Autodesk goes CAM!

Autodesk goes CAM!

Autodesk announced this week that it is offering £20.75 per share (for a total of about £172.5 million) to acquire Delcam, the publicly traded UK-based vendor of CAM-specific CAD, manufacturing and inspection solutions. Delcam reported 2012 revenue of £47.1 million,...
Autodesk goes CAM!

Hexagon’s Q3, Shell & rentals

While I was wandering in East and North Yorkshire, 3D Systems, Accelrys, FARO, Hexagon, Nemetschek and other companies announced results for the September quarter. Time for recaps so, first up, in keeping with the Plant/Infrastructure theme we have going, let’s...
Autodesk acquires class-A sufacing from VSR

Autodesk acquires class-A sufacing from VSR

Autodesk announced on Monday that it has acquired “certain technology assets” from Virtual Shape Research GmbH (VSR), a developer of class-A surface modeling and conceptual design software. In an always-awkward turn of phrase, the company said that...
Bentley Inspired by Infrastructure

Bentley Inspired by Infrastructure

Bentley Systems’ Be Inspired awards felt different this year. It’s always a showcase of tough, complex infrastructure problems like righting the Costa Concordia, bringing clean water to underserved populations, or building a massive rail structure under a...
Engineers RULE: Righting the Costa Concordia

Engineers RULE: Righting the Costa Concordia

Were you glued to the TV/Interwebs the day the Costa Concordia was righted? I definitely was. The cruise ship ran aground and capsized off the Italian island of Giglio nearly two years ago, where it has lain as engineers, regulators and environmental activists tried...
Quickies: Bentley Day 1, some catch-up and more sheep!

Quickies: Bentley Day 1, some catch-up and more sheep!

A lot happened while I was walking around Yorkshire and we need to cover Bentley’s Year in Infrastructure Day 1, too, so let’s get right to it: ESI Group announced that it has acquired 75% of the equity of CyDesign Labs, a Silicon Valley company that many...
Totally OT: Yorkshire, sheep & weather

Totally OT: Yorkshire, sheep & weather

I’m in the UK for Bentley Systems’ annual media/analyst event but need to tell you about my recent vacation: walking what might be the UK’s least-known National Trail, the Yorkshire Wolds Way. The Wolds Way runs 80 miles, from Hessle (near Hull on...
Autodesk’s Dynamo changes conceptual design

Autodesk’s Dynamo changes conceptual design

Have you ever sat though a 4+ hour meeting? You get kinda dozey, right? That happened to me a few weeks ago as I was listening to Autodesk’s investor day presentations. It was long, there were interesting bits, but …. Then SVP Amar Hanspal showed a little...
Autodesk goes CAM!

The ups & downs of license model choice

We learned earlier this week what can happen when customers are offered a choice and pick something unexpected: Dassault Systèmes announced that it failed to meet its third quarter 2013 revenue goals, in part, because more customers opted for rentals/subscription than...
PI Congress wrap-up: lots of PLM

PI Congress wrap-up: lots of PLM

Last week, I attended the Product Innovation Congress (PI Congress, for short), put on by MarketKey in a rather …unusual… hotel outside Chicago. This was the 2013 edition of last year’s PLM Innovation Americas conference, which focused a lot on PLM...