Tag: CAD

20% of firms will own no IT assets by 2012

A fifth of enterprises will hold no IT assets by 2012 as cloud computing and mobile working practices become commonplace, Gartner predicts (reports Information Age). Technologies such as ‘cloud computing’ and virtualisation within the enterprise will result in a fifth of businesses owning no IT assets whatsoever by 2012, says Gartner research, with more and …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/01/20-of-firms-will-own-no-it-assets-by-2012/

Project Bluestreak and the ‘collaboration kernel’

I wrote about Autodesk’s experimental BIM collaboration environment, Project Bluestreak, last November, being interested in both its promise of accelerated building information modelling (BIM) and its deployment of Web 2.0 tools to help speed up the application’s development. On his StressFree blog, David Harrison has written a long and detailed paper, Bluestreak and the birth …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/01/project-bluestreak-and-the-collaboration-kernel/

Box.net and Motion Computing target construction

I use Box.net as an online file back-up and storage solution, and chanced upon a blog post by Box.net’s senior business development manager Matt Soldo talking about a new reseller relationship with Austin, Texas-based Motion Computing, who produce ruggedised tablet PCs. Positioning itself as “Your plan room in the cloud” (a familiar US refrain), Box.net …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2010/01/boxnet-and-motion-computing-target-construction/

Bye-bye BT Workspace, Hello Glasscubes

Glasscubesinterface

In early 2007, I wrote about BT Workspace, a Software-as-a-Service that the UK telecoms giant was offering to small and medium-sized businesses. Built on a modified version of the Microsoft SharePoint platform by US company SMBLive, BT Worskspace offered extranet-type project workplaces at a competitive price (£7.50 per company user per month; free for micro-teams …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2009/10/bye-bye-bt-workspace-hello-glasscubes/

ArchiCAD 13 and BIM collaboration

Over the past month, I have heard and read quite a bit about Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD 13: First, I read Lachmi Khemlani’s AECbytes review, telling me that, for the first time, a commercially available building information modelling (BIM) application now included server-based collaboration that potentially allows team members to work together in real-time. Next, I encountered …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2009/10/archicad-13-and-bim-collaboration/

SaaS as a software protection strategy

Reading WorldCAD Access and The CAD Industry blogs this morning, I learned about the latest developments in a court case brought by Autodesk to stop an eBay trader, Tim Vernor, from selling second-hand CAD software. Ignoring the complex issues relating to copyright, it occurred to me that other software vendors are already side-stepping such issues …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2009/10/saas-as-a-software-protection-strategy/

CAD in the cloud

I have talked in this blog a number of times about the potential for design applications to be delivered as online solutions (CADaaS, BIMaaS), where the application and associated data is hosted ‘in the cloud’, and some of my designer friends have pooh-poohed the idea. Autodesk, however, has at least been experimenting with the idea …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2009/09/cad-in-the-cloud-2/

From PLM and social media, to AEC design

I have been monitoring conversations about social media among some manufacturing and product lifecycle management (PLM) commentators, and a post by Desktop Engineering‘s Kenneth Wong – What PLM Can Learn from Social Media – has lingered in a browser tab for most of the past two days as I’ve re-read it and pondered it. Kenneth …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2009/08/from-plm-and-social-media-to-aec-design/

Putting the social into AEC development

I have been following posts on a blog hosted by PTC, a vendor of product development technology solutions to ‘discrete manufacturers’. Its product lifecycle management (PLM) applications are widely used in the industrial, high-tech, aerospace and defence, automotive, consumer and medical device sectors. OK, not my usual industry interests, but useful nonetheless as the blog …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2009/06/putting-the-social-into-aec-development/

Enter Colaab

After some Twitter conversation yesterday about Woobius (see post), I was recommended to have a look at another low-cost web-based file-sharing service, Colaab. Right from the home page, Colaab claims the value of its browser-based system for design revew. It uses an enhancement of Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, Deepzoom (good primer here), to allow large image …

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Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2009/04/enter-colaab/

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