SOMETHING NEW APPEARS

The armoured knights of medieval times maintained their code of
face-to-face and honorable combat with sword, mace and shield even
after peasant footmen with firelocks began to blow them out of their
saddles.  Modern computer knights, riding an IBM PC or clone, are
equally habituated to a common code, to a sense of dominance, and to
the notion that the world will never change.  We subscribe to the
magazine PERSONAL COMPUTING just to keep up with the viewpoint of such
gentry, and are astonished to see the Amiga casually dismissed in issue
after issue - either by being ignored, or with the statement that
"there's no software. "
We suspect the IBM folks may be in for a rude and painful shock - and
here's one reason why:  In early November, Don Dombrowsky, technical
director of Tensolite Division of Carlisle Corporation up in Buchanan,
New York, dropped us a note, "I am adding an Amiga to my engineering
department...this despite the fact that we have five HP-71B computers,
one HP-85, a TRS-80 and four terminals tied to an IBM 36.  Other groups
are tied to IBM PCs, but I am able to do more on Amiga than they can do
on the PCs, using VIP and Dynamic CAD.  I wonder how many of your
readers are using Amiga for Real Work rather than as a computer to play
with?"
Good question.  How many are?  We know that the folks who create TV ads
are heavily into Amiga, as are musicians and artists.  Yet Don's is the
first application we've heard of for Amiga in an engineering
department.  Tensolite makes high temperature insulated wire and cable
for commercial and military aircraft, and for the computer industry
(Don notes all the fun he has with propagation delays of 1.2
nanoseconds or less per foot and other neat stuff.). 
APPLICATIONS:  We got in touch with Don pronto for more detail on how
his engineers use Amiga.  Herewith, his report: "Our Amiga has two disk
drives and a two-meg Comspec AX2000 memory expansion, plus an Epson
LQ2500 printer.  We use it 1) to prepare engineering presentations, 2)
for the engineering parts of sales catalogs and price lists - diagrams,
headings, schematics, and so forth.
"VIP Professional creates on our printer the graphs and data for the
reports as well as the overheads for the verbal parts of the
presentations.  We use dynamic CAD (from Microillusions) to make our
drawings on a Roland 980 (Ed. This is an excellent and a widely used
plotter which Dynamic CAD supports through a special driver on disk. 
Dynam
ic CAD also supports all HP plotters.) The Roland also handles text and
data on the drawings.  We also use Aegis Impact, Aegis Draw, and Deluxe
Print from Electronic Arts with the plotter. All of this is in color. 
When Amiga first arrived,  I set it up in the engineering department
with Deluxe Print running - it's an easy program to use.  The  staff
dropped by, gave it a try, and soon recognised that Amiga could do what
none of our other computers could do.  From that point on, the use of
Amiga increased.
"Our word processor is Scribble! from MicroSystems Software until  a
better one comes along.  So far, I see no need for a hard disk, but
will keep an open mind on this.  We do all out engineering design on HP
computers (85 and 7lb). The accounting and master manufacturing specs
are done on an IBM system 36. We have four IBM PC's available - two
with 8088 and two with 80286 microprocessors, but find them hard to use
and not as flexible as Amiga.  I've written all the software for the HP
computers on which we do all design.
 "I've tried Aegis Images with a VHS recorder with good results and
will attempt a 5 to 10 minute video next year on a new product we'll be
releasing.  I expect we have not even begun to see all the uses we will
find for Amiga.  Anyone ever plug an IBM PC into a VHS recorder with no
additional dollars  spent?"
Subsequently, We talked to Don at length, and learned that he is most
impressed with the performance of Dynamic CAD.  We asked if it was just
a quick port over; Don replied that it definitely isn't.  He says that
Dynamic CAD is well adapted to use Amiga's interface; that with the
current version he has encountered no bugs at all; that the program is
easy to control; that output is professional.
Last, he told us that he consistently uses 640 x 400 resolution with
Dynamic CAD; he says it takes advantage of particular colors and color
combinations in high resolution without annoying flicker.  This we have
to see!

Material copyrighted 1987 by the Amigan A&J.  PO Box 411, Hatteras, NC
27943; reprinted by permission.