Cadalyst - January/February 2009 - (Page 12) cadcentral SolidWorks CEO Blogs and Twitters SolidWorks CEO Jeff Ray recently added a new title to his curriculum vitae: blogger. In December, Ray posted his first blog entry, “Here’s a Social Networking Success Story” (December 15, 2008, http://blogs.solidworks. com). In it, Ray sought inspiration from the way Barack Obama’s presidential campaign mobilized community organizers and grassroots activists through social networking. “So, the legacy monolith [traditional fundraising efforts] lost to the agile net roots. And the social networking has only begun,” Ray wrote. Ray also can be found on Twitter (http://twitter.com/jeffray), the online service you can use to share frequent updates of your activities. In one Twitter broadcast — a “tweet” in Twitter lingo — Ray revealed he’d just met the agent of Sir Richard Branson, the enigmatic British industrialist and founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways. Branson is expected to be a guest speaker at SolidWorks World (February 8–11, Orlando, Florida). Ray’s past Twitter updates reveal he’s concerned with U.S. education (“Just learned that the U.S. has dropped from #1 to #10 in education,” November 13, 2008) and his faith in humanity was restored when he recovered his lost laptop (“Left laptop behind at Logan security two weeks ago, and it just arrived intact. There is a Santa Claus,” December 11, 2008). Geomagic Ships Studio 10x In January, Geomagic, known for its point-cloud processing technology, released Geomagic Studio 10x. Engineers and designers use Geomagic’s software to process the point-cloud data obtained by 3D scanners. Geomagic Studio 10x is available in three editions: Fashion Edition, Shape Edition, and Complete Edition. The company described the Fashion Edition as “the premier product for mechanical design applications, such as new design and reverse engineering.” Shape Edition is targeted at “medical and scientific applications where users want to create exact 3D replicas of organic objects, such as bones or historical artifacts,” the company added. The Complete Edition includes both the Fashion and Shape Editions. Among the new features in the software are constrained surface fitting for aligning surfaces and correcting imperfections in the as-built model or scan data, advanced classification tools for excluding regions of a mesh that deviate from the desired surface classification, polygon decimation for producing smaller and more accurate polygons, automatic surface extension for creating sharp edges between neighboring surfaces, and enhanced registration algorithm for more accurate point-cloud data registration. Cadalyst executive editor Kenneth Wong explores the innovative use of technology and its implications. Read his blog at www.cadalyst.com/kw. The Fate of Macworld Expo Apple dealt a crushing blow to Macworld Expo (January 5–9, San Francisco) by announcing that its participation in the conference ends with 2009. In the official announcement, Apple explained, “Trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple. com web site enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways. Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New Macworld Expo, where some 3D software vendors reach out to Mac users, may continue York, Macworld Tokyo, and Apple without Apple in 2010. Expo in Paris.” Though people associate Macworld Expo with Apple, the expo is organized and run by International Data Group (IDG), an event planning and media production firm. In a town hall meeting prompted by Apple’s decision, Paul Kent, vice-president and general manager of Macworld Expo, hinted he was open to new ideas on resuming Macworld sans Apple, including turning the event into a traveling road show that takes place in a different city each year. HP, Microsoft, and a few other big names have already signed up for the 2010 event, he revealed. (See “Town Hall gives clues to future directions for Macworld Expo,” January 8, 2009, www.macworld.com.) Autodesk didn’t participate this year but released three new products — Toxik, a procedural compositing tool; Mudbox digital sculpting and texturing software; and ImageModeler photogrammetry software, all for Mac OS — to coincide with the event. Roohi Saeed, Autodesk’s senior PR manager for media and entertainment, explained, “Historically Autodesk doesn’t exhibit there. We haven’t had a booth at the expo for at least five years. We usually just hold press meetings in conjunction with the show, which is what we did this time.” Also absent in the exhibitor list were regular 3D software vendors such as AutoDesSys, makers of form•Z software, and Nemetschek, makers of the VectorWorks series. Those who did show up included IMSI/Design, makers of TurboCAD, and SolidThinking, makers of the SolidThinking industrial design and styling software. In a mixture of defiance and optimism, the expo organizers picked the tagline “The Start of a New Era” for Macworld Expo 2010. More News Find breaking and current news at www.cadalyst.com/news. 12 www.cadalyst.com cadalyst January/February 2009 http://blogs.solidworks.com http://blogs.solidworks.com http://twitter.com/jeffray http://Apple.com http://Apple.com http://www.macworld.com http://www.cadalyst.com/kw http://www.cadalyst.com/news http://www.cadalyst.com
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