Direct Modeling more popular among CAD Vendors

Let’s be clear about this. Direct Model Editing is generally an old concept, CAD-wise, which is being applied in some new ways in the last year or so in the CAD world. To some extent it is a technological development, but it is in my opinion more evolutionary than revolutionary. It’s not a big change, just a step forward. The real development here is a marketing development. CAD companies are getting scrappy trying to out-do one another, but they are fighting over the same jaded customers over whom they have fought for the last 30 years.

The real point of the resurgence of Direct Model Editing is that it removes specialized knowledge from the equation. Now you can have your office manager update the cast transmission housing instead of an engineer or CAD specialist. Imagine the money management can save now! We can get rid of engineers, and just have untrained people make models for us!

I think that’s the level that the CAD vendors are pushing. By making CAD available to current non-CAD users, they are opening up a whole new class of customers. The new Siemens offering as well as Spaceclaim are clearly aimed at this non-CAD user. Even SolidWorks is pushing to increase overall seat sales and revenue so much that they can’t do it selling to the relatively entrenched current CAD user base. In SolidWorks, the Instant 3D gimmick is one step in this direction. The Siemens stuff is a leap-frog/copy cat feature, copying Spaceclaim and Instant3D and out-doing each to some extent. Outdoing Spaceclaim because Solid Edge and UG/NX also have parametrics and Spaceclaim does not, and outdoing SolidWorks because the Siemens direct model editing deals with fillets better and the interface for the direct changes is less cumbersome.

For existing CAD users, this means one of two things:

1) If you make your living editing simple models, one of these tools may be used by you (or someone with less skill than you) to do the same work more easily

2) For people who work in more complex parts or design from the ground up, I think the whole direct modeling concept is going to mean very little until it progresses to the next level with the ability to directly manipulate a full range of general NURBS curvature.

I’ve said this before, but I’ll repeat it here because I think it’s at the heart of the argument. Pushing direct modeling tools too far down the ladder to enable non-engineer/designer workers (such as machinists, graphics artists, marketing people or general office personell) to make engineering/design changes will have a backlash.

I personally don’t think the the direct model editing market is going to be significantly larger than the existing CAD market unless the price is in the sub $2000 range. At that price, it will start to cannibalize the low end of the existing CAD market rather than add to it.

Is the functionality valid? Yes. Is the market approach valid? Maybe. I think this is what everyone is waiting to see right now. Who is going to buy into this? Direct model editing is not going to replace parametrics completely. There are too many real benefits in parametrics for models which change predictably.

They are trying to sell this to non-specialists, but ironically, some things about direct model editing require the user to understand more about the underlying construction of CAD models (b-rep, NURBS, and limitations of representing surfaces) than parametric modeling does.