A Less Emotional Look at CAD in the Cloud

Evan Yares started writing interesting articles on his own blog some time ago, and then recently shifted to writing for Design World, a publisher that I flirted with a little and didn’t decide to continue with. The guy in charge of Design World came to me and asked me what I thought of Evan as a replacement. I told him I was a little flattered to be replaced by a guy like that, and that Evan would be in an entirely different class. In a good way. Which for Design World was I’m sure happy news. Not sure how Evan feels about a ringing endorsement from Matt Lombard, but it probably won’t ruin his career.

Evan seems to have a reputation as a CAD industry bad boy, according to some people, but I’m not really interested in rehashing the past.  I’m liking what he has to say more and more. I don’t always agree with him, but I think in general he has an understanding of things that other CAD industry employees or other CAD press wonks don’t share. He seems to simultaneously cut through marketing BS and end user superstition to communicate ideas in a thoughtful and insightful way. I’ve referred to several of his articles from time to time, and I’m gonna do it again.

First of all, go check out Design World’s 3D CAD Tips site. There is a great range of articles covering topics from hardware to software to CAD business, interviews, and commentary. Pick up the RSS for 3D CAD Tips, and have Evan’s words piped directly into your brain.

Evan’s latest article that got my attention was called “Cloud CAD is Really Difficult“. With this article, I think he shows that he’s willing to have an opinion, unlike a lot of CAD writers. He shows that the question of CAD in the Cloud has many faces, and that all of those faces are complex issues on their own. In this article he just addresses creating the software. Not delivering or using it or securing it or selling it or preparing a network on which to use it. Just creation. Go ahead. Read it.

5 Replies to “A Less Emotional Look at CAD in the Cloud”

  1. I just don’t understand the rush to move entirely to Cloud CAD. There are reasonable places where cloud storage can augment a CAD environment and this makes sense. I’m thinking mostly about PDM data and sharing CAD data with others outside of the local “LAN” environment. I think the CAD companies need to show that they can walk before they run. And also be sure that there’s a real world benefit to the bottom line. Let’s bring this whole cloud thing down to Earth.

  2. CAD on The Cloud, yawn…

    It’s been discussed ad nauseam by old gray haired product managers. Put up or shut up, move on, please.

    Oh wait, maybe its still being discussed in a design committee meeting… Lets table that for now, next up SolidWorks V6…LOL!

    Devon

  3. The difficulty of CAD on the cloud is most likely too much for Solidworks. My local bandwidth would make it extremely difficult. My bandwidth at sea, 4800 baud, would be impossible. Not to mention $1.20 per minute of connect time. I think that solidworks CAD on the cloud is nothing more than an unreliable and slow implementaiton of a dongle.

  4. Currently trying to decide between solidedge ST4 or solidworks 2012. What to do?
    We deal mainly with sheetmetal assemblies. We are very interested with the ST4’s capabilities with direct modeling, but love the solidworks interface and add-on’s much more. Especially costing. What is your thoughts?

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