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...