The New White Paper Marketing

Correction [12/23]: Per Mike, you can indeed find the white paper on the Autodesk website, on the Map3D white paper page.

I see those “white papers” listed on tech sites - mostly from IBM, Symantec et. al. - and don’t think much about them or their marketing potential. (Worth noting: this discussion of white papers on Ralph Grabowski’s blog. By the way, I’ve written many white papers for my employers and lately, for a variety of clients.)

But today I found this oddly titled white paper on ZDNet (actually, the French version, but it’s on the UK one, too): “Liberating ESRI ArcSDE Geospatial Data with Autodesk Map 3D” Or, maybe the paper is titled, “Autodesk Map 3D 2006 and ESRI ArcSDE Basics” It’s not really clear. Anyway, unlike the more broadly geared papers I’m used to, this is very narrowly focused. How many just regular techies have heard of ArcSDE or Autodesk Map 3D?

Here’s the publisher’s description of the paper:

Many organizations – utilities, telecommunication providers, and government agencies, for example – depend on geospatial data that is stored in a database accessed only by ESRI ArcSDE software. But how can various groups across an organization – such as an engineering staff – obtain the data they need without going through those who have the ESRI software? Autodesk Map® 3D 2006 reduces bottlenecks and data management costs with powerful CAD tools that are familiar to many users in an organization. Map 3D software enables organizations to expand access to the geospatial data that was once available only to GIS professionals using ESRI software.

Learn how organizations can use Map 3D to connect, read, edit, and save data stored in an ESRI Arc SDE spatial database environment with this free white paper, “Autodesk Map 3D 2006 and ESRI ArcSDE Basics.”

The paper is free to download - from ZDNet (free registration required). But in registering you agree that ZD can send your info to the company behind the white paper. Of course, that’s Autodesk. After all that what do you get? A PDF of a white paper. Its title? “Autodesk Map 3D 2006 and ESRI ArcSDE Basics” It’s 22 pages, dated 2005, and has no assigned author. It’s basically a “how to” of how to use AutoCAD Map 3d to connect to ArcSDE and use it to edit data and put it back.

It seems you can download the paper from several spots where ZD spreads its content on the Web. Strangely, you can’t download the paper from Autodesk’s ISD white paper website.

10 million DWF Viewers Downloaded; Any Look at Maps?

TenLinks pointed me to an Autodesk blog which states that the free DWF Viewer has passed 10 million downloads. I can beleive that. My question from the start has been: How many GIS people are using it to share data? Since Autodesk has such a small share of the geospatial market (less than 10% when Daratech last spoke on the matter) is the viewer even a a player in our space?

AU-05 - Carl Bass and the New Technology Demo

During the opening session Autodesk COO Carl Bass expanded on Bartz three part dictum with adverbs: Create smartly, manage securely, share immediately. The first implies model based design, a design infused with intelligence. The second points towards tools that hold and organize data through the lifecycle. The third defines the need to move information to often non-technical users as quickly as possible to enable the devices to be built, the buildings to go up, the roads to be paved and the maps to be made.

Bass introduced a scenario based on fictitious Global Bubble Corporation, a company that hopes to create a new bubble wrap, one that uses helium to fill the bubbles. He got more laughs from me when the inhaled helium did not have the desired affect, than when it did!

What followed was an Inventor/Product Steam demo that frankly, I did not understand. (My running joke for GIS people here: if you do not understand it, it’s mechanical!) Part of the challenge? I could see the pretty model, but could not see the tools or text on the demo screen.

Next up, MapServer Enterprise, which was used to find a location for the new factory. The demo showed a “property locator” app (AJAX based, which ultimately created a DWF) which did the requisite query. Bass noted regarding MapServer Enterprise, “The open source community will be a powerful force for democratizing geospatial data.”

It appears the new version of AutoCAD, AutoCAD 2007 is coded named Postrio. It was a bit shaky in the next part of the demo, which involved locating the building and placing a park. The speaker quipped, “If it didn’t do this [that is, fail], you could buy it now!”

A Revit demo followed which added a floor to the parametric model of the building. The change “rippled though” the entire model “in seconds.”

A product called “Vespa” (new technology “like Adobe Photoshop”) was used to render the DWF as an artistic image.

The final approvals on the building are done by the various government boards and agencies in the city. Those players used an interactive “Demo Viewer” (more new technology). We saw 3 million visualized polygons of the Bubble Machines. Then, there was real time rendering of the model outside the factory window. Think “Google Earth” from inside to outside based on real data.

The potential contractors received a DWF bid package. One used a “smart” version of what looks like Composer to adding price estimates for a bid submittal.

Construction got underway and the Bubble Machine is ready for installation. The mobile workers installing it needed some info. Two live orange jumpsuit-clad workers used tablets to view the design using Composer. The HP tablets run “all day” on batteries and transferred the images wirelessly live from a real lift truck near the stage to the on stage video, according to the announcer.

Finally, (this was a LONG demo) it was time to take the model out to a “media and entertainment” solution to excite the company shareholders. A product called “Toxic” (I kid you not) allows for real time update of colors and the field of view. The final video showed a rendered factory fly-though enhanced by music from the Nutcracker Suite.

9 million Downloads of Autodesk DWG Viewer

update 11/22: It seems that number, 9 million refers to DWF viewers, per this PR. I’m not sure of the source of the free DWG viewer number. It’s not on the website referenced below. It is however in the e-mail version I received: “The numbers are stunning, about as jaw-dropping as Autodesk’s nine million downloads of its DWG viewer software.” [end update]

I noted Autodesk’s new free DWG viewer when it was released in October. Now, reports Ralph Grabowski, the company claims nine million downloads. Gee, I guess the world was really waiting for that software!

Other goodies from Grabowski’s coverage of Autodesk’s quarterly call last week relevant to geospatial include (Q&A’s are paraphrased):

CEO Carol Bartz is now calling DWF “an industry standard format.”

Q: “How much of the installed base is now on subscription?”
A: “It’s in the 700-800 thousand range.”

Q: “What phase are we at in 3D adoption. Last statement you made is that it’s roughly a 10-year cycle to get everyone on 3D.”
A: “It’s less than 10% of our base converted to 3D, which is good news. We’re growing our 2D customers at 20%. It’s a wonderful decade-long process to get everyone on 3D. We’re far, far from even getting to the inflection point.”