and do another part. You are dialed in and no relocation zeroing problems until you remove this part just so you can move on and come back to it later. There is some kind of immutable law written somewhere I am sure that says the more variables you introduce into your manufacturing life the more problems you will have. So we like to finish what we have started from beginning to end. It is not in any way shape or form like coming back to revisit your CAD file which is pretty painless.

That $400.00 chunk of metal sits and looks at you because you could not get support and it has problems from bad cuts. You machine shop owners all know what I am talking about. You have heard that silly stuff about just wait until tomorrow or Monday because you have the nerve to be cutting late at night or on a weekend. So you can’t wait and you take a chance and now the scrap that comes out of your pocket. Since it seems that all these CAM companies and VAR’s that sell this stuff do this is has become a condition we buyers have to suffer under. Where the customer is not king except for our customers who demand this from us and we have to service them to pay our bills. They never cut us any slack is the way it is most of the time.

Today I want to mention a rather good experience I had happen in regards to support. I call Ally PLM and I am sure I sounded as frustrated over the CAM support guy being out of the office as I was in real life. However I get a call from the CAM guy about ten minutes later and he pulls to the side of the road and gets his laptop out and has an answer for me in short order. Now I know I am not going to get him after hours but I can say for sure today I am off the hook because of a timely response.

I can’t begin to tell all you CAM authors and program vendors how important this is to us and we do not view what happens with CAM the same forgiving way we view what happens with CAD. Tip of the hat today to Ally PLM, thanks.

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CW4SE CAMWorks for Solid Edge 2014 Update, Begining The TDB Jungle Journey

Posted on February 13, 2014 | 2 comments

For those of you using CW4SE the SP1 update is finally out today and available in the customer downloads section of CAMWorks website. MP 4 for SE was released earlier this month and it had the fix needed to get assemblies up and running inside CW4SE so we are in the final days of the wait for assemblies capabilities in CW4SE. I expect within a couple of weeks this last remaining hurdle of integration will be jumped for those of you waiting for this. Busy downloading the update now and if any glitches show up I will comment. Otherwise assume all is well.

In another note. I have decided that the correct way to begin using the Tech Data Base is to go into it and into the mill tools section for instance and do the following. I use three flute and five flute tools almost exclusively and four fluters for ball end mills. There are many MANY hundreds of silly tools in there and all come checked for use and so you are doomed to things you never use showing up all the time automatically when you generate your operation plan. Look at the following silly stuff Geometric leaves in there for instance.
TDB tools

The second column is labeled “ON”. Just start from the top and keep going and uncheck pretty much everything. I saved a few ball mills and insert cutters but nothing else since this shop never uses all this junk. Add your own tools of preference at this time. I think out of perhaps a couple thousand tools some programmer dude who never cut parts put in there I saved maybe 25 or so. But now at least the TDB is going to start looking more closely at tools I intend to use. This is not the complete answer here but it is a start to fixing this bad tool library mess Geometric ships. While you are in there you might as well change the degree of angle for all the drill bits to. I use nothing but 135 degree split points and sadly the Geometric drill data base is exclusively 118 degree. So go through and fix this to.

I make a separate folder labeled “ENGLISH DAVE BASIC” for these updates and save it to “C:\CAMWorksForSolidEdgeData\CAMWorks2014x64ForSolidEdge” in the “LANG” folder. When you are done doing this open up the TDB and click the Maintenance tab and link to your new folder but leave the old “ENGLISH” folder there and don’t mess with it. Edit the new folder you have created by the way and not the old one which is a sort of backup of last resort.

I would also save save a copy of your new file edits independently somewhere else and keep it handy. I have read stories about version and SP updates that dump your hard work. To prevent this an independent copy can always be used and linked so there is no excuse for this to ever be more than an inconvenience at worst.

Anyone with some tips and tricks on how to tame this TDB mess I will gladly post it here if you are willing to send it in. Supposedly Geometric is going to fix these libraries but I don’t think it is very important to them so be resigned to at least a year or more before anything of significance shows up here. Otherwise you get to read what I come up with for better or worse.

By the way, the internal code is now the same for both SE and SW flavors so the only difference is how it interfaces with the two programs. ALL the CAMWorks stuff for both like the TDB are identical and so I welcome and encourage SolidWorks users who use CAMWorks and feel they have something to contribute to do so.

Micheal Buchli’s “Camworks Handbook 2014” is now out and I recommend it for any user of CAMWorks. Get the PDF version online and it has like 80 minutes of imbedded video and it is the best $50.00 you will spend for training anywhere. The Tutorial section for CAMWorks is also quite good so between the two of these save some money and fire your VAR when he shows up with those $$$$$$$$ classes. Now if your VAR offers $$ classes that might be another story but I don’t know any VAR’s that do $$ training. And of course make YouTube your friend.

I want to remind SE users that there is a video creating and uploading to YouTube tool right in SE and even though Siemens officialdom has forgot it you should not. Use this tool and help your peers walk through the ins and outs of your program of choice.

YouTube link

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The Autodesk Juggernaut Starts Rolling

Posted on February 12, 2014 | 4 comments

One of the things that started my sojourn into blogging was interest in CAD and CAM in general. This of course means interest in topics besides my CAD CAM flavors of personal choice and I have always watched what others are doing. The cloud has in many ways been tied for equal interest with software as it may have such a profound effect upon how we do business in the future for those who foolishly go there. The other side of the coin which was alarming to me and the single largest reason I have had for posting bad things about Autodesk and Dassault’s Solid Works was the idea that they were going to try to force the cloud upon users whether they wanted it or not. I believe that if this paradigm were to be proven successful that other companies would probably follow this path to if vendor and cloud lock in with forced subscription only models for these two companies proves to be successful. Other than that the software from these two is what it is and if they dump this cloud garbage I would not have a whole lot to say about them because at that time they would not represent a potential threat to my future anymore.

Today just for the heck of it I went to this Autodesk site. http://cam.autodesk.com/pricing

Autodesk Juggernaut

Now I have to admit that this is the first real evidence I have found that the cloud is not inevitable here contrary to the statements made by Carl Bass. It would serve him well I think to clarify just what really is going to happen here. But at least at this current time cloud and not cloud are available. But what most impressed me were the we want you as customers prices. And per comments from Autodesk regarding a question from Al Dean the other day that Delcams PowerShape had technology in it including Direct Editing that would be incorporated into future versions of Inventor.

Autodesk is gearing up here for conquest. Look at the prices for just HSMWorks on this web page and it is the same as the prices will be for Inventor HSM. Except that HSMWorks will be + your full price seat of Solid Works and I would imagine two maintenance payments per year. If Autodesk really does a good job of integrating direct editing and other needed capabilities into Inventor and they make it the equal of Solid Edge or Solid Works and maintain this pricing it will be hands down the value leader in mid range MCAD and CAM combos.

I like HSMWorks. The Tech data base in Camworks IF you spent the time to implement all the stuff needed to make it work will get you quick toolpaths on most of your parts. As a matter of fact it is the best out there for Feature recognition but set up is a fairly involved process. Volumill is the very best HSM strategy out there right now and HSMWorks does not license it so plus another one for CAMWorks. HSMWorks does not offer these two things but I have to say that for those shops that just want good tool paths quick to learn and not cumbersome to set up HSMWorks is pretty darned good. They also have their own version of HSM which is capable. A friend of mine close by has one of those pressure cooker job shops and he swears by it and does a lot of different stuff each day. To be honest HSMWorks was my first choice for integration with SE back when I was asked to look at CAM programs for possible integration with SE.

In this day and time with each dollar counting more and more I believe that if Autodesk keeps permanent seats available this combination of Inventor HSM is going to be tough to beat as value leader. Now I presume that they intend to make Inventor into being more capable. But even if they don’t it is still way cheap and for that kind of money many will make the choice to just deal with a cam program that is not fully integrated with their CAD as long as Inventor handles imported parts well. Retail on SE and CW4SE up to 3 axis + Volumill 3 axis + turning is now right at $18,000.00 or $19,000.00 and there is not too much to be had in the deal zone off of that. My maintenance on this duo is going to be right at $4,000.00 per year and I bet yours will be to if you buy this. I don’t know what a full five axis and mill turn seat would cost from CW4SE but I suspect it would crowd you real close to $20,000.00 just like Mastercam would and probably be $4,000.00 per year on maintenance and with the additional maintenance from SE would add up to $5,500.00 or more per year. I also have no way of judging the relative capabilities of HSM versus CW4SE when you get into 4 and 5 axis and mill turn because I have never cut parts doing this. The labels however say these two can do it and I can say that after a trial of HSMWorks I did about two years ago if the capabilities of the rest of HSM are as good as the three axis stuff was it is more than capable.

That rumbling sound from down the road and just over the hill where you can’t quite see it yet just might be the Autodesk Jugernaught heading straight for you.

UPDATE 2-14
I have been told that the maintenance for the inventor and HSMWorks combo is 11 or 12% per year. This gets back to the idea of compelling potential customers to consider you and to keeping customers as customers with reasonable prices. Money is money and as a small business man my bottom line is more important to me than Siemens or Geometrics. So we have for new customers with SE and CW4SE to get what I have will be $18,000.00 plus $4,000.00 per year and a cam program I am getting increasingly irritated with. I don’t think I like this TDB and I would rather have templates if I were to be interested in automation at all. I am hoping someone shows me how to work the way I want to work with CW4SE and I will be all smiles soon. Then there is the $9,990.00 price above for cad and cam and only say $1,200.00 per year and I get a cam program that does things the way I want it to. I have to admit to sitting here and thinking real hard about where my future money will go because the payback with this HSM stuff is three years based on my recurring costs with SE CW4SE.Then I would have annual costs of one third what I will have if I continue the SE CW4SE path I am on. It is my money and it does have to be earned if you want some of it. I have a lot of thoughts wandering around in my mind right now that I never thought I would have three months ago. If Autodesk promises to maintain desktop permanent seats indefinitely and I feel I can trust them to do so I may just buy into it. Truthfully CAM is the most important part of my business in some ways because I may only design something once but make thousands of them afterwards. It is just as important for my CAM to work right as my CAD because I am a manufacturer and the recurring costs are a part of my profit picture. I have to admit that when my must pay maintenance jumped over 4G recently it was a wake up call that began to ask the question do you really want to be here.

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The Destructive Siemens Corporate Mindset

Posted on February 7, 2014 | Leave a comment

Before this post begins some thoughts that have been circulating in my mind are going to be commented on. I held this from posting for a few days because sometimes I write stuff and for various reasons never post it. Will this be counterproductive to what I wish to achieve? Do I really know enough about the situation to put my opinion out there and not look stupid? Recently I had to reconsider my hubris towards John Fox because it is darned hard to get at the truth many times. When you have a blog and people know you do and you say it like you see it some doors open and others close. At times you have to ask why is this person even speaking to me and what is their agenda? Will I be stepping on toes I should not be or causing more problems than solving?

There are some in upper SE/Siemens management I trust to tell me within reason what is going on. There are times though that this is accompanied with admonitions not to speak about it so I don’t. But at least this kind of information allows me to concentrate on things that are not being worked on and bypass things that the public may think are not being worked on but I know they are. Publicity and Marketing is a kind of never-never land for me with Siemens and SE. There are changes but it is SO glacial. Some very good and concerned individuals fight the good fight and each little increment of forced change for the better takes more effort than can be imagined. That these things have to be fought for boggles my mind since all it would do would be to increase sales which in my silly little world is a good thing. I take my hat off to two individuals in particular, you know who you are, and I am thankful for their works in the trenches. At least I am seeing ads and mentions of SE fairly regularly now although at a subdued level. And there is a philosophical change in how SE is to be marketed which I see evidence of in realty but can’t talk about yet.

It seems as though campaigns are thought up and then nearly still-born and quickly fade away and the sounds of numerous crickets takes center stage again. No consistency and no long-term planning. The very idea of a consistent themed multi-year campaign to pursue a goal is an alien concept. So I think long and hard about who to blame for this. The SE guys are under the auspices of Siemens so therefore the true root of the problems is with Siemens corporate and not SE. Just like it was when SE was under UGS. I know some long time employees and some relatively new ones that have great ideas that never see the light of day. So rather than trying to figure out exactly who and where the problems stem from I have made a decision. The people at the very top of Marketing and Publicity and Social Media by the positions they hold are the ones I am going to blame from now on.

This is on their watch and a few scenarios come to mind. First is that they are perfect examples of the Peter Principle. Second is that they know things are not right but to chicken to fight or don’t know how to fight for what is right. The third is that they are a part of corporate culture that thrives on meetings that never go anywhere and never produce much except the time of the next meeting. I sometimes wonder if their idea of productivity is measured by the sheer number of meetings an individual or department can create and not on actual worthwhile results.For example the idea of having an equivalent of the SW CWSE for SE users has come up again. So it gets talked to death and extraordinarily stupid objections like won’t we be liable if we certify someone and they screw up are tossed up. Quite frankly my opinion is that these types of objections are merely justifications for doing nothing from people who don’t want to be bothered with having to do something. There are always tons of reasons for why we can’t do something and never ones on how to make it happen. This I have personally witnessed. And then of course we get to have many more meetings to discuss all the ramifications of these objections. These people could not piss in a pot without a meeting. Fact is there are so many certifications out there that the idea that this was even brought up boggles my mind and certifications are an indication of ability not a guarantee and they have to know this. This third category is by far the worst and it is the one I fear has entrenched itself. I conclude therefore that the three individuals mentioned below by virtue of their positions are the chief contributors to or enablers continuing the problem.

I sincerely hope that someone in authority over them thinks about what this trio and more importantly what this corporate mindset they represent has cost Siemens in the last three or four years since Dassault has begun self-immolation of SW. Gentleman, if you read this can you dispute the minimum lost potential numbers I bring up below? Further do you think in this day and time you could have used this extra $125,000,000.00+ somewhere like perhaps on your balance sheet? Your own people are stabbing you in the back.

On to the post as written on 1-29-14

Heading into this SWW 2014 convention provides opportunity for those with the ability to plan ahead. Sadly this does not appear to be the case with some companies and so I have some questions for David “Moe” Taylor, Chris “Curly” Kelley and Jeff “Larry” Nercesian, Siemens Publicity, Marketing and Social Media wonks and covert agents of SMOTHER. What sort of plans if any have you made to capitalize on this marvelous opportunity Dassault has given you once again? Do you intend as the heavyweight Siemens PR Marketing and Publicity tag team champions to win once again by just not showing up to defend the belt? How many years has it been now since Dassault has decided to initiate their self destruct program and you refusing to take advantage of it? I count three years of golden opportunities that can’t be recaptured and were pretty much wasted. Do you have somewhere in your cloistered little world views any desire to be victorious or do you intend to just sit on your rears and do nothing again? Perhaps Siemens could just fire you all and come out ahead. Heaven only knows that as far as I am concerned not having your three spots filled with the caliber of talent you seem to deliver would be more beneficial than having cash sucking pot holes in the way of progress on the road to victory for yet another year and squandered opportunity.

I am glad you asked, since I know you really care about my opinion, just what got Dave wound up again today. Well check this out.

Autodesk shrewd marketing

Then read this if your collective Attention Deficit Disorders will let you get through the whole article.

http://solidsmack.com/cad-design-news/need-know-solidworks-mechanical-conceptual-future-solidworks/

How is it that Autodesk has all those yummy ads there at just the right time? Some people can evidently figure out there are some opportunities here. Now read all the comments and count how many different programs are mentioned as of 1-29 at 10:43 PM. How is it that Solid Edge is not counted in this number?

I probably will never talk in quite these hostile terms again about marketing and publicity for Siemens but today I am mad. You long-term grossly incompetent individuals appear to once again have a greater desire for familiar failure you have grown accustomed to as long-term employees than a desire to achieve victory over your competitors. Hey wait a minute, you do realize that Dassault IS your competitor don’t you??

And you Mr Kelley have today a post about Wanna. Mr esteemed Senior Director of Online Marketing and Customer Advocacy Kelly I am trying to figure out what wanna really means in your world. Don’t wanna win, don’t wanna do my job, do wanna get my paycheck. Could you please tell me why once again after years of this nonsense and considering your position the apparent policy is to pursue failure once again? Is it because you wanna it this way?

All three of you by your job titles are failures as far as I am concerned. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that SE should have tens of thousands of additional subscribers if people like you just did what you were paid to do competently. Are you holdovers from the esteemed school of Bruce Boes Marketing theories? I am beginning to wonder if instead you were the clowns that thought up that whole Velocity mess. And I don’t want to hear any self exonerating defense offered about rules and regulations and finger-pointing bleats about why things can’t be done. I heard enough of that garbage from that scared of his own shadow Cubical Guy in Huntsville. He might not be in a position to correct things BUT the three of you are. If you have the intelligence to discern that things are not right and you do not fight to make it right you are on the side of WRONG. I am not sure you three even realize this though and I struggle to try to fathom just what goes through your minds and just what you think is proper and sufficient to capably fullfill your job requirements.

By my math you all are in large part responsible for the loss to Siemens of way over $100,000,000.00 in sales volume. Figure $5,000.00 as a nice even round number that is not the cheapest but certainly far from the most expensive seat of SE times 20,000 yields 100M. Now add to this one years maintenance of say 20,000 x $1,250.00 brings the total to $125,000,000.00 lost sales your incompetence has contributed to Siemens bottom line. And of course we are not getting into any ancillary sales that typically would accompany this. Lets say that 5000 SE users decide to get Camworks. Retail on my particular flavor was $13,500.00 and would be pretty typical. I come up with a grand total of $125,000,000.00 that your Marketing and Publicity and Social media has cost Siemens and some part of an additional $67,500,000.00 from Camworks and you Larry, Curly and Moe by your titles are right square in the positions that have caused this abject failure to produce. Yes I know that technically Camworks is not a Siemens product but you benefit through association financially I just don’t know how much. The few times I have brought this up with Siemens people I am dissed with HEY that’s not OUR product. Are you people to stupid to see the community of aps connection and to dumb to see how it has benefited Solid Works over the years? CAMWorks is guilty of poor marketing too but I tend to think this may be because they stretched a little past their limit to produce CW4SE and they can’t do much right now. This clearly is not Siemens problem.

I think it is worthwhile to put these numbers out there. They are not fantasy numbers and I think it is worthwhile to quantify the damage you have helped to create. I wanna see something happen this year besides another last-minute frenzy to get half-baked short-lived crap done for the University and then the rest of the year slides into oblivion AGAIN.

Let me ask you three something. Do you think that the apathetic user base and community just might stem in part from no expectations of worthwhile things from you guys? We users in general love the software itself but outside of that you give us nothing to rally around or be proud of. Where users have been shown something real like the University they have responded. Somehow I have to think this was taken out of your hands and that is why it works. And you bring this loser attitude to sales and marketing and we see how well that has worked. Way to go wannabes. There, another kind of wanna.

PS, by the way since you may not grok this I will fill you in on something. This extra 125M+ was the icing on the cake that you all helped Siemens to lose because there were no additional developmental costs involved here. Just an ad and promotion budget you either would not fight for or were too incompetent to demonstrate the value of or unable to develop a cogent strategy for marketing SE.

Wannabes, another kind of wanna for sure.

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HEY Three Stooges of Siemens Failed marketing and Publicity, Check This Out!!

Posted on February 7, 2014 | 6 comments

An article today I am reading today http://den-media.com/portal/wts/cgmcgbbe8sibbsyAqcksD86ckBkrAwa has jelled some thoughts in my mind. While I despise the idea that Carl Bass and Autodesk want to establish a feudal overlord cloud kingdom I am really coming to admire their plan for doing so. If they reconsider this cloud only paradigm they will probably be the powerhouse that will take the SolidWorks throne in the future and not Solid Edge. I hate to say this but this referenced article has me thinking hard here about the possibility for the first time that Solid Edge might not be the heir.

It has been a struggle for SE for years under UGS and now Siemens with gosh awful marketing and publicity. Thanks Larry, Curly and Moe and I hope you know the grace period you have been given for three years with Dassault screw-ups now has to be shared with Autodesk. Because of your corporate paralysis and your inability to do anything worthwhile in a major way for YEARS I truly believe that you have allowed a hungry, organized and totally capable rival to in a very short time threaten to take the place that should have been yours. And Carl Bass won’t have much trouble whipping you sorry individuals most thoroughly when it comes to appealing to new customers in spite of the cloud he proposes. I sit here today just fuming and it is hard to describe the total and complete contempt I feel for a company that is so ossified and preserves such incompetents and failed policies with such vigor. I really wish someone would buy Solid edge out from Siemens hands at this point in time if this is all the opportunity you three stooges ever care to give them. This brilliant software deserves much more than you can deliver.

Here is why I grow increasingly mad with this situation and it is not just because of a couple of ads. It is because I see a well conceived plan being made and executed and absolutely no coherent plan from Siemens to counteract it. Frightful thoughts keep creeping in to my mind that the three stooges may not even discern this is happening or worse even care.

First off MCAD is just design stuff and if you do not have a method to build these designs by you are incomplete. This has been one of the problems with SE forever and the closest they have ever come to software that can’t go away from them is NX Cam Express. OK look I am thrilled that CAMWorks is now integrated with SE and I have bought into it. But deep down inside with all the acquisitions going on this last year and a half I wonder when Autodesk will buy this too and then I will be in the same boat as HSMWorks and Delcam users. I believe that Autodesk has totally bought into this end to end idea and further I think Carl Bass himself designs and builds and he gets the connection. And unlike Siemens Stooges he cares and he has a plan.

This is what I see. If I were Carl and just twiddling my thumbs one day idly dreaming of beating my rivals, I bet he does that you know, I might decide to take SolidWorks place in the market. It is pretty clear that Solid Edge is a good product but Siemens has no clue on aggressively marketing what they have. And you know when you go toe to toe with Siemens, a company that has a hard time getting past meetings to plan on meetings and retains numerous people who specialize in ways to say no, action will win the day. So what to do,,,, Hmmmmmm,,, I know, lets create a cohesive complete rival ecosystem and clean everyone’s clock.

First we will buy HSMWorks. It is a powerful program that has good tool paths, is really quick and easy to learn and allows you to generate toolpaths the way most shops I know prefer to do so with a great logical intuitive GUI. And it is attached to our arch rival. Now that you have bought this no one can take it from you and you can plan however you want. You have a job shop with gobs of different parts each day and don’t want to fool around with complicated Tech Data Bases this is it. In the mean time you continue the 2.5 axis FREE machining package that now is entering into its second+ year and also port it over to inventor where you do the same. I know this level of functionality in Surfcam for instance is about $4,500.00. They aren’t giving away cheap crummy junk here.And you treat the old SW users right and with respect and defuse all the bad vibes the takeover caused. My friends shop was given two years free maintenance for HSMWorks to defray the cost of him having to get a full seat of SW AND they gave him a really serious discount on a second seat just for the cost of maintenance basically. You are now creating loyalty from HSM users and giving them exposure to your 3D offerings via things like Fusion 360. No this is not a capable midrange MCAD program but it gets you in their minds eyes and you are going to improve it.

Now lets tackle the thorny problem of 3D design. I know Inventor is not what will draw many to my company so what do I do now? OK, Delcam has a pretty good modeller out there and a really stellar suite of manufacturing products. As a matter of fact when it comes down to strictly making things I think Delcam has everyone beat for variety of strategies from machine probing to 5axis dental implants to you name it. If it has to do with measuring, verifying or various machining strategies overall they can’t be beat. Single things out there like Volumill are better than Delcams HSM stuff but overall no one beats them. I think I will buy them to. You know what says Carl, I really like this ownership thing and the control it brings me. Hmmm, Should I buy Geometric to? Hey Mabel, set a meeting up for me with Mr Big at Geometric for next month. I need to get the ball rolling there to.

So now Carl has all the pieces needed to assemble a cohesive and complete manufacturing from design cradle to build out grave ecosystem that will appeal to huge numbers of people over time above and beyond the ones he has purchased. And they are treating those who have been bought out right from users to VAR’s as far as I can see so in this case so far the buyout company looks to be on track not to run old customers off. And he solves the stigma of only having Inventor to offer to MCAD prospects. I see all these buyouts and for the first time I am beginning to reconsider the idea that they mean to force everyone to the cloud. I think there might be a line of demarcation here and they will end up offering most to autonomous and cloud customers because way to much proprietary manufacturing information goes along with the Delcam purchases and many of them will not go to the cloud. I don’t think Carl intends to just throw them out. But if he does then the Autodesk plan of conquest will be short-lived and they wont do it and SE wins then in spite of gross Siemens marketing and PR ineptitude..

And talk about planing for the future! I admire the way they have slipped their product into the Superbowl in such a clever fashion where a huge audience will in many cases for perhaps the first time see what design and analysis software is. Kids in college, parents writing checks for kids in college, tech schools wanting to teach programs people have been inspired to learn. Junior on the sofa in grade school watching this with his Dad will in many cases remember this years later. You know darned well things like this have affected every one of us. And what name will they remember? Why Autodesk of course. I think they are slick to buy time ahead of time in anticipation of the SWW2014 debacle for things like Josh Mings post. I know I have not seen most of what Autodesk is doing so I have no idea how pervasive what they are doing is. I am going to bet that when they get the 3D ball rolling in a big way they are not going to give out such chintzy inducements to get new customers away from SW and SE as has been the norm at SW and SE for some time now. I still can’t figure out how I could buy Solid Edge Classic for basically $3,000.00 five years ago and no one has been able to since that promotion ran out. It’s like there is a life time limit of once for SE to be really hungry for SW users. Is SE going to profit from this since I will probably be with them for 15 or 20 years unless they get stupid? Autodesk will understand this and eat everyone’s lunch at SE and SW. I have to think this football thing is a sign of things to come. Carl has a plan and he is visionary unlike Bernard Charles who is delusionary and Siemens Stooges pervasive incompetence. He is not afraid to step out and do it. Siemens has studies and navel gazing and circular logic sessions. Talk about making more money you Siemens big wheels, get rid of this albatross of unproductive incessant meetings and those that create them so they don’t have to actually produce something or heaven forbid make a decision and I bet your bottom line would be noticeably better.

The big tech school on the north side of Nashville teaches SW, Autocad and Featurecam and they have a lot of students. I bet they may be teaching Powershape and or Inventor soon to but nope, not SE. Losers.

The other serious thing here for SE and SW in particular with their track record of vaporware is the speed with which Autodesk seems to be creating viable test beds that actually work and they don’t hide behind a shroud of secrecy when they do it. They have had a history I’ve been told of buying things and taking bits out to use in poor integrations and letting old programs die. I am not so sure this is going to happen this time.

Carl Bass, I despise this cloud thing you espouse and I think you lie about the clouds capabilities but I truly admire someone with a coherent plan who steps up to the bat. I watch with admiration as you step by step make plans to conquer your rivals in ways they seem to be in able to respond to.

For the first time I am seriously considering the idea that the stupid side of Siemens is going to be what defeats Siemens and this infuriates me.

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Chris Kelley and Jeff Nercesian, Are They the Reason for Abject SE Marketing Failure?

Posted on February 7, 2014 | 4 comments

First off as we see another year pass I see a continued failure to communicate the Solid Edge message effectively. There are individuals who are ostensibly in charge of this and I will say the following two by their job titles are most responsible for the current problems and in particular the one I am going to reflect upon today.

Just so there is no doubt in anyone’s mind in my opinion they are they are Chris Kelley, Senior Director of Online Marketing and Customer Advocacy; (and in my opinion the one responsible for the industries worst websites as proven in one of my earlier posts) and Jeff Nercesian, Senior Director of Campaign and Content Strategy. I have nothing but utter contempt for how these job categories they fill, by virtue of the checks they get, delivers so little of worth that I can see. I invite any of these marketing and PR people I talk about to come here and defend what they do. I would really like to hear their justifications for why nothing ever moves forward while whole departments of people suck up money and produce so little.

YouTube is perhaps the most powerful training and communicating tool out there for anything from why does your laptop overheat to how do you machine a part in a CAM program. It is all there to a larger degree than anywhere else and the price is right for viewers. The price is also right for those who want to get their videos in the public eye as their cost is free to.The very first place I recommend people to go to for information that has no tech support hours limitations or “training” price tags is YouTube. One of the remarkable things about YouTube videos in the area of CAD CAM is the idea that people just like you, fellow users in many cases, are the ones doing the content. A little rough around the edges perhaps and I know in my case there are times where after about the twentieth try for perfection I am not going to do it again and you get what you get warts and all. I just don’t leave big ugly warts in there. But my point is that I and many others do this from a users perspective and I have to believe that this is different in significant ways from a polished professional VAR or Corporate video. We tend to bring things up that these slick guys don’t because we don’t assume you have knowledge you don’t have.

One of the new features in SE ST6 was the inclusion of a video tool that would allow you to create a video of what you are doing in SE and then upload it to YouTube. I figured it would not be a popular tool initially but one that would see use by enough users to kick something off. Lets face it, the SE community is still barely in existence outside of the annual Universities and the regional Summits. It never gets enough sustained watering and concentrated fertilization for it to fly. I thought this YouTube video idea could be a contributing factor towards the idea of community but then I am not in charge.

This is where the consummate idea killers mentioned above come in. This is also a perfect example of how Siemens or SE or whoever beyond these two can take a good idea and wring all the goodness out of it and then stand there and be proud of what they have done. So we have this video feature, this wonderful tool of communication and community building and it just sits there. All the money and time spent to get this far and these people can’t see that without the final piece they might as well have thrown their money away. You see you can build something but if no one comes was it worth it? These sterile minded corporate petri dish culture meeting infested do nothing but talk types never have figured out the rest of the job. The user centric part that for instance Mr Super Social Media Kelly ought to understand. You need to create interest. OK Chris I repeat since I know once is not enough that YOU NEED TO CREATE INTEREST! Create it as in make it happen as in do something right as in stop talking and start doing.

If it were me I would announce that there are various levels of awards up to free transportation and attendance and your minute of fame as best contributing Video Author for the year at each University. I would give a few students and professional users a years worth of maintainance or equivalent gift card if the seat they use is not theirs. But you get my idea. I would offer incentives both cash and status for these and kickstart this. And this would happen every year and be perhaps part of an award ceremony or whatever where community minded contributors of various types would be recognized. Just like SW does and they have proven these things to be solid seat count builders. This pair I guess figure you wave a magic wand once and go away. Truthfully it is worse than that. What I think happened is these guys did something all the while resenting having to actually have to do something and as soon as they can they get out of any involvement with it they do so. How else can I explain the perplexing total lack of followup on a good idea to MAKE SURE it works by people who brag about being in touch with users and what makes them tick. And the job titles this pair have say exactly that and so I say this.

You two have taken a great idea and once again with the PR boost of SEU2013 announcing it you have done your best to ignore it and kill it. Do either of you have any desire to be on a victorious team or is it your goal to draw a paycheck with the least possible amount of effort? Do either of you desire to have pride in work well done from concept to finish line or is this type of stuff something forced upon you by evil bosses who somehow thought you were supposed to actually competently do things for your wages without having a baby sitter or chastising parent looking over your shoulder at all times. I really think of you people this way because I have seen the pattern of panic for three years now leading up to SEU and then the sighs of relief as it passes and you all think you are off the productivity hook for another nine months. You people are completely clueless about the level of enthusiasm required for your job positions and I can say so with confidence this is the way you like it. Enthusiasm requires work and dedication and manifests itself with well laid plans and follow throughs that never rest until the goals are met or exceeded. You guys run for the water cooler as soon as you can. Always reasons why things can’t be done and never a determination to make it happen.

I am of the opinion that it is too late to salvage some of these employees. Time is running out for easy SE market share conquests and these quintessential bureaucrats have squandered it. For too many years they have been trained by virtue of getting paid that what they do has been OK. I don’t think they are capable of promoting users, the community or Solid Edge and since that is their job description, and they refuse to do so, I think it is time to start letting some dead wood go. These people can’t grasp that they are hurting every part of the SE effort and truly the bottom line by I figure well over $125M in easily derived lost sales potential. I am being to kind here. It is not a matter of not grasping. They are adults who make choices and they choose the cold clammy strangling hands of evasion of duty by smothering it all in meetings where every good thing can be killed with persistence and paychecks still obtained.

I can only conclude that they choose this mediocre outcome because they like this outcome and they evidently fight to preserve this outcome because nothing ever seemingly changes. Corporate welfare I guess for those who wont work or can’t work or are incapable of working. Siemens/SE, if you won’t fire these guys can you at least move them sideways into a closet somewhere where they can’t do all this damage? Let them take their name tags but not their people and put them in isolation before they cost you many more millions.

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Dell Shows Appreciation for Autodesk and Dassault Cloud Efforts

Posted on January 24, 2014 | 10 comments

I like to look at workstations even if I am not in the market for one. You never know when some new deal will come out that compels you to reconsider. Like the new Dell M3800 and M4800 Laptops with available 15.6″ UltraSharp QHD+ (3200×1800) Wide View Anti-Glare LED-backlit screens. I think I would like to see one of these. But perusing the site today led to some other not so pleasant discoveries.

It is and has been my position for a few years now ever since Dassault began its drive to force users to the cloud plantation that the CAD CAM software authoring companies that do this are duplicitous and do not have a shred of moral concern for their customers. And of course add to this now the whole line of Autodesk products and the comments from Carl Bass regarding his goals of moving it all there for Autodesk products. I don’t know if Dassault is just so incompetent that they can’t produce more than they have to showcase their efforts at tyranny. To date what has really made it to the marketplace after years of effort? And coming up at the SWW 2014 End Of Life convention supposedly the new CAD utopia of Mechanical Conceptual will be revealed in all it’s glory. Late of course and no one has seen any previews of this wonder. I have images in my mind of Charles standing there on stage, just like another individual did at the COFFES conference a while back, and being subjected to software or cloud failure to perform as touted. This to an audience that did not ask for their yearly subscription monies to be abrogated to such a thing they neither asked for nor wanted. This has all been mentioned before but it bears repeating because it is a direct indicator of the competence of Dassault to create a new paradigm and it is also a multi-year indicator of their contempt for customers futures that they would be willing to put those who would continue to use Dassault products at risk.

Autodesk has come further in a much shorter time than Dassault based upon products that are actually out there and available for beta testers and pretty much whom so ever is interested can be one. Unlike the sworn to secrecy small group of beta selectees Dassault has. So Autodesk is making an honest effort to show beforehand what they are producing and how it will work. In addition they are purchasing relevant programs essential to CAD and CAM creation like HSMWorks and Delcam which may give them critical mass for forcing enough people into the cloud that they will succeed in this effort. I give kudos to Carl Bass and Autodesk for being upfront about their goals and transparent about what they are doing. Based upon this if I had to make a choice between Dassault and Autodesk for the cloud I would choose Autodesk in a heart beat. Their problem is that albatross Inventor which from all I hear is the bottom of the barrel in midrange MCAD.

But the two big things both of these companies are guilty of is A, they know what they propose to do to you can’t be made secure so no guarantees of security and no indemnification for you the buyer and B, they NEVER talk about all the additional costs you will incur here over time above what you are currently spending. I would also add that neither will guarantee you that you will never become data hostages to them. Neither have done so and they are not intending to do so. You have to become chattel for all this to pay off for them.

Dell is going to help establish the nature of the fraud of the cloud claims to cheaper better faster multi-unlimited core compute power no IT staff auto-updating cloud computing Nirvana. Dell has a new product suite out there for the cloud. I guess they figure either enough companies will be forced into the cloud by people like Dassault and Autodesk that there will be a market for cloud security. Maybe they figure that all this cloud junk is going to appeal to enough C-Suite types who figure it sounds good and all they have to do is wave a magic cloud wand at their computing infrastructure and all will be well as they fire tons of staff and save gobs of money. (As an aside here heaven only knows MBA CPA C-Suite types have not been known for prudent long-term planning beyond 90 day stock market manipulation time frames. Kind of like these idiots fire all their American workers and move jobs to China and then lobby Congress for illegals to be allowed to replace American citizen labor. And then they have the unmitigated gall to complain of dwindling sales here as people run out of money. Gosh, just when they thought they had invented a new way where actions would not produce negative reactions and now no one has money to buy their stuff. I have such utter contempt for these short-sighted idiots that it is hard for me to adequately describe it. Unless manufacturing is brought back to the USA by a different class of manager we will become has beens. You can’t be a prosperous large middle class world power without manufacturing. Something this guy Henry Ford understood so well and MBA CPA pillage and plunder morons have no clue of.) Dells new offering is called Sonic Wall.

Never let it be said that Dell marketing can’t speak tongue in cheek and my favorite of their new offerings is, I kid you not, the “SonicWALL NSA 220”. No double entendre implied intent there I am sure and the NSA stands for Network Security Appliance. http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/sonicwall-nsa-series/pd?oc=swnas220&model_id=sonicwall-nsa-series

Here is further info on this family of devices and services.
http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/secure/acq-sonicwall

Dell is telling all of you who care to think about what is happening that the internet is fraught with danger and that companies like Dassault and Autodesk are perpetrating huge risks on you the more you have to use the web for critical data in your business. Not that you would ever be in jeapordy of losing irreplacable IP on-line right? Just ask to see the indemnification and guarantees of security from Dassault and Autodesk as proof of their confidence in their own products.

No costs added to you dear customer is our Dassault Autodesk cloud pledge. So lets see here. I want to buy a Dell Precision T3610 with decent ram and graphics that would cover most users. But look at the new options. This NSA whiz bang thing adds 60% to the cost of the workstation.

Sonic Wall Dell cost for t3610

Then you have another category of Dell Cloud Clients.

Dell Cloud clients

If you dear reader care to look around you will find a lot of evidence of ancillary costs that will be incurred in so many ways if you are ever foolish enough to relinquish your destiny and control to those who would demand you work on the cloud for your business. Specifically here I am addressing primarily CAD and CAM users. This class of individuals and companies who can never be made whole from security breaches unlike financial transactions where damage is finite and amounts provable and reimbursements occur. How do you calculate the damages from a product that you have spent three years developing only to see your IP being manufactured by a country like China before you released it yourself? I can see Dassault and Autodesk trotting out their weasel words lawyers who would then say things like “Your Honor, there is no proven track record of sales by Company X for them to base their claims of damages on” in a case like this. This is the degree of honesty I think cloud perpetrators bring to the table and then want you to sit still for it. “And further your Honor this company signed an agreement not to hold us liable for anything as a condition of use and we move for dismissal”. And it will be dismissed because the lawyer weasel words are there and you did sign on.

So as the SWW 2013 EOL convention nears I think it is appropriate to consider the honesty and integrity of Dassault and the individuals that will be presenting the future of Dassault and SW to the attendees. I expect a lot of people to leave there contemplating where they are going to go to avoid this thankless future that Charles is going to present to them.

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Dassault 3DExerience, You have to buy it to find out WHAT’S IN IT

Posted on January 21, 2014 | 2 comments

First off I want you to read this. http://www.upfrontezine.com/2014/upf-803.htm Ralph has some things to say about Dassault and this will affect SW. I think it is appropriate to talk about the future of SW users in light of what is going on.

I doubt any of you forget the utter duplicity and treachery of Nancy Pelosi stating that you have to vote for Obamacare to find out what is in it. I find it pretty staggering though that a corporation like Dassault would pull the same stunt. But here you are and after this whole conference was done no one knew details nor what the costs would be. Charles can’t tell you because either A, it is so bad they are still figuring out how to finagle you into it or B, they have yet to put the pieces of the puzzle together and how do you price something when you don’t know what will be in it. Neither option inspires much confidence. Companies operate with yearly and longer budgets and I highly doubt they are going to be willing to say to Dassault just send us a bill when you figure it out and whatever it is we are good with it.

There are so many ambiguities in his comments that my jaw was just left on the table and not soon drawn back up to proper position. Whole futures are being shot down and security is not adequately addressed nor even a hint of Dassault guarantees that this will be secure with indemnification for customers as proof of their confidence in their own product. And the utter fraud of them even trying to guarantee throughput FOR THE WORLD except China. Well he said they would monitor everything whatever the heck that means. Maybe they won’t guarantee you connectivity but they will give you a report on how rotten it all is so that when you sit there and stew over your bad throughput and the unproductive days that result they can confirm your 3DExperience. I suppose this would be another one of their “modules” they will charge you for. I find this so absurd that words escape me to properly describe this delusional idiocy. Promises and glowing reports on things for which they absolutely refuse to release any real world studies to prove actual work environment efficacy.

And it will all be out of your hands to so be prepared to feel the love when the latest update fails and you can’t do squat about it. There are just so many things wrong here. I am not going through any more of this list because I know you readers who peruse this article from Ralph are going to come up with a big list of fail items on your own. But the arrogance of Charles to even say these things like his SW users are too dumb to figure it out.

The philosophy of the company that you choose to do business with is important to your survival, your profit and your future. You have years of legacy data and signed confidentiality agreements and moving anywhere is a problem in so many ways. So most of us think long and hard before selecting a software company to deal with. But is this a really true statement when SW is the program under consideration? It was years ago when it was usurping ProE. But when they proved themselves over time and they became so large most did not put them through this selection metric anymore. SW was the gorilla and ubiquitous in many places and why would anyone look any further was the thought of most new customers I would say. Of course many of those who created this paradigm have left or they were shoved out because they refused to conform to a new way they felt was not going to work.

“We have changed in two years the company, from being technical-oriented to business-oriented,” explained ceo Bernard Charles.”

OK SW users this is where the rubber hits the road for you guys and you are now at the cross roads and your time to vacillate about the fantasy of SW as you knew it being there indefinitely is over. I interpret this statement to mean that the technical reason for a technical design program like SW to exist is going to be held hostage to some sort of business oriented ecosphere which is supposed to be rolled out this month. Curiously this is the same month that SWW 2014 happens and not so long after Biasotti has left the company adding to the long list of departed talent. And again no one really knows what this thing is they just hear PR jargon and word mash ups but no beef in the burger. No building blocks, no examples that relate to real world users. Just hyperbole. I think you are a bit foolish if you are ignoring all this and I fully expect SWW2014 is going to bring a serious jolt of SW End of Life reality to many. I am truly grateful to be an observer of this and not a participant.

It was not on my radar when I bought Solid Edge five years ago to consider things like this. I was like many except I did go through a more thorough selection process than most and arrived at what worked best for me after research. I did not buy something just because it had the largest presence in mid range MCAD. But watching the sorry saga of mistreatment of SW users for the last few years now makes this a very serious consideration in what I will use. Fortunately at this time as Ralph mentions Siemens and SE have no intention of morphing their responsibility to you as a customer to produce efficiently and to be able to plan long-term without software worries. I know a lot of these guys and sometimes I sit here and wonder how this could be but I do. I see and hear absolutely NOTHING that alarms me from Siemens or SE.

Some of the things they do in marketing make me mad and I think they have three near total incompetents in charge of it but the technical side of the program is focused on geometry creation and empowering users to do so in ever better ways and not on some nebulous cloud ecosphere fantasm like Dassault is forcing upon its users. I have no serious complaints about the program and expect to be happily able to stay here for the next ten years or so.

By the way speaking about marketing and publicity I want to take a moment to say something about John Fox. I used to think he was the source of these advertising and publicity problems but have concluded recently he is not. This is my public apology to him but sometimes it is hard to figure out who is to blame. I have concluded that there are some individuals in Siemens that are total roadblocks to progress and you can read about them here. https://solidedging.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/marketing-and-publicity-for-siemens-plm-software-fifth-semi-annual-update/ They deserve to be slapped on the way by whenever I can do so and I intend to do so. They are monuments to the idea that entrenched useless corporate bureaucrats can and do exist and whose apparent main skills are navel gazing and circular logic and to survive and get paid to be hindrances to progress. What I don’t understand is why some big shot from Siemens does not grok this and correct a problem that prevents greater profitability.

In any case tune in to the SWW2014 End Of Life convention for more updates from Dassault and the enlightened Mr Charles the Mad French Man as he perfects his ability to speak many words and say nothing concrete.

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If You Can’t Innovate Obfuscate

Posted on January 13, 2014 | 4 comments

What prompted this post was reading today about conjecture over Windows 9. My eyes kind of rolled back in my head at the title but I had a look anyway before they rolled back to far. Part of the article was conjecture on what MS would have to offer to get people to continue to spend gobs of cash with them. What would they have to offer? Indeed considering the state of affairs in most companies what is there to offer that buyers would VOLUNTARILY spend cash on.

I am not a code writer nor am I an expert OS tweeker. So what appears to me is what appears to the vast majority of all users I would imagine. And what appears to me is innovation stagnation. Other than this execrable ribbon bar monitor real estate hog what has MS really done for some time now? And the same for über cash cow MS Office. Tweaking around the edges it seems to me without anything really profound or new. So what you do in these cases is change the wrapper and call it new. Drum roll for the ribbon bar which I still see no reason for and which was a PITA in the CAD field to all I spoke to.So we have to relearn how to do the same things all over again for no purpose. Think about it, did this ribbon bar paradigm bring anything to you except the consumption of your time to learn new so MS could claim innovation? And WIN 8 with all those cool new hand gestures. I have had a Dell M6700 for a while now with the touch screen and quite frankly with the option to work however it pleases me I hardly ever use gestures. But then I am working with mine and not playing or showing friends how cool it is to make things zip around without a mouse. So we have the New Big Deal for Win 8, an environment designed for touch screens. The unparalleled thrill of having a 24″ smart phone and how cool is that? Now this window dressing did not bring anything of value to most users so MS had to relent and change things so you could work the way you used to. I think that is conclusive proof that the innovation ceiling has been reached doing things the same old way. Change for the sake of change again. I for one am not going to adopt Win 8. I know Win 7 is not “optimized” for touch screens but I see enough of the functionality to know this is not for me.

Now a word about tech Neanderthals. This is about the time you cutting edge super wonders chime in with how I am a foot-dragging Neanderthal who just does not appreciate new. I dare say that out of my own pocket in the last couple of years I have spent far more than most of you on innovation and buying into more productive ways of doing things both mechanically and in software. I search and look for innovations and better ways and I am an early adopter when it makes sense to do so. The very first time I saw direct editing in SE before ST1 was released was enough to convince me this was powerful in so many ways that I could not afford to do without it. It took until ST3 before what I saw became user-friendly reality but this was new for the sake of users and not new for the sake of new. It was not new window dressing meant to gull the unknowing or naive into coughing up the dough. Now I know that the idea of direct editing has been around for some time but how to make it work really well and with power and precision and wrap it up into a user-friendly package? Plus it required a certain amount of compute capabilities which were not here until recently, or so I have been told. I looked at Ironcad years before I had a look at SE ST. Ahead of its time but it just never clicked with me like the very first time I saw ST. I assume there are serious limitations with it and that is why it has never gained much market share. The idea was sure interesting though. I think Direct Editing is the last powerful thing that can be done for CAD as we know it and it was the last unused innovation arrow that will hit the bullseye for CAD. Until there is a new paradigm for how shapes and data are created and at the age of 60 I don’t expect to see it.

SW has been moribund for years now and the parent company has run into both technical and philosophical social media oriented barricades they may not be able to surmount. SW World 2014 End of Life convention is going to be full of smoke and mirrors. Don’t look at the man behind the curtain look over here. Look at our shiny new old CGM kernel stuff we have for you because we can’t do it with parasolids. So lets put an, ahem, “CAD Ribbon Bar” or “The power of 3DExperience Social Engineering Group Think Power of Cloud Compute” monikers on our stuff and call it cool to hide the fact we have run out of ideas and or talent.

Adobe has not brought about much that I can see that is remarkably better than what has been out there from them for years. Incremental improvements. New improvements of mediocre import they make available to cloud buyers only is all I see.

Autodesk has not been much of an innovator either but they have been a prolific buyer of talent and market share and they do have a plan. And it is the same plan as all the above companies have and it is the same common thread that ties them all together and brings me to my main premise for this post.

When you run out of things people will voluntarily buy, when you run out of true innovations and you can no longer sell yourself on provable new benefits and features to your buying market what is left? Why the Cloud of course. It is the last refuge of those who see that their existing customers could do quite well with permanent licenses and not send you another dime for years and years because what they already have bought does everything they need. The closest thing to a new way out there in CAD right now is SE. It is not coincidence that they are the only major CAD company that is not pushing you into the cloud. They are going to draw customers from the existing pretty much static sized CAD customer market from their competitors because they are the only ones doing really good stuff right now.

Autodesk is my favorite set of bald-faced liars. They stand there and look you in the eye and babble about unlimited compute power when you are using cad and cam programs that have core limits. And yes they do on the cloud too so you just go ahead and slurp that Kool-Aid these guys serve up. Throw in all the connectivity problems and the additional layers of software and software problems that they are going to heap on this and add in no ability to guarantee security and just where is the compelling reason we all should voluntarily buy into this junk?

So scratch the voluntary cash transfers and move on to pay to play. THIS is the new innovation which of course accrues benefits to those who created it and not buyers and it is the last resort of companies that fear a level competitive playing field and who have run out of new things to sell their customers. I believe this whole cloud thing is solely about digging into your pockets. There is a reason why none of these companies have been able to present proof of concept at this time for complex cad creation on-line. Yes I know there are some things out there in controlled laboratory condition dog and pony land but I have yet to see a typical connectivity situation proved out and a concise list of all expenses from every angle that typical users are going to have to pay created. In other words no proof it works better and saves you time and money. Remember, this is from the same group of people who can’t bring enough solid innovation to you to sell their stuff on its own merits. Nor is there any indication they intend to maintain loss leader costs on their programs with a guarantee of time duration for them because the sky is the limit as soon as they figure they can get away with it.

I figure that in this time of fiscal austerity sub rates are dropping for many software companies or they see them dropping in the future. Now one of the chief weapons companies have had over time is user lock-in. Traditionally this has been accomplished with proprietary ways of saving and using data that makes it hard to go elsewhere with it and fully use it. And the expense of new programs and training add to this. Today this is not enough security and thus the creation of a chattel instead of a customer market. Or so they hope. Make your customers work under the above conditions and then add to that the forced archival of their intellectual property and then also make them pay to use it forever and withhold access to their data if they do not pay. The destruction of permanent seats will be a key part of this if these guys can get away with it. There is nothing benign here and it is all about heaping on costs to a captive market in ways that will guarantee and grow profits for all involved except YOU the customer. It is why none of these guys layout with proof the benefits to you. What true proof can liars bring to the table anyway? Remember the fraud of unlimited data forever for iPhones utilized as incentive to get people there? Remember what happened to costs when a certain critical market size was reached?

So remember the rules of engagement for the CPA MBA attitude of corporations that figure earning your business is too hard. If you can’t innovate obfuscate. Tune in to the latest episode of this new way as the MIRV Bernard Charles straps his iPhone and iPad on and launches for San Diego. Or check in to the latest words of feudal overlord wisdom from Carl Bass as he tells you what you are going to do instead of selling you on what you should do or want to do.

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Solid Edge Direct Editing, Dogbone Die Assembly + User Community Comments

Posted on January 7, 2014 | 9 comments

Here is a part that slipped through the cracks of QA which happens when everyone is in a hurry. This was a panic order and after delivery my customer made mention of a little “ridge” on the inside of the cavities. He said it was not problem and it worked fine so we left it there. Time passes and I decided to have a look at it last week and see what he was talking about. There was more than one problem and in the following video I will show how easy it is to fix these problems in Solid Edge.

Now there are a couple of things I would like to point out here. Synchronous editing in SE is not at all like direct editing or “move face” in SolidWorks. Throughout the edits I will do in SE there are not any additions to the Pathfinder or “history tree”. When changing existing features the part complexity does not change. Also the file sizes change very little and they are not cumulative adding steps with every alteration. In addition even though features may be consumed driving sketches are not and these can be reused at any time. Of course with imported parts this is not possible and if you are worried about this I would advise you to make some sketches of features before you delete them. Once you save you can’t go back. Another option and the one I prefer best is to just save a renamed copy for use if need be.

I don’t know how “move face” would work with SolidWorks in assemblies and I have not found a video on-line that would show me. I am VERY interested if anyone knows of such a video as I would like to do a comparison between SE and SW. Please send me a link if you have one. Now in order for there to be a useful comparison the link must show the history tree in SW to allow for a direct comparison of file size and complexities.

Here are two screen captures reflecting file sizes from before and after the edits in SE. Please note the file sizes and how little change there is.
dogbone first

dogbone last

And here is the video.

I would like a word with all the Solid Edge users that may see this. Each and every one of you have something of value to contribute to the community in some way. When I post videos on how I do things I do not say it is the best way, nor the only way, it is just the way I do it. Part of my purpose in posting is to generate a community of INVOLVED people with SE. If you have a better way or a different way why don’t you contribute what you know? I am willing to post here both worthwhile comments and videos with accreditation to contributors. In addition there is an official gathering site
http://community.plm.automation.siemens.com/t5/Solid-Edge-Community-Blog/bg-p/solid-edge-news
where you can contribute and I know Matt is looking for volunteers who are willing to share their expertise. Become a FAMOUS WORLD RENOWNED Power Contributor. 😉 I even created this wonderful moniker which will accrue much prestige upon you so how can you lose? Just do it.

Now if I were Siemens I think I would be providing a little incentive here for contributors. Perhaps free attendance and transportation to SEU 2014 for the best user contributor of the year. Another worthwhile incentive might be a free years maintenance as prizes for notable contributors. Or a gift card of equivalent value for contributing employees of a company where a years free maintenance would not mean much. I bet you creative marketing types can figure some things out but don’t be tightwads. At the last user group meeting in Huntsville Saratech contributed a graphics card as a door prize just for attending. Of how much more worth is an individual who is willing to take his time to share his knowledge and show the world how users deal with CAD creation and editing? Perhaps it is time for Siemens and SE to step up to the plate and let users KNOW they value contributions to the establishment of a vibrant users community. Is there really any reason why this should not be so except that Siemens has not spent the time nor created inducements? I want to make it clear I am not trying to get these things for myself. I chose years ago to do this because I believe in the product and in the Value of community. But I know it is a rare individual who will make this type of decision based upon a goal that does not materially and directly compensate them for their time or effort. So I am asking for two things here. That any individual that feels they have productive methods or tips and tricks to consider showing all of us how you do it. And that Siemens start motivating those who would not otherwise consider contributing that they VALUE contributors. I mean you Siemens guys do don’t you? Quit being cheapskates and get on the ball.

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