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Passionate users

One thing I love about my industry (CAD/PLM) is the number of passionate users is very high.  I would say almost to Apple levels of passion.  More than anything else, that’s why I see in posts like this from Matt.
Matt Writes » Blog Archive » Is there a crisis in the SolidWorks community?

Amityville II: The Possession movie


It’s a tough thing to see the product you depend on and have invested in learning go in a direction you don’t agree with.  I especially feel for the development partners – having to re-architect because your platform vendor made a major change can be a tremendous investment.  Maybe a good time for all to look to alternatives or do what most seem to be – sticking with the old version.

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2 responses to “Passionate users”

  1. Dave B Avatar
    Dave B

    For the mid to small CAD markets, CAD has become a commodity. AutoCAD LT, SketchUp, Alibre, etc. There are a lot of low-cost alternatives out there. Who really uses all the advanced features if you're not in aerospace or some "high tolerance" industry?
    Therefore there's a lot of pressure to go out on a limb and be a differentiator. Maybe that's what's going on here and some efforts are backfiring. I know that SWX has traditionally always listened to customers when gathering requirements for future versions.
    What we need is "the next big thing" for CAD. Any ideas? 😉

    Reply
  2. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    Many 😉
    I think one of the next big thing in CAD is going to be CAD you don’t know you’re using. Enabling everyone to be a designer and not just the feeble attempts that have been made so far to ‘dumb’ down tools and make them ‘ez’. I’m talking about tools I could give my daughter so she could design what she wants for Christmas (so I wouldn’t have to buy her that awful Pleo ;-)) and then I could find some place to have it made.
    CAD that allows us to return to the days of the artisan. CAD that let’s us get exactly what we want. CAD that’s…not CAD at all like what we have today.
    At the opposite end of the spectrum, I think that CAD has to become more than just geometry. Products (and not just cars) have an increasing amount of value being added by electronics and software and its still way to hard to get to a unified model of how all that will look before you build it.
    Anyone else?

    Reply

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