Inspiration for this post:
Yesterday Autodesk announced their acquisition of HSMWorks CAM software, the popular CAM tool set for SolidWorks. This marks their first direct entry into the CAM software market.
Consolidation is certainly nothing new to Autodesk. Over 15 years ago, under the Bartz regime, they began purchasing 3rd party products built on their AutoCAD platform. Although it certainly ruffled the feathers of that developer community, it did prove successful as it gradually began shifting the company beyond its former AutoCAD-centric past.
As Inventor has taken a more prominent position in their product suite under Carl Bass, their purchase targets have become more varied. Acquisitions such as Algor (CAE), Moldflow (CAE), T-Splines (CAD), and Inforbix (PLM) have have allowed Autodesk to position themselves better to face the broader manufacturing market. The HSMWorks (CAM) acquisition is certainly in line with that strategy. The fact that they got into CAM market wasn't what surprised me though...
The fact is there are plenty of CAM tools that run with Inventor. I would have expected one of those to be targeted. But however surprising it may have been, choosing a tool that runs on their biggest competitor does make sense. If they intend to increase market share in a well-saturated market, they must get the attention of customers on competing platforms. SolidWorks is certainly one of the biggest pieces of the market-share pie.
In my opinion, with this move Autodesk is looking more and more appealing to customers that have traditionally turned to high-end CAD vendors. After all, it's no longer just large enterprise customers looking to simplify their chain of accountability for their engineering tools anymore. When dealing with product design, production, delivery, and service; the fewer technology vendors you have to deal with, the better. What does remain to be seen however, is if Autodesk's tools and support can scale to the demands of those customers. And on this point I have to agree with SolidSmack; time will tell.
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