CADfidential

A behind-the-scenes look at the CAD world.

Record earnings

Autodesk registered another quarter of record earnings, earning $378 million in its third quarter, up from $300 million the previous year. Autodesk attributes the performance to strong growth in new seats and subscriptions, increasing penetration of its vertical and 3D products and continued improvement in profitability. HCL Technologies, based in Noida, India, announced earlier this month it has signed a five-year agreement with Autodesk to provide offshore application and datacenter services. The deal is reportedly worth about $50 million.

How is your company doing financially this year?

Back at you

FARO Technologies is suing Hexagon, parent company of Romer Cimcore, for infringement on a patent covering laser scanners. FARO claims the Romer Cimcore INFINITE SC laser scanning arm violates its patent, "Portable Coordinate Measurement Machine with Integrated Line Laser Scanner." Romer Cimcore earlier this year sued Faro for infringing on one of its patents. In that case, the presiding judge withdrew his intial ruling against FARO, but not before FARO redesigned its products.

RP roundup

Wohlers Associates estimates that 14,381 additive fabrication systems (best known as rapid prototyping systems) were sold and installed worldwide through the end of 2004. The United States has 37.3% of such systems, down from 43% the previous year. Wohlers Associates says this decline is expected as "China and other countries modernize product development methods and embrace additive processes."

Winner in court

Ashlar-Vellum prevailed in the Court of Arnhem, the Netherlands, in its case against Disaro Benelux, formerly Vellum Benelux. The court determined that Disaro infringed on Ashlar's trademark and software copyrights. Ashlar-Vellum also has cases pending in Japan and Germany.

PTC's increased revenues

PTC reported revenue of $720.7 million for fiscal year 2005, up 9% from $660 million in fiscal 2004. "2005 was a great year for PTC," said C. Richard Harrison, president and CEO. PTC expects FY2006 revenue to be between $805 million and $815 million. Its goal is to break $1 billion by 2008.

No, thank you, I'm full

A new CAD management Web site, www.EatyourCAD.com, contains articles, links, hints and tips, plus downloadable CAD standards, presentations and utilities. The site is maintained by Karen Fugle, CAD manager at KPF in London, UK.

64-bit success

Dassault Systèmes announced that its V5 PLM 64-bit solutions, starting with V5 R16, are certified to run on AMD Opteron systems, specifically the HP xw9300 and the IBM Intellistation A Pro 6217 workstations.

Here's to innovation

Graphisoft's Virtual Construction product earned runner-up status in the software category of the Wall Street Journal's 2005 Technology Innovation Awards.

Speed study

According to a study by Cambashi Ltd., new features in AutoCAD 2006, such as dynamic blocks and improved hatching and tables, enable users to complete tasks 29% faster than those using AutoCAD 2002.

Spatial star

Peter Batty has joined Intergraph as vice-president and chief technology officer. A spatial and location-based technology expert, he will help direct Intergraph's future technology vision. Batty was co-founder and CTO of Ten Sails, a company focused on spatial and location-related technologies. Before that, he served as vice-president of technology for GE Power in the GE Network Solutions group.

Digital destruction

Worried about electronic drawings falling into the wrong hands? MfgQuote. com offers AutoShred Lite, designed to automatically shred documents created in the SolidWorks eDrawings format. Shredding commences at a designated time to remove the files from the recipient's hard drive.