Nick created this for me today. Perhaps you and others might find it helpful like I did. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the user interface for dumping a history tree: http://www.cloud-invent.com/Whitepapers/Parametric_modeling_without_history_tree.pdf

The CAD business is now on life support. With no venture capital to solve real world problems, the CAD industry is in deep "s". I'm told venture capitalists think CAD is a solved problem. I frequently talk with CADCAM software architects who agree with me that it's not even close to a solved problem. I fear what's next is a race to the bottom as new start ups go after SolidWorks, Inventor, etc. with nothing really new but a cheap price. Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group.

Someone should remind Dassault's CEO and SolidWorks CEO that manufacturing will be the last industry on the planet to embrace social. If either had no clue about how slow manufacturing is to embrace modern times, all they need to do is look at the sad fact that CNC machines still use G code for a user interface and that the post processor nightmare is still an unsolved problem. I'm sure Dassault's CEO and SolidWorks CEO know far more than I do about manufacturing and machining job shops. After all, I've only been involved with machining and manufacturing on a daily basis for well over 20 years. Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group on LinkedIn

Onshape has already announced they are going with Siemens Parasolid and D-Cubed. GradCAD really needs their own CAD. If C3D or RGK has any chance of getting a major new player it's GrabCAD. I'd suggest to both the C3D and the RGK people that they do whatever it takes to make this deal happen because if it doesn't happen I don't see anything on the horizon that's a better opportunity. Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group on LinkedIn

There will be no need to do "shit twice". With Dassault attempts to force SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual users to a public cloud, make users rent forever, and offer zero interoperability with legacy code SolidWorks, very few companies will want to be forced into renting SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual forever. Sadly, SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual has a lot of good ideas in it! I like the 2D motion study stuff I've seen so far which seems like it's much better than the approach you have to take with legacy code SolidWorks. I've never liked how legacy code SolidWorks does kinematic simulation. I like the heads up user interface and the non reliance on a Windows user interface. I feel confident that the next new app, called SolidWorks Industrial Conceptual, will offer way better surface modeling than legacy code SolidWorks because it's all going to be based on CATIA's surfacing. Despite all the good about SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual, I'm confident that very few people will rent it the way Dassault currently wants to license it. The way it stands right now I see SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual as being D.O.A.(Dead On Arrival). Dassault's arrogance continues to hurt SolidWorks. Dassault has left the door wide open to start ups like www.onshape.com who will give users more options such as the ability to use a private cloud as well as not forcing users to pay maintenance forever just so their CADCAM software keeps working. Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group on LinkedIn

Perhaps it's time to start advocating and writing more about private cloud solutions because cloud computing is here to stay. I think it's a sad state of affairs that many hobbyist CADCAM users, now more often than not called Makers, aren't aware of the risks of public cloud computing or their options. What most Makers seem to do is trust what they are told by a public cloud CADCAM company because they have and are hooked with not having to lay out any cash for a CADCAM application. I see very dangerous times ahead. Lots of people are going to get burned despite clear warning like this! Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group on LinkedIn

"Link driving dimensions to Excel, so that making changes to values in Excel changes the model; getting pretty close to family of parts." What's shown in the video, that SpaceClaim made for SpaceClaim 2014, is so limited that it tells me next to nothing. SpaceClaim needs to do a video just for this new feature. It looks to me like it would take way too much time using Excel and SpaceClaim compared to using something like the SolidWorks built in Equation Editor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY6MtlYRrLg I could be wrong. Hard to really know with the insanely limited video coverage SpaceClaim provided in regards to this feature. In addition, SpaceClaim 2014 still lacks many of the needed low level surfacing tools I often need to get the job done efficiently or just done period. I love many parts about SpaceClaim and I do see progress but development on SpaceClaim is much, much too slow in this area. I'm tired of waiting for the needed low level surfacing tools in SpaceClaim that I've been requesting for years so I've decided to start learning Delcam PowerSHAPE which has much better low level surfacing tools than SpaceClaim has. Delcam PowerSHAPE also has some very good solid direct modeling tools including the ability to very quickly recognize many features in a dumb solid which then get stored in a feature tree and can be edited easily. While this area of Delcam PowerSHAPE isn't perfect and has some warts, it has clearly got some very good ideas. These ideas will only get better if Autodesk doesn't disrupt development on Delcam PowerSHAPE when they purchase Delcam. From what I can tell so far, Delcam's PowerSHAPE is a much more complete solution for repairing and modifying imported complex geometry, that needs preparation for manufacturing, than SpaceClaim is. The more time I've spend learning Delcam PowerSHAPE, the more I like it... warts and all. Delcam's PowerSHAPE is much harder to learn to use initially than SpaceClaim is but I need more powerful tools to fix the kinds or problems I often run into on complex surface geometry than SpaceClaim has. Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group on LinkedIn

DS/SolidWorks doesn't understand CAM. They never have and I doubt they ever will. As time goes on you will see more and more DS/ SolidWorks CAM Gold partners get bought up while DS/SolidWorks pretends it doesn't matter. Kevin is dead nuts on with what he said about integration. I'll take it a step further. There is no way that HSMWorks for SolidWorks will stay equal with the powerful integration HSMWorks will have for Autodesk Inventor or HSMWorks in Fusion 360 (CAM 360) Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group on LinkedIn

Delcam is a company that has some truly outstanding technology... both CAD and CAM. Delcam PowerSHAPE is an amazing CAD product that does things that SolidWorks and Inventor don't do very well. Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group on LinkedIn

It's long past time for the CADCAM press to start looking into the real reasons why Autodesk wants to purchase Delcam. Unfortunately that's going to be really hard to do since most of the CADCAM press can't figure out what's so wrong/what's missing from Autodesk HSMWorks. It seems to me that most of the CADCAM press doesn't care to learn the basics in regards to what kinds of software tools are needed by CADCAM programmers because I NEVER see most of the CADCAM press write about these tools. The majority of machining job shops don't machine just one part or one Setup at a time and they need strong CADCAM tools to control how they prepare and machining multiple Setups/multiple parts. Those would be the kinds of tools that Autodesk/HSMWorks utterly lacks. For starters, you have to be able to support more the one machining coordinate system per Setup or what Autodesk HSMWorks calls a Job Folder. Autodesk/HSMWorks allows just one machining coordinate system per Job Folder and Autodesk/HSMWorks also doesn't give a CADCAM programer powerful control over tool sorting. That's just the tip of the iceberg on the needed tools Autodesk HSMWorks is missing. Another big problem is that Autodesk HSMWorks is a Process based CAM program rather than a Feature based CAM program. That means for many part programming jobs Autodesk HSMWorks is not efficient to use because you have to do everything manually which is very tedious, time consuming and error prone. Delcam products like Featurcam, PowerMill and PowerSHAPE (CAD)blow the doors off using Autodesk HSMWorks, Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Fusion 360 in many real world machining job shops. It will take years for Autodesk HSMWorks to add the needed tools, if ever. Delcam products already have almost all of the needed tools. The question is what does Autodesk intend to do with Delcam's outstanding CADCAM products? It makes no sense to combine a product like Autodesk HSMWorks with Delcam Featurecam because Delcam Featurecam already does everything better than Autodesk HSMWorks does. When I say everything, I truly mean everything! For prismatic parts Delcam Featurecam is the fastest program I've ever used to get to quality G code. There is a reason Autodesk HSMXpress is given away for free... their 2 and 2 1/2 axis CAM tools are nothing special and they don't even remotely compare to the tools or the workflow that Delcam's Featurcam has. Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group on LinkedIn

I believe SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual will be a very good product! What I don't like is that I see SolidWorks Mechanical Conceptual getting the powerful direct modeling tools that SolidWorks Corp. has for over ten years refused to add to legacy code SolidWorks. We can not blame Siemens for refusing to license Synchronous Technology as the sole reason for SolidWorks Corp refusing to add the needed direct modeling tools to legacy code SolidWorks. Think about stuff like these facts for a moment: Does it really make sense that SolidWorks latest 2014 release just got Bezier Curves? SolidWorks calls it a Style Spline. Other CADCAM products have had Bezier Curves for many years now! How about all the ways SolidWorks has blown it with Sub-D modeling? I can't wait to see what Belmont Technology has to offer because Jon Hirstick companies don't do business like DS/SolidWorks does. The best part is that Jon and his team learn from their mistakes and they are willing to take constructive criticism. For sure I've given it to them. :>) DS/SolidWorks does not wish to deal with reality. Many of their quality employees have left and many of them are actively looking! SolidWorks 2014 looks like the first release in years that finally has gotten back to the business of fixing the many CAD areas that SolidWorks has lagged so badly in. One release like this from DS/SolidWorks isn't enough to change my mind. It's not even close to enough! Say the kind of truths I have written above on the SolidWorks Forum long enough and you will be banned. Too bad banning and censorship no longer work like it use to for CADCAM companies trying to hide from what they truly are/have become. Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group on LinkedIn Now at over 900 members strong and growing!

"I wonder how long until CAM is integrated into Bricsys?" Sorry, but this should have happened by now. Same with a CAD program like SpaceClaim.Both companies need to aggressively target legacy code CAM companies. Legacy code CAM products have CAD that is so outdated that it is killing their ability to produce toolpaths in an efficient manner. In addition, new CAM users don't want to learn to use legacy CAM programs because they want the kind of modern user interface that BircsCAD has. Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group on LinkedIn

Well... the way I see it there is actually some really positive news out of Autodesk this week. Autodesk hired Al Whatmough For HSMWorks. Al Whatmough was previously working for a reseller and doing videos that showed how to use HSMWorks. See You Tube. Some of his videos are outstanding. Al Whatmough might represent the first person that Autodesk has hired for HSMWorks that has some actual machine shop experience and who has a very good idea of all the basics that HSMWorks is so badly missing. There is a ton of work to do on HSMWorks because it's never been developed properly. Despite the constant B.S. that gets floated about HSMWorks, its only real strength is very good integration with SolidWorks. There is no doubt that Al Whatmough knows what's wrong with HSMWorks as I've made sure he knows in excruciating detail. :>) HSMWorks doesn't have the proper support for multi-part machining and its solid machine/part simulation leaves a lot to be desired. HSMWorks doesn't keep full track of a stock model for all 2 and 2 1/2 axis machining operations so you end up Chaining till your wrist gets sore. HSMWorks surfacing toolpaths require far too much manual boundary creation to control them. Hopefully Autodesk will empower Al Whatmough to force HSMWorks developers to focus on what they've ignored for many years. If this happens all end users who want much better CAM than what exists now will be the winners. Jon Banquer CADCAM Technology Leaders group on LinkedIn

Nice job. It's the kind of quality reporting I have come to expect from you. Siemens Solid Edge US FUD marketing is a poor excuse for going after what's old, weak and totally outdated in SolidWorks. I believe specifics and videos showing exactly what's wrong with SolidWorks is the correct approach rather than using FUD. http://cadcamtechnologyleaders.blogspot.com/p/topsolid-cadcam-cad.html Jon Banquer San Diego, CA

I've never used Bricscad but I've used SpaceClaim for years now. I watched the You Tube video that was posted for Bircscad direct modeling and I can tell its got a decent user interface for direct modeling that will only get better. Because I've reached this conclusion does that make me the ultimate "S-H-I-L-L" having never even tried Bricscad direct modeling or am I too late posting my comments and now relegated to sock puppet status? ;>) Jon Banquer http://cadcamtechnologyleaders.blogspot.com/