CADfidential

Behind the scenes in the world of CAD

Process This

UGS has paired with Procter & Gamble to provide PLM for process industries. The Research Knowledge Management solution will be released later this year as a core Teamcenter module. It will enable scientists to determine if an experiment has already been conducted and, if so, let them view the results and conclusions.

Measuring the PLM Market

Browser Bungle

Microsoft's recently released Internet Explorer 7 wreaked havoc with Autodesk's DWF format, forcing Autodesk to rush out a patch to fix the problem. Autodesk's DWF Viewer, Design Review and TrueView aren't compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7. To make matters worse, uninstalling IE7 and reverting to IE6 won't fix the problem, because the supporting libraries from Internet Explorer 7 are left in place.

PTC Purchase

PTC bought German software provider ITEDO for roughly $17 million in cash. ITEDO develops the IsoDraw family of technical illustration products. The ITEDO applications will join PTC's Arbortext product family.

When you need CAD software support, which resource do you turn to most often?

First Impressions

The Autodesk Labs Web site (http://labs.autodesk.com) launched a free preview version of Autodesk's long-anticipated Impression product (formerly code-named Vespa). Impression is a presentation graphics application that imports DWG and DWF files and allows users to add detailing.

AEC Alliance

The newly launched 3xPT Strategy Group is a joint undertaking by the AIA, the Associated General Contractors and the Construction Users Roundtable to encourage the use of 3D, 4D and 5D modeling and other technologies across traditional building industry boundaries.

Coming to America

CAM software module developer SolidCAM has opened its own subsidiary in the United States and will operate offices in Pennsylvania, Washington and Missouri. Objet Geometries, a maker of rapid prototyping systems, will take over North American sales and support of its products from Stratasys starting in 2007. The company will open an office in Boston. German company kubit, a developer of as-built documentation software, has established a U.S. office in Houston, Texas.

Building Buy

German developer M+M (Mensch und Maschine Software) announced that Autodesk will pay $1 million for its RoCAD building services software, which runs on Autodesk's Architectural Desktop product.

Planit Takeover

CAD/CAM software developer Planit Holdings has agreed to a takeover proposal led by its management team. The acquiring firm, Velocity Acquisitions, will pay 29 pence per share for a total of £28.7 million (about $54.5 million), a 24% premium over the average trading price for the past six months.

Supply Standards

Microsoft and Intel teamed up to propose new standards for supplier collaboration based on the Microsoft Office Open XML format. Small-and mid-size manufacturers can use the 2007 Microsoft Office system not only as a document-authoring tool but also as an supply-chain platform.