本文整理自12月20日新迪数字企业战略发布会上，新迪数字创始人、董事长、首席科学家叶修梓博士发表的演讲《中国三维CAD突围之路》。
各位嘉宾、各位朋友：
大家下午好！
欢迎大家光临新迪数字战略发布会。今天大家是冒着“枪林弹雨”来的，所以我在此表示感谢！
一、国际CAD产业的发展历程与历史启示
因为新迪数字的核心就是三维CAD，所以先让我和大家一起，简单回顾一下国际CAD软件的发展历史。
国际CAD的历史可以从1957年开始算起，这也是世界上公认的一个时间点。那一年，国际上第一个数控编程程序诞生。1963年，MIT博士生Ivan Sutherland做博士论文的时候开发了一个叫Sketchpad的绘图软件，这是世上第一个CAD绘图软件。
从那以后，大型工业企业，包括像汽车、航空航天这些大型企业，他们自己在内部做研发，开发一些软件。
到了1973年，Unigraphics (UG) 软件诞生于联合计算公司， 1976年被麦道公司收购，后来又被通用汽车公司收购。Unigraphics这款软件一直在飞机、汽车行业打磨，在通用的时候它是从属于通用汽车的EDS部门，而EDS把UG买下来以后也吞并了后来的Solid Edge、IDEAS，打造了一个非常庞大的数字化方案。然后在2007年，UGS被西门子买下，UG就改名为NX。
1977年，达索飞机公司成立了CAD/CAM部门，开发他们自己用的三维CAD软件，它们的特点是曲面的设计与加工。到了1981年，达索飞机公司决定将它们的软件部门独立出来，组成达索系统公司，把这个软件注入到这家公司，这个软件就是CATIA。CATIA第五版在Windows上进行了重写，西安第一飞机设计研究院的宁振波宁总的团队为CATIA V5的成熟做出了非常重大的贡献。达索系统公司在1997年收购了SolidWorks，也慢慢地发展成为工业软件巨头。
早期的CAD软件都运行在大型机上，直到1988年，世界上第一个三维参数化设计软件Pro/E在小型工作站上被开发出来，这是第一个运行在UNIX工作站上的三维CAD软件。
到了90年代，随着PC的计算能力越来越强大，Windows操作系统和用户界面、以及底层核心算法组件如几何造型引擎和几何约束求解器的出现，使得快速研发基于Windows操作系统的三维CAD软件成为可能。第一批基于Windows运行的三维CAD软件就是1995年发布的SolidWorks和在1996年发布Solid Edge。
时间到了2015年，第一个云原生的三维CAD软件Onshape诞生了，Onshape在2019年被PTC收购，它的创始人恰恰也是SolidWorks创始人。
回顾历史就是为了启示未来。从国际CAD软件的发展历程看，军工、航天航空、汽车等大型工业企业的应用需求直接催生了三维CAD软件，也将三维CAD软件打磨成熟。这个时间不是一天两天，是非常漫长的知识积累。
刚才提到的高端三维CAD软件NX和CATIA花了近50年打磨，SolidWorks、Solid Edge花了近30年打磨。
同时，计算机软硬件技术以及界面交互技术的发展，推动了三维CAD软件的发展。运行在大型机上的CAD系统非常昂贵、非常难用，用的人非常少。到了Windows上，三维CAD软件用得很方便、效率很高、价钱也很低。当时SolidWorks的软硬件加起来大概是一万美金，但是以前大型机上的硬件与软件价格最高的时候达到了50万美金。成本的降低，实际上是一场革命，它使得了三维CAD软件走向了普通工程师、走向了主流。
同时，三维造型技术的发展以及底层核心技术组件化，使得三维CAD软件能够快速地发展起来，也极大推动了三维CAD软件的发展。
此外，从刚才几大工业软件公司的发展历程来看，国际工业软件公司的发展史是一部兼并史。西门子、达索系统、欧特克、PTC，无一例外都遵循“术有所专、兼并融合”的方针，无一不是从CAD软件，特别是从三维CAD软件开始发展，先进行CAD软件的深入研发，然后通过兼并其他工业软件如CAE、CAM、PLM软件，在研发软件平台进行数据层、工具层的融合，最终实现企业数字化的全链条解决方案。
二、我的梦想：让世界上每个工程师都用上三维CAD
我这辈子只做一件事情，就是三维CAD。我1984年从浙江大学本科毕业，当时是18岁，考上了梁友栋先生的博士生。梁先生当时从美国进修回来，带回了当时世界上最先进的技术与知识——计算机辅助几何设计和图形学，他也是浙江大学计算机辅助设计和图形学国家重点实验室的缔造者、首任实验室主任，是他把我带入了CAD这个行业。在我硕士期间，我参与完成了成都飞机公司一个有关飞机外型曲面设计算法研究与软件开发的课题。
1989年，我到德国留学，在柏林工业大学机械与交通工程系攻读博士，1994年拿到博士学位，当时从事交通运输工具产品设计中的三维CAD算法研究与软件开发。
博士毕业后，我就进了美国麻省理工学院 (MIT) 设计实验室，从事博士后研究工作。应该说，这时我已经为从事三维CAD做了充分准备，从底层数学算法、计算机软件、到工程知识， 都有比较透彻的了解。而恰巧，这些都是三维CAD软件系统研制所必须的知识和技能。
我很幸运，在麻省理工学院实验室做博士后的时候，我的一个师兄Jon Hirschtik当时有一个想法，就是要把三维CAD软件从大型机、UNIX上搬到PC、Windows上，他邀请我加入这个团队。加入SolidWorks后，我的工作是作为首席科学家研制底层的几何造型尤其是曲面造型的算法，同时跟Parasolid的团队进行沟通，因为SolidWorks的底层是基于Parasolid的。
因为当时的三维CAD软件非常贵，能够买得起的工程师或者企业非常少，而我们的理想就是让每个工程师的桌面都有一套三维CAD软件。这件事在当时来说是一个很宏伟的目标，但是经过我们的努力，我们做到了。
SolidWorks在1997年被达索系统收购，收购以后我就在想之后干什么。我的答案是作为中国人，我要回国打造“中国的SolidWorks”，让每个中国工程师用上中国产的、具有世界级品质的三维CAD软件。
三、科技报国——打造中国的SolidWorks
2003年我在杭州创立了新迪数字，但是刚开始的时候“三缺”：缺钱、缺人、缺支持。在这种情况下，我们采取了一个“曲线救国”的方式，就是先跟着国外做研发，积累技术、积累人才。杭州新迪成立之初就是SolidWorks的中国研发中心，一路上我们有SolidWorks研发中心、ANSYS SpaceClaim研发中心、MSC Software研发中心，共同点是我们在国外一流软件的源代码、核心技术、架构的基础上做研发，这个经历在国内来说是非常罕见的，我们有机会能够接触到全球最先进的工业软件公司的架构、源代码和知识产权。到了2015年，经过十多年的积累，再加上外部环境变好，我们认为是时候做自主产品，于是我们开始利用自有资金做研发。我们的研究领域一直是三维CAD，所以我们的国产软件一定也是在三维CAD领域，我们先是做了零件库、轻量化引擎，后来做了3D云盘、图纸通，最后一个重量级产品就是“新迪3D”，这就形成了一个以产品设计、数据管理、协同分享为主线的企业解决方案，和一个SaaS云软件的方案。
时间到了2019年，我国经济发展很快，人均GDP首次超过1万美元，国家提出了经济和社会的高质量发展战略。制造业的高质量发展就是实现制造强国，这对工业软件来说是一个非常大的发展机遇，因为制造强国的基础就是产品设计，产品设计的工具就是工业软件，而工业软件的源头就是三维CAD软件。因此，我们认为这是一个非常好的发展机会。
如何利用这个机会，如何发展，让新迪数字跨一个台阶，成为国际领先的三维CAD软件厂商？我们有我们的思考。
首先，前面说了一些有利的条件，但是我们的形势仍然十分严峻。我国制造业增加值占全球比重近30%，而我国正版CAD软件市场规模占全球市场比重不到10%，二者极不相称。更为严重的是，在国内市场，国产三维CAD软件市场份额不足5%，基本被国外软件所垄断。
那么，怎么让我们的企业用我们自己的三维CAD软件？这里面最关键的因素就是需要有一个能够让我们企业愿意用的、能用好用的三维CAD软件。
这就引出了我们目前面临的几个困境。第一，国外三维CAD软件已经非常成熟，国内外的工业企业都在用这么成熟的CAD软件，那么你让企业用一款刚刚研发的或者是功能比较低端的软件，对企业来说这是不可想象的，因为对企业来说它最大的挑战是产品设计的任务很紧迫，而工业软件只是完成任务的工具而已。因此对企业来说，陪伴软件打磨成熟非常困难。第二，我们前面也看到研制出能够在千千万万应用场景中能用好用的三维CAD软件，高端多学科软件打磨了50年，中端通用软件打磨了30年，当然如果我们现在从头去做大概不需要50年，但是时间肯定是非常长的。那么打磨的时间成本，以及伴随着而来的研发成本，都是巨大的。第三，发展国产三维CAD软件的资源是匮乏的，而这个跟长期以来整个社会在工业软件方面的投入非常少有关联。
总之，研制一款在实际应用场景中能用、好用的三维CAD软件非常困难，需要大量的资金投入、漫长的时间打磨、极高的人才需求和技术门槛，而且失败的可能性非常高。
四、中国三维CAD的突围之路
那么，中国三维CAD如何突围？我们想到了借鉴“高铁模式”。
首先，引进一流的技术，然后吸收、消化这个技术，并在此基础上持续创新，这就是我们的主张——三维CAD的“高铁模式”。
我们引进一流的技术，现在新迪数字已经引进了西门子公司国际一流三维CAD软件Solid Edge的全部源代码和知识产权。这是一个国际一流的技术，这个软件功能强大、成熟好用。
我们是有能力消化吸收的，十几年来跟国外顶尖工业软件的源代码级的合作，让我们积累了核心技术，打造了一流团队，我们见过国外大型工业软件的架构，见过它们的源代码，还在上面做过很多研发。同时，我们也有合作伙伴西门子强有力的技术支持，所以我们一定能够消化吸收所引进的源代码，也能完全掌握所引进的技术。
引进技术只是未来发展的起点，在引进的技术基础上，我们会把新迪数字多年积累的技术以及我们的自主产品融合在里面，会对软件架构进行一些改变，例如实现云化和SaaS化，会不断提升软件的功能和性能，研制适合于中国企业需求的行业专用模块以及高级功能。
新迪发展到这一步，今年下半年更是迎来了跨越式的发展，这使得我20年前“让每个工程师都用上中国CAD”的宏伟愿望，越来越近、越来越摸得着，我坚信终有那么一天，我们一定会实现这个目标。
“新新迪 新未来”，新新迪的定位就是“成为国际领先的三维CAD软件厂商”，新新迪的使命就是要“掌握核心技术，推动中国制造”，新新迪的愿景就是“让每个工程师使用中国CAD”。
谢谢大家！
翻译：
This article collates the speech “The Breakthrough Road of 3D CAD in China” delivered by Dr. Ye Xiuzi, founder, chairman and chief scientist of Xindi Digital at the strategic conference of Xindi Digital on December 20th.
Distinguished Guests, Friends,
Good afternoon, everyone!
Welcome to the launch of Xindi Digital Strategy. I would like to express my gratitude to all of you for coming here today under a hail of bullets.
The development history and historical enlightenment of international CAD industry
Because the core of Xindi digital is three-dimensional CAD, so let me and you together, a brief review of the development history of international CAD software.
The history of international CAD can be counted from 1957, which is also a recognized time point in the world. That year, the world’s first numerical control programming program was born. In 1963, Ivan Sutherland, a Ph.D. student at MIT, developed Sketchpad, the world’s first CAD drawing software, while doing his doctoral thesis.
Since then, large industrial companies, including large companies like automotive and aerospace, have done their own research and development in-house, developing some of the software.
By 1973, Unigraphics (UG) software was born from United Computing, which was acquired by McDonnell Douglas in 1976 and later by General Motors. Unigraphics, this software has been polished in aircraft and automobile industry. It belonged to EDS department of General Motors when it was in General Motors. After EDS bought UG, it also absorbed later Solid Edge and IDEAS to build a very large digital solution. Then in 2007, UGS was bought by Siemens and UG was renamed NX.
In 1977, Dassault Aircraft established CAD/CAM division to develop their own 3D CAD software, which is characterized by the design and machining of curved surfaces.
In 1981, Dassault Aircraft decided to spin off their software division into Dassault Systemes and inject the software into the company, which became CATIA. The fifth version of CATIA was rewritten on Windows, and the team of Ning Zhenboning at Xi ‘an First Aircraft Design and Research Institute made a very significant contribution to the maturity of CATIA V5. Dassault Systemes acquired SolidWorks in 1997 and slowly grew into an industrial software giant.
Early CAD software ran on mainframes until 1988, when Pro/E, the world’s first 3D parametric design software, was developed on small workstations, the first 3D CAD software to run on UNIX workstations.
In the 1990s, with the more and more powerful computing power of PC, the emergence of Windows operating system and user interface, as well as the underlying core algorithm components such as geometric modeling engine and geometric constraint solver, made it possible to rapidly develop 3D CAD software based on Windows operating system. The first Windows-based 3D CAD software was SolidWorks in 1995 and Solid Edge in 1996.
In 2015, Onshape, the first cloud-native 3D CAD software, was born. Onshape was acquired by PTC in 2019, and its founder was also the founder of SolidWorks.
Looking back on history is to enlighten the future.
From the perspective of the development of international CAD software, the application needs of large industrial enterprises such as military industry, aerospace and automobile directly gave birth to 3D CAD software, and also polished 3D CAD software to maturity. This time is not a day or two, is a very long accumulation of knowledge.
The high-end 3D CAD software NX and CATIA just mentioned took nearly 50 years to polish, SolidWorks and Solid Edge took nearly 30 years to polish.
At the same time, the development of computer hardware and software technology and interface interaction technology has promoted the development of 3D CAD software. CAD systems running on mainframes are very expensive, very difficult to use, and very few people use them. To Windows, 3D CAD software is very convenient to use, high efficiency, and very low price. SolidWorks’ hardware and software combined cost about $10,000 at the time, but hardware and software prices for mainframes peaked at $500,000. Cost reduction, in fact, is a revolution, it makes three-dimensional CAD software to the general engineer, to the mainstream.
At the same time, the development of 3D modeling technology and the underlying core technology componentization make 3D CAD software can develop rapidly, but also greatly promote the development of 3D CAD software.
In addition, the history of the development of international industrial software companies is a history of integration. Siemens, Dassault Systemes, Autotable and PTC all follow the principle of “expertise, merger and integration”. They all start from CAD software, especially 3D CAD software. They first carry out in-depth research and development of CAD software, and then merge other industrial software such as CAE, CAM and PLM software. The integration of data layer and tool layer is carried out in the research and development software platform, and the whole chain solution of enterprise digitalization is finally realized.
My dream: to make every engineer in the world use 3D CAD
I’ve only done one thing in my life, and that’s 3D CAD. I graduated from Zhejiang University in 1984. At the age of 18, I was admitted to the doctoral program of Mr. Liang Youdong. Mr. Liang came back from the United States and brought back the most advanced technology and knowledge in the world at that time — computer-aided geometric design and graphics. He was also the founder and the first director of the State Key Laboratory of Computer-aided Design and Graphics of Zhejiang University, and it was he who brought me into the industry of CAD. During my master’s degree, I participated in the research and software development of an aircraft shape surface design algorithm of Chengdu Aircraft Company.
In 1989, I went to Germany to study for a PhD in the Department of Mechanical and Transportation Engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. In 1994, I got my PhD. At that time, I was engaged in the research and software development of three-dimensional CAD algorithm in the design of transportation vehicles.
After graduation, I entered the design laboratory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a postdoctoral researcher.
It should be said that at this time, I had made full preparations for engaging in 3D CAD, and had a relatively thorough understanding of the underlying mathematical algorithms, computer software and engineering knowledge. And coincidentally, these are the knowledge and skills necessary for the development of 3D CAD software system.
I was lucky enough to be a postdoctoral fellow at the MIT lab when one of my brothers, Jon Hirschtik, had an idea to move 3D CAD software from mainframes and UNIX to PCS and Windows, and he invited me to join the team. After joining SolidWorks, I worked as the chief scientist to develop the underlying geometric modeling, especially the algorithm of surface modeling, and communicated with Parasolid team at the same time, because the underlying layer of SolidWorks is based on Parasolid.
Because 3D CAD software was very expensive at that time, very few engineers or enterprises could afford it, and our ideal is that every engineer’s desktop has a set of 3D CAD software. It was a very ambitious goal at that time, but through our hard work, we achieved it.
SolidWorks was acquired by Dassault Systemes in 1997, and after the acquisition I was wondering what to do next. My answer is that as a Chinese, I want to come back to China to build “SolidWorks of China”, so that every Chinese engineer can use 3D CAD software made in China with world-class quality.
Science and technology to serve the country — to build China’s SolidWorks
I founded Xindi Digital in Hangzhou in 2003, but at the beginning, I lacked three things: money, staff and support. In this case, we have adopted a “curve to save the country” approach, that is, to follow foreign research and development, accumulate technology, accumulate talent. Hangzhou Xindi was the research and development center of SolidWorks in China at the beginning of its establishment. Along the way, we have SolidWorks research and development center, ANSYS SpaceClaim research and development center, MSC Software research and development center. The common point is that we do research and development based on the source code, core technology and architecture of foreign first-class software.
This experience is very rare in China, and we have access to the architecture, source code and intellectual property of the world’s most advanced industrial software companies. In 2015, after more than 10 years of accumulation and a better external environment, we decided that it was time to develop our own products, so we started to use our own funds for research and development. Our research field has always been 3D CAD, so our domestic software must also be in the field of 3D CAD. We first made parts library, lightweight engine, and then made 3D cloud disk, drawing link. The last heavyweight product is “Xindi 3D”, which forms an enterprise solution with product design, data management and collaborative sharing as the main line. And a SaaS cloud software solution.
In 2019, our economy is developing rapidly, with per capita GDP exceeding $10,000 for the first time.
The country has put forward a strategy of high-quality economic and social development. The high quality development of the manufacturing industry is to realize manufacturing power, which is a very big development opportunity for industrial software, because the foundation of manufacturing power is product design, product design tool is industrial software, and the source of industrial software is three-dimensional CAD software. So we see this as a very good development opportunity.
How to take advantage of this opportunity, how to develop, let Xindi digital cross a step, become the international leading 3D CAD software manufacturer? We have our thoughts.
First of all, some favorable conditions have been mentioned, but our situation is still very serious. The value added of Chinese manufacturing industry accounts for nearly 30% of the global proportion. While our country genuine version CAD software market scale occupies less than 10% of the global market proportion. More seriously, in the domestic market, domestic 3D CAD software market share is less than 5%, basically monopolized by foreign software.
So, how to let our enterprise use our own 3D CAD software? The most critical factor is that we need to have a 3D CAD software that we are willing to use.
Which brings us to a couple of dilemmas we’re facing right now.
First, foreign three-dimensional CAD software has been very mature, domestic and foreign industrial enterprises are using such mature CAD software. So you let enterprises use a newly developed or relatively low-end software. For enterprises, this is unimaginable, because the biggest challenge for enterprises is the urgent task of product design. Industrial software is just a tool to get the job done. Therefore, it is very difficult for enterprises to polish and mature accompanying software.
Secondly, we have seen before that we have developed 3D CAD software that can be used in thousands of application scenarios. It has taken 50 years to polish high-end multidisciplinary software and 30 years to polish mid-end general software. Of course, if we start from scratch now, it may not take 50 years. But it must be a very long time. So the time cost of polishing, and the accompanying research and development costs, are huge.
Third, the development of domestic 3D CAD software resources are scarce. And this has little to do with the long-term investment of the whole society in industrial software.
In a word, it is very difficult to develop a 3D CAD software that can be used and useful in actual application scenarios. Which requires a large amount of capital investment. A long time of polishing, extremely high talent demand and technical threshold, and the possibility of failure is very high.
The breakthrough of Chinese three-dimensional CAD
So, how does Chinese 3D CAD break through? We thought of borrowing from the “high-speed rail model”.
First of all, the introduction of first-class technology, and then absorb and digest this technology. And on the basis of continuous innovation, this is our proposition – three-dimensional CAD “high-speed rail mode”.
We introduce first-class technology, now Xindi Digital has introduced Siemens international first-class three-dimensional CAD software Solid Edge all source code and intellectual property. This is a world-class technology, and the software is powerful, mature and easy to use.
We have the ability to digest and absorb, more than ten years of source-level cooperation with foreign top industrial software. Let us accumulate core technology, build a first-class team. We have seen the architecture of foreign large-scale industrial software, seen their source code, and have done a lot of research and development on it. At the same time, we also have strong technical support from our partner Siemens. So we must be able to digest and absorb the introduced source code and fully master the introduced technology.
The introduction of technology is only the starting point for future development.
Based on the introduced technology. We will integrate the technology accumulated by Xindi Digital for many years and our own products into it. We will make some changes to the software architecture. Such as the realization of cloud and SaaS, constantly improve the function and performance of the software. And develop industry-specific modules and advanced functions suitable for the needs of Chinese enterprises.
Xindi has reached this stage of development, and in the second half of this year. It has ushered in a leapfrog development. Which makes my grand wish of “enabling every engineer to use Chinese CAD” more and more close and tangible. I firmly believe that one day, we will definitely achieve this goal.
“Xinxindi New Future”, Xinxindi positioning is to “become the world’s leading three-dimensional CAD software manufacturer”. Xinxindi mission is to “master the core technology, promote Chinese manufacturing”, Xinxindi vision is “let every engineer use Chinese CAD”.
Thank you very much.
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