4D Pipeline - Visualizing reality, trends and breaking news in 3D, CAD, and mobile.

You heard it hear first. Watch this space.

Newly incorporated Belmont Technlogy, made up of some heavy hitters from Solidworks and related, including John McEleney, former SW CEO and BM for Newforma. 

Very curious to what this team gets up to. Stay tuned for more info!

This is not as they claim and "Industry First". In fact it amazes me that companies (this is one of a few) are getting funding for this. It's basically grab iRay, add a web UI, and wah lah, physically correct cloud rendering. So why are we seeing them succeed? (or at least gain funding) especially when there are plenty of great companies out there that are clear leaders in this space (RTT, Bunkspeed, ...). So why? 1. consumer approach - it's questionable whether or not this is a smart business model for this type of solution but nevertheless Consumer focus is popular to investors; 2. "reimagining" again popular with investors, trying to take a new approach to a space that has been a red ocean space. 3. cloud, access anywhere. Now it is darn helpful to have cloud based raytracing which can be run from any device and does not require the hardware. It's also good to have a focused business/product on this. 4. Visual. One thing I love about 3D and visualization is people SEE it, they GET it. 5. Simplicity. One thing, one product, one focus. The 2012/2013 companies do this well. Do one thing and do it well. TinkerCAD was a recent casualty in this space. Will be interesting to see how these guys go. I'll be watching

As always, some great market insights here. Graphs are especially helpful.

Autodesk continues its acquisition spree, with the latest acquisition of PI-VR  (visualization solutions in automotive and manufacturing).

This is after Autodesk as already acquired similar companies in the past like Opticore, and another German visualization company Numenus.de.

It's also an interesting acquisition as this software will once again compete with Autodesk Showcase.

This leaves Automotive companies now have one less competing visualization solution provider (good and bad). It's now Autodesk, Autodesk, Autodesk, or RTT, Bunkspeed, or a few others.

I suspect, RTT and Bunkspeed, will continue to innovate and set the pace for Autodesk to follow.

More analysis to come.

If you've been reading my blog for a while you will see that one of the things I'm very excited about are the changes and opportunities in the BIM and AEC/O (Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Owners) space.

With similarities to the manufacturing PLM space, the AEC BIM space is finally modernizing itself and starting to take advantage of all the tremendous advances in mobile, collaboration, cloud, access anywhere, etc.

It's awesome to see 3D Visual BIM data becoming more and more accessible to downstream people, i.e. not just Architect and Engineers but owners, facility managers, and building occupants.

This is a great article as it reminds us that there are still truckloads (pun) of opportunities in the construction and field BIM space. We've seen a few AEC ISV companies operating in this space namely Vela (bought up by Autodesk) and also Latista. However I am sure that in the coming months we'll see more. In particular, we'll see more easy to install Apps for the field (and FM) that work with existing BIM data (if you haven't already, take a look at the bim+ approach www.bimplus.net ).

Exciting times ahead in the for Owners and Consumers of BIM data and all those wanting to interact and access information from buildings and from the process of building buildings.

Are you defining a new market? or are you improving an existing one? This is such a fundamental question but it is one that is often passed over or incorrectly answered. The answer to this question changes almost every aspect of your business strategy.

This article is not only is a good reminder of why Lean and Agile can work so well, the image/table captures the difference between sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation.