The CAD Rating Guide
About the book:
Description
Table of
Contents
Featured Systems
Reviews
A New Way to Think About CAD Systems
Glossary
Checklist
Directory
How to Contribute:
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Table of Contents, 5th Edition
Disclaimer .......................... v
Trademarks ........................ vii
About the Author ................... ix
Acknowledgments ..................... x
Publisher's Foreword................ xi
Forewords to the Fifth Edition ... xiii
Foreword to the Fourth Edition ..... xv
Foreword to the First Edition .... xvii
Table of Contents ................. xix
Section I -- Background and Concepts
provides the means for interpreting the mass of information in the remaining
sections and provides the basis for understanding it, its organization, and a means of
placing the information in proper perspective.
1 Introduction: READ THIS FIRST!
.......................................... 1
2 The Big Picture: A New Way of Thinking About CAD Systems
.......................................... 5
lays the groundwork for evaluating CAD systems and examines and evaluates the
fundamental and structural factors of a CAD system. It looks at the concepts behind CAD
systems.
3 Illustrated Glossary
.......................................... 9
emphasizes the importance of the terminology used in the CAD field and eliminates
any confusion about which meaning is intended.
4 User Feedback
......................................... 43
a summary of users' comments applicable to any system.
5 Productivity Checklist
......................................... 49
consists of a discussion on choosing a CAD manager plus a checklist of key
productivity issues for use as an outline for your own company's discussion on
productivity.
Section II -- Products
........................... 55
provides basic information about products and vendors.
6 Products
......................................... 57
presents three sets of data: a Product Summary, Vendor's Statement, and Users'
Comments. The Product Summary consists of a description of the system, system
configurations, prices, options and requirements, along with the primary point of contact.
In addition, information is provided about the primary applications for the system, user
groups, third-party products, journals, bulletin boards, and more. The second set of data
Vendor's Statement consists of the vendor's response to a set of questions and describes
the vendors' view of what is important about that product, and its positioning in the
market. Comments from the users of the system are presented in the third set.
7 Other Systems
........................................ 317
presents other CAD, FEM, GIS, and animation vendors and products with description
and contact information. Includes explanations of product and vendor mergers,
acquisitions, and transitions as well, with pointers to the current companies and renamed
products. Almost 700 vendors and 850 products.
Section III -- Tables
.......................... 381
CAD systems in the competitive arena are continually leapfrogging one
another. Section III avoids this and focuses on information that is relatively
time-insensitive aspects of systems that are structural in nature and fundamental to the
basis of CAD systems. In order to present this in a cohesive and accessible manner, the
information is grouped into 9 chapters of tables according to the scheme presented in
Chapter 2.
8 Operating System Core: Platform / Standards
....................................... 383
9 External Factors: Market Focus /
Operating Environment: Communications Services
....................................... 399
10 Data Management System: Data Structure and MDMS /
Database Engine
....................................... 417
11 Core Geometry Engine: Groups/Display
....................................... 433
12 Core Geometry Engine: Data Structure
....................................... 449
13 Core Geometry Engine: Import-Export +
Tools/Customization
....................................... 465
14 Core Geometry Engine: Modeling & Rendering + Engine
/ Advanced Features
....................................... 481
15 Core Geometry Engine: Application Specific Design
....................................... 497
16 External Factors: Company Policies
....................................... 513
17 External Factors: Languages / Company Data + Market
Penetration
....................................... 531
Section IV -- Listings
.......................... 547
The search for an appropriate product out of the multitude of choices is
made easier with the assistance of categorical listings in Section IV. These listings,
Chapters 18 through 21,can act as a guide to narrowing the range of systems to investigate.
19 Product Listings: by System Name
....................................... 549
20 Product Listings: by Price
....................................... 551
21 Product Listings: by Platform
....................................... 557
22 Product Listings: by Market Focus
....................................... 569
Section V -- Surveys
.......................... 583
The primary sources of information in preparing for this book, The CAD Rating Guide®
Vendor Survey and The CAD Rating Guide® User Survey, are presented in Section
V.
23 Vendor Survey
....................................... 585
24 CAD User Survey
....................................... 607
Index
........................................615
(The disk that comes with this book has on it the Microsoft Excel 97 file that was used to create the tables chapter.)
find out about how to participate as a Vendor
User Survey forms
This page last updated on Thursday, March 01, 2001
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