CAD

Hexagon changing the world a millimeter at a time

The marriage of CAD and metrology is the marriage of the digital and the real-world. It is transforming many industries including AEC and manufacturing. Hexagon, which has its roots in metrology, has addressed the digitalization revolution from the sky down. Founded in 1992 in Stockholm, Hexagon acquired ERDAS for their satellite-based geospatial technology and they’ve acquired the leading lidar companies … Read more

The Open Design Alliance readies new tools for 2020

The Open Design Alliance’s season of press releases is here and the quantity of information is greater than ever as the organization follows up on the several new directions they have taken to support interoperability and communication in the CAD industry.  The organization has moved into new territory with its Visualize, Web SDK, and BIM (Building Information Modeling) APIs. The … Read more

Do you need a workstation?

There was a time when the definition of a workstation was crystal clear and so was the decision about having one. If you needed a workstation, you knew who you were and you knew how to get it: ask IT.  Alternatively, whine, bully, and demand it from IT. And, the machine you got would have a RISC-based processor, a customized … Read more

Hexagon squares the circle

Hexagon is best known as a sensor company, making 3D laser scanners and articulated-arm sensors that check the fit of finished products. After a car comes off the assembly line, for instance, robotic sensors scan the exterior, looking for deviations from tolerances. Other sensors reverse engineer parts or create point clouds of buildings. The sensor industry prefers we speak of … Read more

Graphisoft’s plan to be #1

Graphisoft is the Hungarian software company that began in 1984 when Gábor Bojár thought of designing buildings virtually in 3D. As a result, ArchiCAD became the earliest version of BIM (building information modeling) software. In fact, it was so 3D oriented that generating 2D plans was an afterthought. This year, Graphisoft will release ArchiCAD 23.  Graphisoft is still headquartered in … Read more

Famous Graphics Chips: Number Nine’s Imagine 128

By the early 1990s, the PC industry was still expanding and offering plenty of opportunity for all. IBM had lost its position of leadership and for a few years the market existed on commercial off the shelf (COTS) graphics chips from TI, and a bunch of XGA and VGA clone builders. In 1994, Number Nine, a small company in Boston, … Read more

Siemens NX gets smart

Siemens’ latest version of its flagship design software, NX, has been updated with machine learning and artificial intelligence. The company believes it is the first design tool to include AI and ML, but if Siemens is right on this score, it’s a feature that’s well on its way to being included in many more design and engineering tools because CAx … Read more

Graphisoft has a new CEO

Graphisoft, an early innovator in BIM and one of the key companies in the Nemetschek collection of companies for design, construction, and project management has announced the appointment of Huw Roberts as CEO.  Graphisoft’s former CEO Viktor Várkonyi is moving to a new job within the Nemetschek Group’s planning and design division, which includes Graphisoft. Várkonyi, who has been with … Read more

The AutoCAD workalike market in 2019

  AutoCAD is targeted by many workalike software vendors precisely because it is the most successful general 2D/3D CAD program of all time. With four, six, eight, twelve million users of the 35-year-old software, entrepreneurs figure that there has to be a certain percentage of users who want something that costs less, even if it does less. AutoCAD is priced … Read more

Trimble raises revenues and margins at the end of 2018

The AEC market is busting out in 2018 for many reasons, but probably the driving force is the digitalization of the industry. Trimble has been quietly building on its strengths in GPS, civil engineering, automation, and transportation to enable automation in the field. Unlike many companies in the AEC space, which started in CAD and started adding on data management, … Read more