On Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:24:08 GMT, Ralph Hertle <zxcvzxcv3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>Late 1980s. . . . . .
>
>Intergraph had its mainframe 32 bit IGDS CAD software
>running and producing at 4 times manual drafting productivity.
>They were pioneers of CAD and display processor cards in the
>1970s. They invented the reference file system of CAD file
>and data organization.
>
>Intergraph, even though it had the major project experience,
>was second to McDonnell-Douglas in CAD productivity and speed.
>Later, AutoCAD copied the M-D layer system of data organization.
Intergraph started out with PDP11, and moved on to VAX/VMS
when this was introduced. About 1978.
>M-D CAD, after all, was in use designing aircraft, and it had the
>best technology anywhere.
>
>AutoDesk didn't even exist at the time. When it started, it was
>a hobbyists game running on early PCs.
>
>Bentley Systems Inc.then came on the scene with a knock-off of
>the major CAD player, Intergraph IGDS. BSI's MicroStation
>ran on what we now know to be the primitive IBM 80286 chip PC.
>BSI patched its MicroStation files into the Digital
>Equipment Corp. [DEC] VAX mainframe, urning the VMS OS.
>The transmission belt from PC to the mainframe was Kermit SW.
Actually Bentley started with PseudoStation, which was an IGDS
compatible program that ran on an ordinary VAX, as opposed to the
Intergraph VAX with it's special file processorand communication
processor(network) boards.
PseudoStation made use of "cheap" Tektronix graphic terminals
connected to the VAX by RS232.
In the beginning PseudoStation was more like a review program, but
more drawing functionality was added later on.
>
>BSI's MicroStation was functioning in a 32 bit mainframe
>industrial environment way before AutoCAD was out of its
>16 bit home hobbyist environment.
MicroStation was made after PseudoStation. The first version was 2D
only.
Intergraph introduced the Interpro 32, which was a 32bit UNIX AND16
bit DOS based workstation, with National 32032 and Intel 80186
processors, about 1986. It had microIGDS.
Shortly after that, Bentley ****ted MicroStation to the IP32,
and Intergraph took over the distribution of MicroStation, also for
the PC. This was the start og Intergraph's UNIX products.
They changed to the Clipper processor, which they eventually bought,
and made a number of UNIX workstations and servers.
After a while they went into business with intel, and made their own
PC compatible workstations and graphic cards, with Windows NT.
>AutoDesk badmouthed the "big iron" 32 bit CAD SW products,
>and it got itself positioned on the desks of the secretaries in
>small architectural offices and small engineering firms.
>
>Their claim to architects was that ALL CAD SW automation
>was AutoCAD. AutoDesk lied furiously to gain converts. The
>architectural managers bought in to the lie, and that was
>provided by the architect employee-hobbyists who introduced
>ACAD into the architectural offices via the secretaries'
>computers. No matter that more CPU speed, more users,
>more display computing, more display RAM, more main RAM,
>more main and display bus bandwidth, and higher resolution
>display cards and monitors were required.
>
>After all, Autodesk said that since the engineers were using
>ACAD [billed as all CAD] the architects should use it, ......and,
>would you believe, Autodesk said the same thing to the
>engineers regarding the architects. They then persuaded
>the construction firms to join into the con, and to form a
>triad of lies.
>
>McDonnell-Douglass and Intergraph were still the players
>that offered four times manual drafting productivity and
>better. IG and M-D customers paid for their investments
>in a year, and they made huge profits in the second year.
>IG and M-D were engineers, and they didn't lie in their
>marketing approaches. AutoCAD lied, and they ac***ulated
>huge numbers of CAD-interested and automation-interested
>converts.
>
>It took years until ACAD was run on 32 bit machines, and
>they couldn't even achieve 1.5 times manual productivity
>prior to the 32 bit machines. That bumped them up to two
>times manual productivity, which then had digital benchmarks
>from M-D and IG at better than 4 times manual productivity.
>Together M-D and IG had better than fifty percent of the
>CAD market. ArchiCad and Computervision were there too.
>ACAD stopped badmouthing the 32-bit "big Iron" computers
>and the 32-bit CAD SW products. They were now in the
>32 bit world. They bit their lies.
>
>The die was cast. ACAD was there to stay. Super-fast
>hyped ACAD operators saved the day again for AutoCAD.
>M-D tried to produce PC based CAD. BSI was a business
>partner of 32 bit Intergraph, and BSI went to the superior
>UNIX OS [which was knocked off by Microsoft], and to high
>capacity 32 bit UNIX PCs. Microsoft was still in its cocoon.
>
> > > > > > > >
>
>BSI became fifty percent owned by the $5 billion sales
>biggie, Intergraph, however, that percentage interest
>seems to have diminished.
>
>My question is this:
>
>What is the history of the cor****ate owner****p of IG
>and BSI as well as the history of their CAD SW products?
>What is the history of the market in CAD? Who were the
>innovators? Who lied to gain? Who told the truth?
>
>Today, IG and BSI seem to be taking separate paths of owner****p,
>technical and marketing philosophies, and product technologies.
>
>What is the history of the owner****p of those firms and of
>their CAD SW offerings?
>
>Architects, like lemmings, bought into the palabra of AutoDesk,
>and they gained huge market share. The honest people who were
>the SW designers in AutoDesk took the available proceeds and
>designed even better ACAD products.
>
>Things happened that grossly affected the lives of countless
>architects and engineers.
>
>What happened?
>
>Now its . . . . . . 2007. . . .
>
>Who, out there, has the history?
>
>Ralph Hertle
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