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CAD Central (News and Analysis)

Spatial Stays a Step Ahead with ACIS Kernel; Bentley and Autodesk: Off-Again, On-Again Rivalry; AutoDesSys Cultivates Bonsai 3D; CS-Map Versus PROJ.4; Dreamy Color in a Mobile Workstation

Spatial Stays a Step Ahead with ACIS Kernel

Explaining his game strategy, hockey star Wayne Gretzky once said, "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." Keith Mountain, president and CEO of Spatial, is adopting a similar approach. Mountain has been refashioning Spatial's ACIS modeling kernel in anticipation of where the industry is headed. He points to ACIS 3D Modeler and ACIS InterOp Suite Release 19, announced in July, as evidence of this philosophy.

Spatial has added new features, such as the EDA 3D Analysis Suite shown here, to its flagship ACIS modeling kernel.

The new version marks the debut of a Wikipedia-style Spatial Product Documentation, which lets customers contribute to the online knowledge database. Recognizing the growing demand for industrial designers to incorporate electrical components into their designs, Spatial adds the EDA 3D Analysis Suite for electronic design automation. According to the announcement, "The suite consists of a 3D modeler, a mesher subsystem that includes utilities to implement adaptive meshing, and a graphics display that is integrated and accessible through a unified API to streamline developer learning curves and accelerate development time."

Also new in Release 19 is 3D Springback, a component that "facilitates a one-step method for springback correction of 3D models within die manufacturing applications." The InterOp Suite includes two new products: Generic Inventor Reader and Generic SolidWorks Reader.

In the announcement, Spatial highlights additional large radius blending, improved feature retention, more agile local operations, sheet body offset function, expanded tolerant-hot Boolean capabilities, 3D edge offset for coordinate-measuring machine applications, and fixed-axis sweep option to simulate 2.5-axis milling paths.

Although Spatial is owned by Dassault Systemes, the use of the ACIS kernel is not confined to Dassault products only. Currently, it's embedded in Alibre Design, Ansoft, Fluent, IronCAD, and emerging software such as SpaceClaim. In fact, Spatial components are in many products that compete directly with the Dassault portfolio. Mountain says, "Nothing prevents Spatial from entering into agreement with Dassault's competitors."

Bentley and Autodesk:Off-Again On-Again Rivalry

On the Bentley Communities blog (http://communities.bentley.com/blogs), Bentley Systems chief technology officer Keith Bentley clarifies the company's motivation for entering into an interoperability agreement with Autodesk. (The companies announced in July that they will exchange software libraries for accessing DWG and DGN files. See "Examining the Autodesk–Bentley Agreement," www.cadalyst.com/agreement).

To quell anxieties that Bentley might abandon wider interoperability initiatives because of the influential position the new agreement offers, Bentley writes, "Interoperability among our products, and managing heterogeneous data sources, has long been a strength of our products and a hallmark of our company. MicroStation's ability to read, write, and reference files in 'foreign' formats is unmatched in the CAD industry, and I dare say in the history of the CAD industry."

But don't think this partnership is going to diminish the competition between Bentley and Autodesk. Bentley adds, "Do not get me wrong — this agreement does not make DGN and DWG equivalent, nor does it make MicroStation and AutoCAD interchangeable. We won't concede for a minute that anyone working in a DGN-based workflow should use AutoCAD, even though they technically could use AutoCAD."

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