Day one brought announcements about new capabilities in Autodesk's 2009 releases. But all that later. CEO Carl Bass spoke on trends on CAD. An interesting example, he says, is the bar for engineering and design has been raised by the gorgeous graphics of entertainment industries. Another trend has an increasingly global ...

Web-based programs, downloadable software, and virtual worlds are now letting us do more and more, and all without shelling out a dime. For example, Web-based software such as Autodesk's Project Draw lets you create vector drawings for floor plans, electronic-cirtuit diagrams, user interface mockups, and the like. An intuitive ...

As one of the CAD/CAM/CAE editors on MACHINE DESIGN, I travel a lot to software tradeshows and user conferences. Some of the functions include journalists from all over the world. I met a journalist from Russia at a recent event who kindly sent me a copy of ''CAD/CAM/CAE Observer,'' published in that country. Interestingly, small portions of the ...