SOPAL chose V6 PLM Express for its handling of and lifelike visualization of sophisticated surfaces, enabling its designers to create the complex shapes in CATIA V6 that give its faucets a distinctive and attractive look. DELMIA’s V6 Machining Solution will be used to produce their tooling and speed up the entire process. This multi-brand implementation of V6 PLM Express allows SOPAL to keep track of each product and makes the data available to anybody in the company with a need to know. With trends in faucet design changing often, SOPAL felt it had to remain flexible and reactive to market demand.

SOPAL chose 3DVIA Composer to quickly and easily document the assembly process, and deliver it in an interactive 3D experience, complete with animated procedures. SOPAL uses 3D animation to explain to architects, construction companies, or the final customer how their products should be installed and how they function. To gain worldwide exposure, SOPAL recently published its product portfolio on the 3DVIA.com website, the DS online solution for searching, uploading & sharing ideas in 3D. 

Dassault Systemes

www.3ds.com

Sopal

www.sopal.com

• Upgrade progeCAD 2009 to progeCAD 2010
• Upgrade progeCAD 2008 to progeCAD 2010
• Upgrade progeCAD Network License
• Upgrade progeCAD USB License

The procedure for upgrading progeCAD online is simple: select the matching progeCAD upgrade for your current license, fill out the bottom text box of the product page with your current serial code(s) and complete the order as usual.

It is also possible online to migrate or convert different CAD licenses to progeCAD Professional, Network or USB versions.

To upgrade from an older version of AutoCAD LT (2004 or newer), IntelliCAD 6, certain versions of TurboCAD Professional, Vectorworks, Microstation, BricsCAD and other software HERE. As with direct upgrades for progeCAD, upgrading simply requires entering a valid license code and a description of the old CAD software in the bottom text box provided. Always check this cross-over order form for a list of software currently qualifying for upgrade.

To convert from either progeCAD Professional stand-alone license or another CAD package to progeCAD Professional USB version, use this order page and select which system you are upgrading from the drop-down menu “product-current” toward the bottom of the order page, as well as filling out the current serial number. The final price for the USB upgrade varies depending from which previous CAD program that one upgrades from.

For example, why “upgrade” from AutoCAD LT 2006 to progeCAD Professional 2010? Here are some reasons: AutoCAD DWG 2010 file editing, Windows Vista & Windows 7 support, 3D modeling and rendering, AutoLISP and VBA programming, Google Earth export, Express Tools, Quick Dimensioning, PDF import, Raster to Vector tools, gradient hatching – all offered in progeCAD at modest cost – but not in AutoCAD LT 2006. In fact, while the gap between AutoCAD LT and AutoCAD widens, the gap between progeCAD and AutoCAD is narrowing.

A full version of the new progeCAD 2010 Professional (with 10.0.4 patch) can be downloaded HERE. It will run without limitation for 30 days before you can decide if it meets your needs.

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Sounds reasonable, and we see the effect of this new design philosophy embedded in the much-disparaged ribbon invented by Microsoft. "Much disparaged." Now why would that be?

It does not take long to figure out the flaw fundamental to this philosophy. Who gets to decide which buttons are important? Not the Microsoft Office user, who is not permitted to monkey around with the ribbon — making it near useless. 

Let's take the ribbon in AutoCAD 2011, for example. Of AutoCAD's 14 Clipboard-related commands, I use two: CopyClip (copy graphics to the Clipboard) and CopyHist (copy text from the command line to the Clipboard). No points for guessing which command Autodesk programmers think is the most important.

By making the Paste button bigger, Autodesk makes the important button smaller — and harder to read on today's extreme-resolution monitors (which have the unfortunate side effect of miniaturizing user interface elements). In contrast, toolbars have a sensible Large Buttons option for the over-50 crowd, like me; ribbons do not.

I recognize that Autodesk feels it needs to slavishly follow Microsoft's bad example, but just because Paste is the command most-used by Word users doesn't mean it is common among CAD users. I like to think we are more original.

At least Autodesk allows us to modify the ribbon, and — even better — lets us take back the time-tested and user-validated menus and toolbars; Microsoft takes the Apple approach and considers us too stupid to mess with their paragon [an ideal instance; a perfect embodiment of a concept] of a user interface (other than on the Quick Access toolbar).

PS: What does format painter (MatchProp) have to do with the Clipboard? 

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Just send a tweet to (at) cadvillemodeler box x1,y1,z1,x2,y2,z2 where x1, y1, etc are integers. Then look for the reply tweet! For example,

@cadvillemodeler box 20,10,10,200,20,20

The x,y,z coordinates are the opposite corners of the the box. After a while, the output at cadvillemodler reports "Success! See your CADville design!" or "Invalid input. No changes made." 

See pictures of the output at twitpic.com/photos/cadvillemodeler.

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As a reminder of what once was, here is the remnant in Google's cache, complete with the April Fools tag:

We need not, fortunately, rely on Google's incomplete record. Bloggers have captured the original posting from their RSS feeds after Siemens management pulled the item. Scott Wertel, fer instance, reprints the FAQ that had accompanied this morning's "CADville" announcement at his Scott's Harangue blog.

Read it at wertel.blogspot.com/2010/04/cadville-faq.html. My favorite is #4:

Q: My company does not allow me to participate in social media or gaming while at work. Will I be able to use CADVille?

A: Yes. When we charge your credit card, it will be listed under "Collaboration Tool."

Mr Wertel concludes, "Well, apparently it wasn't a joke to everybody."

- – -

Late Friday evening, @SiemensPLM tweeted, "In case u missed @burhop's April Fool's blog post and the interesting discussion around it – it is reposted: http://bit.ly/ckdFyg."

And @DeelipMenezes tweeted: "'Siemens PLM offers CAD on the Cloud – Part 1' http://bit.ly/d0BZpK (For whatever it's worth, this is the post that I took down)."

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- – -

swertel: It has been confirmed. THe best April Fools joke is the one @burhop played on himself. #CADVille

swertel: Wait. So #CADVille is NOT real and I shouldn't blog about it?

vlna: Thank you, it was my dream… now it's reality 

deelipmenezes: @dorasmith Could you please clarify how @burhop and others are tweeting about #CADVille when it is still under embargo? Is it lifted?

deelipmenezes: @ralphg No. Take a look at the #CADVille hashtag.

deelipmenezes: Updated #CADVille post with screenshot – http://bit.ly/d0BZpK [link now dead] 

hashtager: # @ralphg Not this is not an April Fool's joke. Take a look at the #CADVille hashtag.  

burhop: @swertel We are working on that. Demand is high #CADVille

swertel: @burhop I love #CADVille, but my subscription expired. Where do I sign up again?

burhop: Mark has found 13 Elipsoids. Can you help him find more?  

burhop: The next step for #CADVille is to make addins for all the major CAD and FEA systems

burhop: Mark has completed a product design in #CADVille

burhop: RT @bcourter: @Lindsey3D "Mark [Burhop] has traded non-manifold boolean for three chamfers" #CADVille

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Monkey Trained to Create 3D Designs Using KeyCreator 3D Direct CAD

FranKey [the monKey] was exposed to a model car and then designed his own version of the hot rod in what some consider to be a really unusual way:

Be sure to read the entire non-censored posting!

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Jon Brouchoud muses about Facebook and the Future of CAD at http://archvirtual.com/?p=2512

As soon as I discovered CADville… I was immediately hooked, and was lucky enough to get accepted in their early testing group in mid-February. I quickly climbed the level ladder, and made lots of new CAD neighbors along the way. 

This is just the start, he writes:

… there will soon be industry-specific CADville-Architecture released later this year… You may even be able to earn money by helping people solve CAD related problems, with their new ‘Solver’ tokens.

He concludes, "This isn’t just the future of CAD, this is April Fool’s day!"

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It read much like Siemen's uninteresting Second Life world. The cloud space even had a link to Twitter, and users could add to their model using tweets like:

D CADVilleModeler Dc65g67 Box 0,0,0 20,10,5

From what I can tell, Siemens employee @burhop started it off early on 31 March by asking for CAD bloggers to DT [direct tweet] him for help on a project. He then worked with Deelip on the concept, and created #cadville on Twitter.

(Since Deelip is located in India, the item got posted while it was still March 31 in western part of the globe. I fell for the clever joke until I reviewed the krazy nature of the #cadville tweets, and then its true nature dawned on me.)

When I awoke on the morning of April 1 here on the Pacific coast of Canada, however, the joke had gone sour. More than sour, it had been banished:

Even Google's all-encompassing cache does not contain a copy. My Twitter feed filled in the details of what happened while I was asleep:

DeelipMenezes Apparently there are people at Siemens who do [not] get humour. @burhop is being canned.

alistardean @DeelipMenezes do or do not?

DeelipMenezes @alistardean DO NOT. Oops

To save him some grief I have taken down that post. This is the first time I have ever done that and I don't like it one bit.

alistardean @DeelipMenezes caned or canned? I thought you 'blogger' types were all about integrity and independence?

DeelipMenezes @alistardean If it was not for @burhop you think I would give a s**t?

Good to know that Kubotek has some humour left in them http://bit.ly/9LqMJI [Monkey Trained to Create 3D Designs Using KeyCreator 3D Direct CAD]

I guess you dont love @burhop enough. He! He!

alistardean @DeelipMenezes oh, I've got love for @burhop alright, but I'm loving the fact you caved – what happened to Mr. "Piss all over an embargo"? 

Or was it the thought of a 15 billion dollar company breathing down your neck?

ps: Pansy

DeelipMenezes @alistardean Do you want to take the post and put it on your blog?

alistardean @DeelipMenezes and no, I don't want to repost it…. the images were crap

DeelipMenezes @alistardean images? is that the only excuse you found? Hahahaha 
 
alistardean @DeelipMenezes that… And that it was c**p…

DeelipMenezes @alistardean Careful. You are implying that @ralphg cannot sniff out c**p. He fell for it face first.  

alistardean @DeelipMenezes it wasn't about autocad so @ralphg isn't interested. Boo ya! 

@burhop @alistardean @DeelipMenezes thanks for the support guys

- – -

Late Friday evening, @SiemensPLM tweeted, "In case u missed @burhop's April Fool's blog post and the interesting discussion around it – it is reposted: http://bit.ly/ckdFyg."

And @DeelipMenezes tweeted: "'Siemens PLM offers CAD on the Cloud – Part 1' http://bit.ly/d0BZpK (For whatever it's worth, this is the post that I took down).

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1. Open is Relative
     - Looking Out from Inside the Corporation
     - April Fool's Day Web Pages

2. 4M IDEA and FINE

Also, Out of the Inbox and our other regular columns. You can read it all at www.upfrontezine.com/2010/upf-640.htm

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