DISQUS

I find Microsoft's Live Maps to be better than Google Earth. Microsoft has had 3D capabilities in the browser version for a while now. I find their satellite images are more up to date, the image quality for images mapped onto terrain and 3D buildings seems more realistic, and they are already adding at least part of the photosynthe capabilites in as the birds eye feature - very awesome. Check it out. Make sure to click on the 3D tab - this will install whats necessary for the full program.

http://maps.live.com

Pete

I don't think the direct modelling will come very soon to SolidWorks - unless SolidEdge receives the same Synchronous tech that NX gets. I would expect some things to filter down to SolidWorks from the V6 platform, though - just how soon? I have no idea. Here is some info on some tools in V6 that do direct editing. CAD vendors have been working on this stuff for years - it hasn't simply happened overnight like the press releases make it feel. Seems like once one company announced the capability, they all had to jump to announce they have or will have it soon too.

V6 Info

Steve... Read some info on Dassault's new V6 platform. There could be some interesting news coming out soon. SolidWorks has been a little longer this year in making the Beta (2009) available. Don't know what this means really, but it could be due to some bigger changes in play... CB Model Pro and Cosmic Blobs are the direct modelling stuff that SolidWorks has been playing around with for years seemingly trying to get everything right before its added to the core platform of SolidWorks. I think given all these pieces of info, we can read between the lines as to what is coming next. I think an important question would be if Dassault and SolidWorks head in this direction, then how quickly with AutoDesk scarf up SpaceClaim...

I should mention that with Foldershare I have synced close to 9,000 files - which translates into GigaBytes of data. It quickly keeps up with changes as well.

Hi Josh,

Nice post. I think this or things like it will be huge in the near future. As I have mentioned before I am using Foldershare to sync files between my home PC and a company across the country. It has worked great so far and has really opened a door to an opportunity much easier and more efficiently than it could have been before this (gather up files and FTP, email, certain enterprise PDM packages, etc...). Foldershare looks like it will be included as maybe one cog in the wheel of Live Mesh. Very exciting. In your ultimate PDM asassin post I mentioned that the web and OS's are doing more of the daily PDM stuff and although its not really CAD centric yet - it definitely is heading in that direction. Live Mesh looks like it will open the doors further for 3rd party vendors (SolidWorks) to use the hooks to make Live Mesh function more "CAD central". We are living in interesting times...

Josh,

It will be interesting to watch and see how much "PDM" will be buit into the web and also to operating systems. I am pretty sure that a version or two of Windows Vista will allow you to rollback to a previously saved state of a file. Within the OS itself, it is beginning to provide some PDM like capabilities. I am using FolderShare from Microsoft as a means of sharing data in multiple sites - way cool and previously would have cost a ton of money. These tools are not offering all the things needed and are not necessarily "CAD Central", but its neat to see the gap close somewhat...

The future of CAD will be tied to real time physics calculations being processed by incredibly powerful desktop computers or grid computing corporate networks. We will be able to push a mechanism through its range of motion and instantly see reactions and stresses and strains as a result. CAD and Analysis of CAD models will become linked together so that it appears they are the same. If I won, I would use my motion controller to eliminate the pain in my wrist and upper shoulder. Sorry I can't send you a message on twitter - my company blocks it.

Just thinking out loud here... wonder if instant 3d could be coupled with DriveWorks in any way. Instant 3D DriveWorks...

Josh,

I just started messing around with this tool. You are correct about its limitations. Microsoft has another tool in beta right now. Its called Foldershare. This tool is very useful to sync data from mulitple computers. I have it running on my work machine and my home machine. It synchronizes the changes that happen to selected folders on each machine that has the foldershare app running on it. This could be great for having SolidWorks data synchronized across different sites. I don't know how quickly it syncs files, but nonetheless its good to see someone is working in this direction.

https://www.foldershare.com/

Josh,

Very interesting about the Catia V6 kernel in regards to a number of things, but probably most interesing is Dassualt's intent to create an AEC product based on it. I am using SolidWorks to model a house right now. A lot can be done with weldments, routing, etc... By the way... Just saw this.

http://www.solidworks-aec.com/index.html

Josh,

This may be it.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/18/microsoft-...

Interesting to see photosythe surface again...

Pete

Wonder what industry it would affect the most? Scanning/reverse engineering?

I think we'll eventually see this coupled with Virtual Earth (similar to Google's Virtual Earth, but I would argue better). The virtual earth could begin to look very real and even more real as more people upload photos to the internet. As more pictures are taken and uploaded, photosynthe can use more data from the web to drive the data in Virtual Earth. Virtual Earth would be a system for making money via advertising as everyone would look to it for information (maybe web 3.0, 4.0,...??) I don't think they are looking to have really accurate scanning/reverse engineering apps come from photosynthe. I see no reason why they would kill Flickr. In fact if something like photosynthe could really take advantage of Flickr, then I would think Microsoft would try to improve and promote Flickr.

Josh,

Take a look at Photosynthe from Microsoft. Its a development project and you can watch a demonstration on You tube or somewhere else. This might explain why they would be interested in Flickr, and using the data on Flickr to drive the models created from Photosynthe.

Pete