A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to spend a
day visiting SDRC at their headquarters in Milford, Ohio. It had been
some time since we had a chance to review SDRC's directions and initiatives.
Recently SDRC has announced a series of events including: the release
of I-DEAS 8, the appointment of a new president, a focus on collaborative
product development, and a new organization.
During the visit we had a chance to speak
with Jim Rusk, vice president, Mechanical Design Automation Marketing
Group, Dick Russell Marketing Manager, Joe Malloni, Director of Strategic
Planning, and Glenn Wienkoop, President.
SDRC, like many CAD/CAM vendors is busy
reinventing itself for the new millennium and the challenges it represents.
The company sees itself evolving in three areas: growing the traditional
MDA business, dominating the PDM world (it is already the leading PDM
vendor), and becoming a leader in the emerging CPC environment. Its
e-Business collaboration solutions consist of 3 solution sets -- eDesign
Automation (with I-DEAS, FEMAP, Imageware), Product Knowledge Management
(with Metaphase and Slate), and CPC (with Accelis). Confusing the issues
(at least to us) are recent discontinuous entries into B2B ecommerce
- Metaphase digital dashboard, a partnership with CoCreate on OneSpace,
Engineering-on-tap, and MyCyberCAD. Evidently we are not alone discerning
where the B2B entries fit in SDRC's strategy, with SDRC finally admitting
that these offerings are helping it familiarize itself with e-commerce.
For customers with large engineering
staffs and global needs, SDRC seems well positioned to provide cradle
to grave solutions.
Forming the basis of their strategy is
I-DEAS 8, SDRC's MDA offering. Rusk described their MDA offering as
scalable, and offering solutions for both collaboration and for digital
production processes. I-DEAS 8 consist of the Master Series and the
Artisan Series.
After struggling with their entry level
positioning of the Artisan Series, it finally gets full functionality
with I-DEAS 8. Artisan's entry level package includes modeling, assembly,
and drafting priced at about $5,000, while the entry level I-DEAS product
design package costs $11,000. The difference is that Artisan in named
user licensed, while the Master Series is network licensed. Both have
access to the full Team Data Manager and can be mixed and matched as
desired within the same network.
In issue 40 we summarized the I-DEAS
8 announcement. Here is a recap. I-DEAS 8 highlights include I-DEAS
Web Access for sharing of engineering data, 3dDocCom for providing the
ability to document and communicate manufacturing information in 3D,
a Microsoft Windows native UI (but still using the non Windows like
SDRC GUI for cross platform consistency), the elimination of the former
two step drafting process, dynamic drag and drop interaction during
feature creation, the integration of the Imageware Surfacer product
as a feature within an I-DEAS part, and better large assembly management.
Simulation is enhanced by storing FE models in libraries and by new
section meshing and mid-surfacing tools. A new Core/Cavity application
speeds the process of creating mold or die halves and I-DEAS 8 Generative
Machining provides new features and enhancements for the quicker creation
of NC programs with expanded direct machine tool behavior control for
shorter cycle times. For those readers interested in a closer look,
we have saved a few screen shots and short descriptions from the I-DEAS
8 demos on core/cavity, 3dDocCom, and section meshing. Click
here to see them.
For all those interested in releasing
3D models directly to manufacturing and other downstream applications
3dDocCom (a real tongue twister), is the best we have seen. The software
fully documents a 3D model without requiring a drawing! SDRC last week
announced the 3dDocCom viewer, costing less than $500 per seat, which
improves its usefulness further. Other improvements include better filleting
(which we faulted SDRC for in our previous benchmark tests), patterns
as features, and VGX enabled drag and drop of features in real time.
Conclusions
Frankly we were impressed with the strides SDRC
has taken in the past twelve months! Not only have they made major improvements
in their MDA products, but are clearly focused on the collaborative
marketplace (as are their competitors as well). On the MDA side we like
the full function now of Artisan and the Master Series, the 3dDocCom,
and the improvements made in manufacturing and CAE. We are also excited
about SDRC's Accelis offering which promises to offer engineering systems
a way to make ALL data available through one portal.
The GUI for I-DEAS still needs improvement
- it looks too much like a Unix UI and SDRC continues to focus on large
customers or their suppliers. Most of its sales are still direct, so
small standalone users should look elsewhere.
http://www.SDRC.com
