I caught this over on the Core77 forum a couple weeks back: UGS NX for Macintosh (Link). What makes that bit of news of interest to me is 1) there is, in most people’s opinion, no truly worthwhile CAD application for the Mac, 2) NX is about the most capable CAD application you’ll find on any machine and 3) take a good look at who’s behind this – UGS.

For those who haven’t followed along, UGS is the company I’d credit with currently being the most aggressive PLM developer in the world. And PLM is, in my opinion, a big part of the Metaverse future.

One of the links in that forum post took me over to a very cool blog called WorldCAD Access, which provided a link to something else of interest: a post over on Think Secret (Link). From that post:

UGS Corp. announced that it will deliver a Mac OS X version of NX and Teamcenter, marking the first product lifecycle management (PLM) software for Mac users. While the news is primarily of import only to companies that need such a solution which touches the “full range of development processes in product design, manufacturing and simulation,” according to the company’s Web site ”Apple played an unusual role in ensuring the product’s arrival on the Mac.
…
While Apple has provided select developers with extensive assistance in the past, including complimentary hardware and coding support, this arrangement may mark one of the first times that Apple’s own commitment to purchase a product has influenced a developer’s decision to offer Mac compatibility.

That last part leaves me wondering exactly what is going on inside UGS. Was this a move to ensure all reasonable PLM bases were covered? Or is this nothing more than a practical deal with Apple? I don’t know. But I recall reading not long ago that Apple’s new Intel-equipped machines are selling well and Apple may be gaining market share. Add to this that Apple is considered the “Creative User” machine of choice, and maybe there’s more to this move by UGS.

If content creation tools are increasingly the same – same features, mostly the same UI, and the same general output – then what matters most is who is running them. In the competitive PLM market, which has garnered significant attention and investment from Wall Street, an expansion into the Mac arena could be useful on several levels.

Seems there’s always something going on over at UGS. I’m going to need to just visit their site directly on an ongoing basis and grab the press releases. Maybe I need to be doing that with PTC and Dassault as well. It sure seems like things are getting ready to heat up in a big way.