CAM Software Market Leaders Established

IBM/Dassault, PTC and UGS, all of whom are major CAD/CAM vendors, were the primary worldwide CAM software market leaders in 2000, and this leadership is expected to continue in 2001. Based on end user payments for NC related software and services in 2000, IBM/Dassault received a 16.2 percent share of the $1.3 billion dollar market. PTC obtained a 14.7 percent market share, and it was followed by UGS with 8.6 percent of the total market. Led by IBM/Dassault, these three vendors accounted for nearly 40 percent of the end user payments. Vendor rankings, market trends, and market sizing and distribution are contained in the NC Software and Related Services Market Assessment Report, Version 10, which was recently released by CIMdata.

IBM/Dassault Systemes is a major force in the NC software market as well as in the overall CAD/CAM market. CIMdata is favorably impressed by the strong commitment of IBM/Dassault Systemes to manufacturing; its vision, strategic direction and comprehensive view of manufacturing; the base features and functionality of CATIA manufacturing; and the new focus by IBM marketing on small- to medium-sized companies.

CATIA Version 5 manufacturing is a new generation machining solution. It is based in part on CATIA Version 4 NC and CATIA Machinist.

PTC, the second largest vendor on the basis of end user payments, is also the largest vendor when the market is measured on the basis of actual revenues received by software vendors. The difference between end user payments and vendor received revenue goes to business partners or resellers. PTC has placed an increased focus on CAM, as the resources dedicated to CAM product development are among the largest in the industry.

PTC has developed a modern architecture for CAM and is introducing new applications. It uses the Pro/NC base, into which CVNC has been integrated as the core tool path generation engine, and it adds a new line of Expert applications to this base.

Concurrently, UGS was the most rapidly growing CAM software vendor in 2000, as its revenues increased by 15.9 percent over 1999. CIMdata also projects UGS to achieve a double-digit growth rate in 2001. UGS recently announced the formation of the e-factory business unit to provide scalable, collaborative solutions for virtual manufacturing. Functionally, the e-factory unit includes NC programming development, machine tool simulation development, digital manufacturing and marketing.

Within CAM, UGS is focused on the mold and die, machinery and advanced machining markets. Each market segment has a distinct application focus. UGS attributes its success in CAM primarily to this industry and application focus.

Delcam is the largest of the CAM-centric vendors. It received 5 percent of the worldwide CAM market in 2000 and more than 10 percent of the market shared by other CAM-centric vendors. Delcam is focused on companies that produce components of complex shapes. It primarily targets mold, tool and die, but it also provides vertical solutions for other industries. The primary Delcam products are PowerSHAPE and PowerMILL. These products along with PS-INSPECT, Electrode, CopyCAD and ArtCAM comprise the Power Solution.

Hitachi Zosen, CNC Software, Cimatron, Missler, Graphic Products and Pathtrace are the remaining companies in the listing of the largest ten vendors on the basis of end user payments for 2000. Missler recently merged with CN Industries in France to become the eighth largest vendor. The overall CAM market can be roughly segment into three groups; 40 percent of end user payments can be attributable to the three largest vendors, 20 percent to the remaining vendors in the top ten and 40 percent to the remaining 100 or so NC software vendors worldwide. This distribution clearly illustrates the fragmented nature of the CAM software market.

On the basis of seat count, as compared to payments or revenues, CNC Software was the largest vendor in 2000. It shipped the most seats and had the largest number of installed users in both the industrial and education segments of the CAM software market. CIMdata views Mastercam as the de facto industry standard PC-based CAM software product. It is a well-known, competitively priced, general-purpose product that provides a broad base of modeling and NC software capability.

In other rankings contained in Version 10 of the CIMdata NC Software and Related Services Market Assessment Report, IBM/Dassault has the most people in its CAM organization and in CAM software product development, CNC Software has the largest number of resellers and PTC has the greatest number of direct sales people.