Re: 3D/EYE and SolidWorks

From: Marshall Burns (Ennex Corporation), Terry Wohlers (Wohlers Associates)
Date: Monday, November 20, 1995

From: Marshall Burns (Ennex  Corporation), Terry Wohlers (Wohlers Associates)
To: RP-ML
Date: Monday, November 20, 1995
Subject: Re: 3D/EYE and SolidWorks
A question for software experts like Terry Wohlers and Peter Gien:
     Trispectives (from 3D/Eye) and SolidWorks were both very impressive 
in their AutoFact demos, and the question I was left with is whether 
there will be much reason for people to pay the 8-times-higher price 
for SolidWorks. 
     The Feature Manager looks useful and unique to SolidWorks. But since 
3D/Eye says you can write custom programs for Trispectives in Visual 
Basic, I wonder if some smart programmer will put a third-party feature 
manager on the market for Trispectives.
     Are there other features in SolidWorks that will justify choosing it 
over Trispectives?

Date: 21 Nov 95 22:07:37 EST
From: Terry Wohlers <73417.1465@compuserve.com>
To: "\"M. Burns (marshall@ennex.com)\"" <mburns@netcom.com>
> Trispectives (from 3D/Eye) and SolidWorks were both very impressive 
> in their AutoFact demos, and the question I was left with is whether ... 
     Marshall - Believe it or not, many companies continue to view product quality
on the basis of its price.  Many will not take the TriSpectives product
seriously because it's only $499 and it doesn't run on an expensive UNIX
workstation.  If TriSpectives becomes popular, it will be because individuals
see the merit of products that offer so much for so little -- that
price/performance thing.  Before ya know it, the product "could" start poping
up everywhere.  That's what happened when AutoCAD took away the CAD drafting
market from CADAM, Anvil, CV, and the rest of them in the mid-1980s.  Companies
such Boeing and Ford had no idea how many AutoCAD seats were in the company
until they started counting.  They were astounded when they did.  AutoCAD was
never a part of the strategic CAD purchase.  It found its way into the company
in other ways, and that could happen with TriSpectives.  
     I saw several people carrying a purchased copy of TriSpectives at Autofact. 
Imagine that 10 years ago!  Times have changed!
Terry Wohlers 
Wohlers Associates

Date: Wed, 22 Nov 1995 02:17:28 -0800 (PST)
From: "M. Burns (marshall@ennex.com)" <mburns@netcom.com>
To: Terry Wohlers <73417.1465@compuserve.com>
Hi Terry,
     Thanks for your message. So shall I infer from it that you see 
little actual additional value in SolidWorks over Trispectives?
     I think you are right about the potential for very large sales of 
Trispectives, even if there are good reasons for power users to get 
SolidWorks. We're talking about a fancy solid modeling package for the same 
price as a fancy word processor, and that can work interactively with 
word processors and other fancy software. Paul Allen may soon have 
another few billion to figure out how to spend.
     Any reason you didn't post your answer on the ML?
Best regards,
Marshall Burns

Date: 22 Nov 95 16:11:11 EST
From: Terry Wohlers <73417.1465@compuserve.com>
To: "\"M. Burns (marshall@ennex.com)\"" <mburns@netcom.com>
Marshall,
> So shall I infer from it that you see little actual additional value in
> SolidWorks over Trispectives?
     While both are good solid modelers -- especially considering that they are in
their first release -- there are differences.  TriSpectives is better for a
combination of design, illustration, and some animation, but it lacks
production drafting features.  SolidWorks offers a better combination of design
and drafting, with full associativity.  Also, SolidWorks offers an excellent
method of managing features using a tree-like structure of icons called
FeatureManager.
> Paul Allen may soon have another few billion to figure out how to spend.
     I'm sure the execs at 3D/EYE are hoping for that.
> Any reason you didn't post your answer on the ML?
     Oops,... thought I did.  I'll combine the above paragraph with the one I sent
you before and then post it.  Thanks for pointing that out.
Have a Happy Turkey Day?
Terry
P.S. How's business?


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