Tag Archives: Synchronous Technology

As I sit here using a CAM program I have grown to despise this journey to CAM integrated with Solid Edge has been an endless journey. Geometric is working with Siemens to develop this with a partnership that was started I assume just prior to SEU2012 last June in Nashville. Bruce Wiener with Geometric was there with a cobbled together idea of what could be. Of course getting to a full blown product that has been tested and all the little “i’s” dotted and “t’s” crossed is not a simple thing so we have to wait.

Siemens is releasing a new product called “3DSync” http://secure.campaigner.com/Campaigner/Public/t.show?YaOe–H3Zq-1Sazih2 will take you to a page that will allow you to read up on it and download a free trial which is good until May 15th 2013. As a word of warning here if you have a seat of Solid Edge on your PC you can’t run this unless you set up a virtual machine through something like VMware and according to support this is not recommended.

I find the expiration of the trial interesting for a particular reason.
The principle drawback for many CAD users where Solid Edge has been concerned was not the basic capabilities of the program but the lack of an ecosphere of integrated apps. Just after the release of ST4 for the first time this became a priority for SE when a position was created solely for the purpose of creating this ecosphere. Since manufacturing is the only reason for CAD to exist it makes sense that the first long overdue major integration with SE will be CAM.

This takes me to why I find the timing of 3DSync so interesting. Now keep in mind I am just connecting dots here and I am not speaking as though I have certain knowledge but I bet I am right. For the users of HSMWorks and Camworks there is a reduced function version of Solid Works that allows you to directly use SW files in an associative fashion and to do things like feature recognition and auto-updates of geometry changes. And it allows you to do so without having to spring for a full blown seat of SW. When I was checking into HSMWorks and Camworks for example the reduced capability solids SW program was $1,000.00. I believe this is the reason for 3DSync and all this is leading up to the ST6 release this June in Cincinnati at the SEU2013. By the way, if you are a Solid Edge user or just interested in seeing what Solid Edge and the user community is all about it would benefit you to be there.

I see indications in the questions being asked of users by Dan Staples and Karsten Newbury on the Solid Edge BBS forums that there are a number of things to be included in ST6 that will make it the most powerful release of any of the ST series and I would include even the first one. By the way, for those of you accustomed to the idea that the leadership of a company never spends time interacting with users because that is how your CAD authoring company treats you. That is not the way it is with Solid Edge and the leadership here actively interacts in meaningful ways with users that helps to drive what is in the final product.

The reason I say ST6 will be the most powerful release is because while ST1 saw the advent of a new way of modeling ST6 will be a mature product that will among other things include powerful surfacing for all of you that hold this single thing out as the reason SW is better. ST6 will also see the rollout of actual products integrated with Solid Edge to the point where for the first time you will be able to completely design and manufacture products without ever having to leave the GUI you are familiar with in Solid Edge.

I waited impatiently for this point in time for Solid Edge and the more I find out and the more I see reading between the lines this will be a very beneficial year for SE users.
Look folks, Autodesk is going cloud stupid, Dassault is going berserk with experience insanity + cloud stuff they have yet to make work + the joy of kernel change. Bass and Bernard are telling you what you will get like it or not and if you don’t agree you are, well you are just backwards looking and un-enlightened and need to be educated as to what you should like. Siemens, SE, Karsten Newbury and Dan Staples are on the other hand looking to put useful geometry creation and manufacturing into your shop without the cloud nonsense and top down edicts.

I can honestly say I am glad to be here and that says a lot in this day and time.

There are some huge fundamental changes that are happening in the CAD world right now and it would behoove anyone who uses a CAD program to make a living to start paying attention. Look, the I don’t care everything is alright your just crazy for thinking SolidWorks (and perhaps others too for differing reasons) is going away or changing into something I can’t use mind-set does not allow the possessor of that mindset to evade the inevitable forthcoming reality.

Before I go any further please look at the following.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassault_Systemes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens

What we have here is a snapshot of value and how it is derived. It is also an indicator of why companies are making decisions that directly affect you.

Dassault has made the decision based I believe on things like the value of Google and Facebook to change the fundamental core philosophy of what they do to social engineering and away from basic pure engineering. It is the only thing I can see that explains all the seemingly irrelevant acquisitions and the odd concentration of R&D dollars into social engineering programs and Minimoys and gamification and crowd sourcing and on and on.

Why? It is a lot harder to develop something that has to deliver concise exact results like engineering programs do and judging by relative values nowhere near as valuable. Dassault has taken since 1981 to get this far and Facebook and Google have sailed way past them in far less time. I think Dassault looks at those dollars and contemplates jettisoning their traditional designer  for more lucrative less demanding markets.

There is also a robber Barron element there in their thinking where they want you to have to pay to play with their stuff.

The push is really on right now for usurpation of property rights and usage rights. Ranging from not being able to resell something you own like books (legislation currently being proposed in Congress) to the attempts by companies to stop online piracy they all center on one thing. More cash for deep pockets from your pockets. Their solution in the area of companies like Dassault is to prevent permanent seats of anything and to force users to be subscribers and to end permanent seats. They want the ability to say to you that every day you use their software you have to pay a fee. As a matter of fact they want you to pay for every day whether you use it or not. This is why Dassault will talk about how things will remain like they are with permanent seats but never give a written guarantee for this. Facts do speak louder than mealy-mouthed corporatespeak.

Which brings us to dear little Autodesk. Autodesk at this time appears to want to remain primarily a CAD company. The major problem with them is that per their announced earlier this year corporate policy they will be adopting the robber Barron cloud only security breaching paradigm.  Your reward for years of loyal usage will be pay to play. Yeah, the fight against piracy is a wonderful excuse for punishing your loyal cash paying customers. I figure that the hackers will find a way around anything these CAD companies do so what is the true motive here? I believe that it amounts to a desire to end the ability to use software without a user fee—-forever. No more of this junk like using a permanent seat for multiple years without having to cough up funds to Autodesk.

Don’t believe me? Get your guarantees against this in writing from Autodesk. I am sure they will provide you with one. Along with the one that says your intellectual property will remain yours and you won’t have to be current on your monthly subscription to use it to make a living. This is no different from the mob guy who walks into a business and “sells” you fire insurance. That Autodesk intends to do this to its loyal customers says a lot about how they regard their partnership with their customers. They desire you as chattel.

Now regard Siemens and here we have a completely different concept. UGS/SolidEdge was bought because Siemens is one of the major manufacturing corporations on the world. They wanted to own software that they could control and implement in their corporation to improve their own manufacturing processes and efficiencies. They intend to use this software to make things. Just like you. You want to own and use it and so does Siemens. They have no intention of being trendy with social media junk. It is not what they do or will ever do. There is not even a hint that they are spending R&D$$$$ in this area like Dassault is. I have spent some time looking in cracks and crevices and under rocks for any hint that Siemens is going to force customers onto the cloud with their design software and I can’t find any. They darned sure aren’t looking to foist Minimoy’s or gamification on us thereby catering to this stupid social media iPhone XGen (or whatever this weeks trendy label is for slackers) generation bunch that expects to be allowed to spend up to half their paid days doing other things besides what they are being paid to do. It is far better for your bottom line that your employees never have to go online to use your design software both in elimination of wasted time and in preventing security breaches. There is also no hint of the robber Barron stuff here.

I have not asked for a written guarantee from Siemens as I expect that it would be met with the same stony silence as this request would get from Dassault and Autodesk. I do have a reason though for making these statements. Dasssault and Autodesk are the ones who are making huge changes in your future against your desires and wishes. They are the ones who are having to make reassuring promises of future intent to users who are rightly quite worried. Siemens is not in this boat as they are not out there selling their customers down the river and no one needs reassuring on this side of the fence.

It was an entirely unintended consequence of my purchase of Solid Edge that I would find myself in the only major CAD program concerned with manufacturing and users needs. Five years ago so much of this cloud stuff and this pay to play stuff was not regarded as serious. The only  pay to play CAD effort I remember from this time frame was SpaceClaim and their subscription model failed miserably and was precisely why they never got a look from me. If I can’t own it I don’t want it. I don’t want an apartment I want my own house.

Corporate philosophy has today become just as great a benefit to me as Synchronous Tech is. I believe in these guys and I believe they have long-term plans that dovetail quite nicely with my desires for best in class design software that will be stable and useable and that I would desire to use for the rest of my working career which I figure to be at least ten years and more if I am able.

You guys in the Dassault and Autodesk worlds better start waking up to reality and begin the process of deciding just what you want to use and the conditions under which you want to use it. A decision to make no decision is of course a decision just as binding as the one made to take action. The one who makes choices though is far better off than the one who has them made for him.

I have gone through this with VX/ZW3D so I understand legacy files blah blah blah. I understand hating the idea you have to learn a new program. Believe me I do as I never even owned a computer until 2001 and never had a CAD program until 2005. I am now 59 so don’t talk to me about lack of desire to have your little world changed I DO understand those thoughts. I am currently looking for CAM which is another thing I never wanted to do. But what do my personal wishes have to do with corporate CAD decisions? Absolutely nothing as they don’t call me to sit in on the planing meetings. I am left to look out for myself.

Today I recommend without any serious reservations Siemens NX or SE. These are the only major players that have no current or future plans to upset your apple cart. If stability and the ability to plan for the future is as important to you as it is to me regard the philosophy of the company you are doing business with as seriously as you investigate their programs as they have both become critical things to jointly consider.

As an aside here. I complain a lot about lack of CAM in SE and it does gripe my rear end in a major way. I believe these kinds of problems are being solved though so my last remaining major complaint against these guys will soon be history.

Sorry to disappoint you if you came here to get the latest updates for wonderful and terrific Solid Edge promotions. There have not been any since the release of Synchronous Tech 1 (ST1) when I came on board. What drew me at the time were the capabilities of Synchronous tech in its infancy. I could see the potential in it. What really clinched the deal though was the offer of $3,000.00 for a seat of SE Classic and the first years maintenance. How could I refuse? Let me tell any corporate guy who may be reading this if you don’t think this means a lot to a small customer who is being asked to leave behind lots of accumulated work and something already paid for you are sadly mistaken. I cant explain the  all the psychological reasons behind why users hang on to something they don’t like anymore. All I can say is that in most cases they need incentive to change above and beyond just the capabilities of the software you sell and your wonderful PR campaign. Solid incentives are important and extremely influential and it is what will take users who hate what they use off the fence and into your back yard.

But my main reason for posting today is the idea of concepts in promoting your product and what you think will get potential customers attention.

SO, how do you get traction on promotions above and beyond offering the above mentioned idea? I see various companies offering incentives to participate in a contest. SE had the $6,000.00 prize for this thing that only lasted two weeks.

http://blog.industrysoftware.automation.siemens.com/blog/2012/08/01/edison2-local-motors-and-solid-edge-team-up-and-launch-6000-design-competition/.

ZW3D offered $300.00 for design winner recently. Others offer an iPad or phone. In general what all these things have in common is that almost all of them are promoted by big companies with varying degrees of hoopla and really trivial prizes.

I am in the process of acquiring a new company as a customer. They are a health food encapsulating outfit looking for a local machine shop to produce both replacement parts on a regular basis and to bail them out in emergencies. I don’t just tell them what I can do nor do I just say see my customer list and maybe I will even find you a referral who will talk to you. I get in there and offer my time for free in designing parts and producing samples and making sure what I produce is up to specs and works well. I am charging nowhere near the value of the current time I have into this. I am betting that when, not if, these guys become good customers I will more than make up for what I put out upfront in “promotions”.

As an aside here. As a percentage of my gross it is a far more serious promotion of my company as a percentage in actual cost than anything I have ever seen a major CAD or CAM company offer. I am beating the pants off of the silliness that most CADCAM companies believe in that a thirty-day trial is all they need to offer as incentive. I am also GOING to have these guys as customers because I am taking positive and meaningful actions that really matter to them to guarantee this.

Promotions I think in order to be successful and to really get attention have to be out of the ordinary and offer potential users a reason to be there. Maybe it should be broken down into two categories with existing and potential users as separate categories if this promotion is open to both.

I like the current design concept contest over at Matt Lombard’s blog

http://ontheedge.dezignstuff.com/on-the-edge-project-mini-flexcavator/643

but it lacks that little zinger that would push it seriously into the public eye. All it is right now is basically bragging rights incentive for a few disgruntled SW users and a few enthusiastic SE users. This is to me a perfect vehicle for enticing potential users if it would offer some serious incentive. At the least would be free seats of SE for certain category winners. The top winner would have a real cash incentive as an additional bit of inspiration to all who participate. It has to be a closed time frame but long enough to allow people to spend some serious time with the program to learn it. Using the seat you have provided to registered contestants for the length of this contest. Remember, considering what is currently being offered you are expecting here that these guys are going to spend their own time out of their hopefully busy schedules learning this software just for curiosity’s sake. Primarily SW users I presume since this is I would think your primary potential market.

Once you have serious incentive there then you have to promote it and get it aggressively into the CAD users world. Is it too much to ask when you hope to profit by millions in capturing new customers that you show these potential new customers you are serious about how good your software is? It does not go un-noticed by cad users who are expected to cough up the dough and buy your products that typically the, ahem, grand prize is less than a single seat price of the software you want to sell them. It is a niggardly attitude and it is noted as such by the users you want to reach.

I think  the concept behind the “Flexcavator” is a great idea that needs to have some time and incentive devoted to it by Siemens and SE and I mean beyond the participation of people who work with SE.

Just how do you get curious but busy people to look your way at what you sell? You compel them. Just how do you get reluctant buyers to buy what you sell? You entice them.

Just for the records sake I am speaking here of my own experience and what compelled me. I am also reflecting on what I have been told by other users as to what motivated them besides things like largest market share and most jobs on jobs boards. Never think these two things are not important. Even in the disintegrating world of SolidWorks this is still the most compelling sales tool out there and it drives their numbers more than anything else. No one else can compete in these two areas so you have to compete against them with a different incentive.

Local Motors and this two-week long contest is to me something that never even gets to the starting gate much less out of it. It is academically oriented and not targeting the professional user market at all. It is to short time wise and not worthy of mention otherwise in most places and that is exactly what it got. I find sadly that it is typical of what major CAD and CAM companies seem to think is sufficient inducement worthy of potential customers spending many thousands of their hours of irreplaceable time to take a peek.

I fully expect in the first quarter of 2013 that Solid Edge will have for the first time an integrated CAM partner. IF Autodesk does not buy them out too and who knows what they will do in light of the HSMWorks bomb. In any case assuming this will not happen this is a milestone in the SE path to the future. It is my hope they will get behind this and seriously compel potential users in both word and deed. To do this in ways that mean something to those they want to reach and not just to some marketing department sitting in a closed room debating things and budgets that appeal to themselves and not potential users. That closed room atmosphere that seems to be so conducive to the attendees talking to each other but somehow never getting good results.

It’s a strange world we live in when those you mean to appeal to are never asked what is appealing to them.