Cadalyst - August 2008 - (Page 10)

cadcentral Oracle Enters Adobe Territory In July, just as Adobe began shipping Acrobat 9 to its customers, Oracle released AutoVue 19.3. The product began life as a viewing and markup tool at Cimmetry Systems in the late 1980s. It became part of Agile’s product lifecycle management (PLM) products when Agile acquired Cimmetry in 2005. Last year, it ended up in Oracle’s portfolio when Oracle bought Agile. Setting its sights beyond engineering, Oracle is pitching AutoVue as an enterprise visualization solution. Its technological domain has been expanded to include not just CAD files but also multimedia files — video clips, for example — and Microsoft Office documents. For the first time, in fact, AutoVue supports Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format, widely accepted in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. With features to help manage and track the documents sent offsite to suppliers and contractors, AutoVue is poised to facili- By Kenneth Wong Crank Out Inventions The problem with invention is its unpredictability. You don’t know when or where the next big idea will come from. So can a piece of software help you — or your company — codify inventiveness? Goldfire Innovator from Invention Machine (www. invention-machine.com) won’t spit out breakthrough ideas at the push of a button, but it probably can help you manage the work needed to translate an “Aha!” moment to a marketable product. The application comes with tools to: u define and identify problems and opportunities u apply proven methods (such as the theory of inventive problem solving, root cause analysis, failure mode, and effects analysis) to your workflows u gather relevant technical and business data from internal and external sources u examine patent activities in related fields u monitor evolving market trends and track competitive directions. Driven by Invention Machine’s semantic knowledge engine, Goldfire Innovator dips into indexed databases from the company’s own repository, public sources, and even competitors’ Web sites. The query interface supports natural language input and automatic translation. PTC Windchill users can reuse existing CAD and PLM (product lifecycle management) data using the PTC Windchill Connector. The latest incarnation of the software, Goldfire Innovator v4.6, marks the debut of risk-analysis features. The company reports, “This function proactively focuses on physical, chemical, and biological hazards and can help identify alternative materials and components that are eco-friendly and meet federal guidelines.” Originally from Cimmetry Systems, AutoVue software is now rebranded as Oracle AutoVue 19.3, an enterprise visualization product. The upgraded viewing and markup tool now targets the same market that Adobe targets with its Acrobat family. tate collaborative review sessions, electronic approvals, and remote bidding. This brings Oracle into a head-on competition with Adobe, which has been evolving its Acrobat product line to become the de facto document-exchange platform for manufacturers. (For more, read “Cimmetry’s AutoVue Returns under Oracle’s Hood,” www.cadalyst.com/0708Cimmetry.) From Alibre to Altadyn (or As the CAD World Turns) Greg Milliken, the man who’d been shepherding Alibre Software as its CEO, recently took a new post as vice-president of marketing at Altadyn. The French company develops and markets what it describes as “the only plug-in-less, browser-based 3D virtual world creation” product. Milliken lost no time in reconnecting with the CAD community. In his first week on the job, he began promoting Altadyn’s JAVA-based 3D scene creator 3Dxplorer (www.3dxplorer.com) to the CAD press. The application lets users create scenes in an online authoring application or import 3D world geometry produced in Autodesk 3ds Max or Google SketchUp. Sets can be customized by using furniture and household items available in 3Dxplorer’s authoring tool and by uploading JPEG images to represent backgrounds and decorative artwork. After you publish a scene, you can direct others to a Web site to view the content. A 3D scene player is automatically downloaded to the visitor’s computer. Both the authoring application and the player are free, but Altadyn charges membership fees to the Web site operators based on the volume of calls the published scene receives. At Alibre Software, founder and chairman of the board J. Paul Grayson steps in to fill the CEO post vacated by Milliken. CAD Central continues on page 12 10 www.cadalyst.com cadalyst August 2008 http://www.invention-machine.com http://www.invention-machine.com http://www.cadalyst.com/0708Cimmetry http://www.3dxplorer.com http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - August 2008

Cadalyst - August 2008 Contents Editor's Window CAD Central Tech Trends: Rotor Bug Strikes Again Cadalyst Labs Reviews: Digital Dreams — Visualization Software: Make Your Design Visions a Reality Maple 12 — Math Software AutoLINE 2009 — Linetype Management Add-On Deep Access — Digital-Media Asset Management Software View Point: Examining the Autodesk–Bentley Agreement CAD Manager: Managing Multioffice Mayhem MCAD Modeling: Do You Need Modeling Standards? AEC Insight: Modeling Technology for Building Engineers CAD Cartoon Issue Indexes Hot Tip Harry: Better Living with Objects and Smart Entities

Cadalyst - August 2008

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