Materialise thinking public with F-1 filing
We're used to 3D printer news coming from hardware vendors like Stratasys and 3D Systems. But there are software vendors in this space, too, and the hardware vendors are looking to service bureaus to strengthen their ties with customers -- it's not all printers and...
Deals in AEC and 3D printing — no Foolin’
Remember how I wrote on Monday that the PLMish world was quiet, at least as far as acquisitions were concerned? I spoke too soon! Yesterday we learned of three deals, one in process modeling and two in 3D printing. Neither is an April Fool's joke, though there were a...
Morning coffee: recalls and virtual reality
Good morning! Hope you had an awesome weekend. Let's get this week off to a good start by recapping what happened last week. It’s the Economy … Economic news continues to be mixed. Depending on where you are in the world, it's looking up or slowing down; by industry,...
Nemetschek optimistic about 2014
Back in February, Nemetschek announced preliminary results that were pretty good -- growth accelerated towards the end of 2013, with Q4 coming in at €52 million, up 9% year/year. Full year revenue was up 6% to €186 million. Today the company confirmed those earlier...
Shipbuilding’s resource management challenge
A long time ago I took a job at Bath Iron Works, in the Hull Drawing Room. MIT hadn't taught me anything as practical as how a ship was actually built (although I could analyze the heck out of it), so the Drawing Room foreman sent me on rotation through the shipyard's...
Exa: strong end to FY14; optimistic for FY15
Exa Corporation, maker of PowerFlow and related CFD applications, reported results last night that delighted investors enough to boost the share up 11% at the open and up 4% as things calm down a bit in mid-day trading. One investor wrote that the combination of two...
Rethinking CAM: Let’s Go Back to Where It All Began
Did you know that CAD technology came about, in part, to feed our growing need for advanced manufacturing processes? By the 1970s, even the best machine operators couldn't manually generate the instructions for machining complex automotive and aerospace shapes and 3D...
Morning coffee: buying, selling and surveys
Welcome to a new week! We hope you had a fabulous weekend. Here in New England, we're veering between lovely spring weather and cold winter, with snow in the forecast yet again. Sorry that this post is later than usual; server issues have had the Schnitger Corp...
Creative Market + Autodesk brings “mousemade” to makers
According to TechCrunch, Autodesk just acquired Creative Market, a startup that acts as a marketplace for digital content like fonts, icons and templates. Autodesk hasn't made an official announcement yet, but TechCrunch cites a blog post by Creative Market founder...
Hexagon completes its transformation
Hexagon is reinventing itself, moving from its legacy as a contract metals manufacturer and producer of valves, antennas and pressure vessels, to a conglomerate focusing on measurement technology. Today, the company said it has sold the last piece of the "old"...
Morning coffee: investor news, China & bees
Happy Monday! Last week was a big one, with all of the regular news plus International Pi Day and the 25th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee's proposal for what we know today as the Internet. Sir Berners-Lee used the occasion to call for an Internet users' "Magna Carta...
ESI ends 2013 on an up, with revenue +7% in Q4
ESI Group yesterday announced results for the quarter and year ended January 31, 2014. Total revenue for the quarter was €45.5 million, up 7% as reported and up 13% in constant currencies (cc). For the year, total revenue was €109 million, flat year/year as reported...
Happy Pi Day!
Today is March 14, which in the US is written as 3/14 and has morphed from a day to celebrate the birth of Albert Einstein and the Greek letter π into a day to eat ... pie. The US Department of Education has some nifty ways to celebrate, including writing a Pi-ku. A...
Hexagon expands into vehicle safety
Last month, drone multicopters. This week, vehicle safety. Hexagon continues to push the envelope on our definition of precision measurement technology, taking it in unexpected directions -- like collision avoidance in mines. SAFEmine started six years ago,...
Rethinking simulation — should you?
Not long ago, I was at a user conference and started chatting with the person sitting next to me. Interesting guy, works for a company that makes plastic doohickeys. We're talking about his design challenges, and how he wants to use CAD/CAM technology to make better...
Morning coffee: deals, grants and the budget
Happy Monday! Did you remember to change your clock on Sunday? If you're in the US, you lost an hour of sleep this weekend. If you're not, please understand that your US colleagues are sleep-deprived and feeling like we're all an hour behind. We'll get over it. Coffee...
ANSYS hits Q4 targets, but plans to do better
ANSYS keeps rolling along, relying on a mix of products and end-industries to insulate it somewhat from broader macroeconomic winds. The company reported Q4 revenue of $236 million, up 7% from a year ago, with software revenue up 4% to $148 million and maintenance and...
Autodesk’s Q4: license transition, AEC strength
Let's do a little math, shall we? If we buy software at Staples for $5,000, Staples gets $5,000 and the creator of the software gets maybe $3,000 of that. Assuming we don't buy any more, in 5 years, the vendor will have gotten just $3,000 from us. If we buy that same...
Morning coffee: earnings & manufacturing at the White House
Happy Monday! We hope you had an excellent weekend and that your favorite movie won big at the Oscars. Pour a cup and let’s do a quick recap of last week as we warm up to a new one. It’s the Economy … A strong "meh" isn't really the news we want, but that's what we're...
US shipbuilding: a study in contrasts
Did you know that US shipyards built 1260 ships in 2012? And that 99% of the units were commercial while 60% of the revenue seen by the builders was from the military? Me neither -- I had suspected but had no idea it was this imbalanced. I also didn't know that the US...
