I’m going to get called a Luddite again
This article was originally written in the period 1995-2000
I’m going to get called a Luddite again for this, I can see it. Funny how whenever I talk about getting on with down-to-earth stuff rather than the `bleeding’ edge, I get e-mails saying I have no sense of adventure.
Anyway, on with the rant. Someone was telling me the other day how the new Autocad release will have links to the Internet. And I tried to imagine what that might mean.
Then I thought about what I’d like it to mean.
What I’d like it to mean is that I could have available a DXF (or similar format) drawing of a part from my supplier, which I would refer to in the CAD system as, say, supplier:partnumber. This would translate behind the scenes to http://supplier_website/parts_library/partnumber, (an internet web page somewhere) and I would `embed’ this reference in a drawing just as I would a basic drawing symbol (like a linked spreadsheet pasted into a word processor). Whenever I opened my drawing it would ask “update references?” and I would have a choice to whether to update drawings of all the bought out parts or not.
If I said yes, it would just do it. If not, the last version I downloaded would stay. If I chose to break the link, it would be expanded into its constituent drawing entities and become just a part of my drawing, available for editing. The standardised search tools for finding the parts I wanted would be `served’ by the supplier’s library computer, but accessed through the menus of the CAD system, as long as that company’s drawing library search engine was named in the database in my CAD system.
All the `origins’ or `datums’ or `hook points’ as they are known, would be just how I needed them to use these drawings in my designs. And all the block and layer structures, and colours, and linetypes, and shading, would be just how I needed them, even though my preferences are different to everyone in the world. Because all these suppliers would have played by exactly the same rules and agreed on one super neutral format of catalogue that treated all competing manufacturers’ products equally, and I’d have a personal filter at my end to customise the files.
Have you noticed there’s been a deviation from reality somewhere in the last paragraph? `..a neutral format of catalogue that treated competing products equally…’. Bound to go for that, aren’t they? Hmm. Put simply, if nobody can give me all the above on a floppy or a CD yet, how the hell is the Internet suddenly going to make all the difference? Anyone who’s ever drawn something afresh despite knowing somewhere in their possession is a DXF file but they can’t face the grief of reformatting it, will understand that we simply have not arrived there yet.
What’s needed are standards, agreements, loads of groundwork, and then maybe, when every supplier’s DXFs (or whatever) are in the same format, (and everyone’s CAD system reads them without hassle) we can then start worrying about shoving it over the Net (which we don’t all have live access to, just now, actually, as it happens).
That’s what the STEP format promises. But I’ve never seen a STEP file, and I’m 99% sure my CAD system would make more sense of a Dilbert cartoon.
Far more use to me would be an e-mail address at my supplier’s site where I could send an e-mail (like a questionnaire) that outlined the format of file I wanted, and the part number(s) (I’d keep a template of this questionnaire with all my preferences filled in). Whether they dealt with it manually or via some automated server, I wouldn’t actually care (they would choose, based on demand). I’d get the part (or range of parts) I wanted e-mailed back to me in my ideal CAD form, and could use it in a design with minimal grief. If all they had to do was standardise on the questionnaire between suppliers, (and implement it how the hell they liked, using a computer or a gang of vac students, not my problem) then folk with e-mail and CAD systems would be connected. Dial-up internet links would be fine, BT would probably sell fewer ISDN lines, but I’d get more work done.
Although I’d still need to get to Dilbert, I guess.