AutoCAD

ARES Commander Edition for Linux (Update)

Posted Thursday 11 March 2010 à 16 h 42 by Normand

Update March 13, 2010: as I was completing the software's installation and reading the end-user license agreement, I realized that because of a confidentiality clause, if I accepted the terms, I would not be at liberty to publish opinions, screen captures or any other information on the software before its final release. Bummer! Since I am a proponent of free and open source software, I find myself in a peculiar position. But after some thought, I've decided to join the beta-test program under these conditions anyway; these are standard practice in the industry. I'm being pragmatic: if we are to see more professional CAD software on Linux (so it gains market share), we have to abide by these rules. So please be aware of this if you decide to join-in.

Soon after posting my Bricscad for Linux Alpha review, I received an invite to join the ARES Commander Edition Linux beta-testing program.

What's ARES? According to its developer Graebert, it's an all new AutoCAD-compatible software ("CAD-engine" is their word); it has an easy-to-navigate UI, full customization, and native availability on Windows (now), Mac & Linux (Q2 2010). Graebert, a company that also provides surveying and mobile solutions, launched ARES last month. I had read about this product's development last year in Ralph Grabowski's upFront.eZine (Ralph also maintains the popular WorldCAD Access blog). About 250 man-hours man-years have been dedicated to its coding, and for the past year, hundreds of users have taken part in the Windows version's beta-testing. Now beta-testing for the Linux version has started!

AutoCAD on Linux? Nope, But Bricscad May Be The Next Best Thing

Posted Wednesday 17 February 2010 à 9 h 27 by Normand

When thinking about CAD, AutoCAD inevitably comes to mind. Even though more powerful products have existed for a long time (e.g. feature-driven parametric modelers like Pro|Engineer, CATIA, NX, SolidWorks, Solid Edge or Autodesk's own Inventor), many companies are still working in 2D - and AutoCAD has long been the most widely used 2D design & drafting app. In 2006, Autodesk estimated the number of active DWG files to be in excess of one billion. That is one heck of a lot of files in a proprietary format that no open source CAD program can so far open, because no working open source DWG library exists at the moment. There is the LibreDWG project in the works, but I gather it's in its infancy. And with Autodesk's custom to revise its DWG file format every 3-4 years, this will not be an easy task.

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