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| Fusion 360 - a new CAD era ? |
Almost everyone who follows the CAD field in the last 20 years can tell
you the biggest mistake of Autodesk which, in the mid-nineties, allowed a small start-up company from Concord Massachusetts to precede
it with a new software who took the lead at the SMB MCAD market. Those involved
in the industry, also heard the story of how and why Autodesk missed the
purchase of SolidWorks. The version I heard, suggest the two sides set to close this acquisition when a
director at Autodesk told SolidWorks they will have to delay the plans to launch the new software until they
change it to Autodesk own DWG format. SolidWorks blew up the meeting and set
out an independent (and later acquired by Dassault Systemes). Autodesk then
develop the Autodesk Inventor, a new Windows native solid modeler but lost 3
important years battling SolidWorks with an old looking solution based on
AutoCAD.
A few years later, when Revit
for architecture released and proposed a smart 3D architectural design,
Autodesk was quick to acquire the company and make the software a market leader
next to the common AutoCAD.
Since then, it seems Autodesk look closely at the market and checks
carefully any trend or new beginning.
It turns out that SolidWorks announcement two years ago, that they are moving
to a next-generation cloud based solution as a replacement to the current successful
CAD software, did not leave Autodesk indifferent. While SolidWorks delay the launch of the new
product to 2013 and changed its
position, Autodesk, determined not to be left behind this time, released
this week the opening shot in what is going to be the race to the cloud. The Autodesk Fusion 360 is a brand new
3D solid modeler. The software uses cloud technology to perform some tasks. Similar
to the Fusion software and the 123D free modeler the
software performs operations and geometry changes directly on the
three-dimensional topology regardless of the model's history. Approach called
"direct
edit".
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| SolidWorks V6 |
Soon we will see SolidWorks giving more details about the mysterious V6
version. The software should be exposed at the SolidWorks world
in late January 2013. Autodesk not yet released the beta version of the new
software, Autodesk Fusion 360 but, opened the registration to download the
beta. The two new programs will be available in 2013 and both will be sold
aside the flagship programs of each company, Autodesk Inventor and SolidWorks. It
looks like Autodesk's new infant has a better starting point. Autodesk has gained extensive practical
experience in the last two years with direct editing software. Inventor Fusion beta
has long been available for free download and more than a million users took
advantage of this opportunity. Fusion 360 will use the same geometry kernel as Inventor
(and AutoCAD) and therefore will allow a seamless file transition with the
flagship software. SolidWorks on the other side, will use at new software for
the first time the Catia GSM geometric engine (kernel). Major differences
between the CGM and SolidWorks V1 Parasolid, are expected to create significant
problems when sharing files
between programs.
After 17 years of evolving technology in the CAD software. 2013 is
expected to introduce a new generation of modern software.
Gal Raz
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