Autodesk and Intergraph shock plant design sector
Published Thu 12 Nov 2009
Intergraph is to allow Autodesk to embed Intergraph ISOGEN into its recently released AutoCAD Plant 3D.
In a shock announcement today Intergraph and Autodesk have made public an agreement to allow Autodesk to embed Intergraph ISOGEN into AutoCAD Plant 3D.
Autodesk's aspirations in Process Plant have been accelerating over the past five years. It first partnered with UK developer Aveva, when its aim was solely 2D. However, a recent step in the creation of the newly available AutoCAD Plant 3D weakened the bond, putting the firms in greater competition. Now Autodesk has partnered with Plant giant Intergraph - a move that will surely shock both their competitors.
ISOGEN extracts and generates piping isometrics, bills of materials, fabrication information and has about 50,000 users worldwide. With 80% of the world's ISO drawings created in ISOGEN it is considered the industry standard. The deal also means that users of Autodesk Plant 3D, Intergraph PDS and SmartPlant, and other major plant design products can easily share information.
Autodesk has always said it would sooner license or buy technology than create it from scratch. Here, Autodesk has partnered with a firm that has been a major player in the Plant market for decades and removes serious barriers to entry in the highly competitive 3D market.
If anything, the agreement shows Autodesk is serious about being a contender and more interestingly that Intergraph has an alliance with the biggest shark to enter the Plant market in years. Could Autodesk ultimately buy Intergraph? As we have seen in AEC and Design visualisation, when in a market the company will acquire to dominate.
