Tap the Brakes

So, Autodesk finally acquired an H&H package. Nice. Good decision. Too bad they didn’t do it four years ago when Jon Rizzo and I almost begged them to buy the big kid on the block. Oh well. So, what’s this mean for now?

Not much. Probably not much for about a year-and-a-half.

Here’s the thing. If you go back and listen to my interview with Peter Funk, and do some math, you’ll realize that we’re approaching the end of the 2009 product development cycle. AU is around the corner, and the past few years, a Beta version of C3D has been shown and released right after that. That means at least a few Alpha testers had code in hand weeks before. And that, dear reader, means you’re not getting H&H in C3D 2009.

“But they bought Intellisolve!” you say. “Intellisolve is H&H! Surely it will be in there!”

Nope. It won’t. Oh, it will be in the box, probably in the install, and it might even be hooked in some way to the pipes or other C3D functionality. But let’s be honest, a hook is a crook, and it’ll be a kludge. A band-aid put on to hold it together until coders from Autodesk (C3D) and Autodesk (Intellisolve) can tear open that can of worms and figure out how to pull it all together.

And when they do…we’ll be in H&H heaven. I’d bet it’s the 2010 release. That’s a full cycle. For the crack programmers in MHT, that’s just the right amount of time to tie it all up in a nice bow. Pipes that resize? Inlets that resize? Automated Drainage Areas? Unsteady flow analysis? The sky’s the limit with that kind of time.

But 2009? Tap the brakes folks, you’re getting two applications, with one logo on the front.

4 comments

  1. johnbeatle says:

    Yeah,
    I wasn’t planning on 2009, but I think you’re propbably pretty close on the liefcycle and dates. So they put out a beta just after AU? That would be neat to get a look at that and see what they are working on.

  2. MAnderson says:

    Way to go Adesk! This will make’s Mark’s AU presentation a must-see! 😉

  3. jrizzo says:

    For 2009, I would be happy if the LandXML exchange between the two applications was a little tighter. It’s close, but it always seems to require a bit of massaging to get it perfect.

  4. JohnCobb says:

    Hot Spam!
    Great news! I’m with Mr. Rizzo. We got C3d to XML the networks out just fine. Intellisolve is a very nice package, leaving only a few things to be desired. Where the process fell apart for us, though, was XML-ing back into C3d.
    If it won’t be out until 2010, please streamline the transfer process.
    Congratulations!