25.4.07

Nemetschek acquires ArchiCAD , The Rest of the Story is?

Nemetschek took over Graphisoft in January 2007.

We have clients who use ArchiCAD and Vectorworks but have not heard much about the ramifications of the acquisition.

Rumors, by insiders a few years ago that Graphisoft had lost it's pioneering vision for ArchiCAD may have foreshadowed the change.

Two interesting blog commentaries on the Nemetschek's move:

Nemetschek becomes majority shareholders of Graphisoft

http://www.stress-free.co.nz/nemetschek_become_majority_shareholders_of_graphisoft

Susan Smith On Nemetschek's Acquisition of Graphisoft

http://worldcadaccess.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/susan_smith_on_.html

8.4.07

Mac OS & AutoCAD Watch - McDwiff!

Mac users can now view AutoCAD DWF files.


McDwiff is a Mac OS X application that opens, views, converts, and prints DWF files.

http://www.macdwf.com/

3.4.07

KeyCAD Mystery

We were contacted last week by a customer who sent us CAD files created in a software called KeyCAD with a .kcw extension.

We can not find much information on KeyCAD and KeyCAD Pro. Although it is still marketed on Amazon.com with good reviews from users who needed a cheap CAD package for home use, Softkey, the company who manufactured it, is out of business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftKey

Moral of the story is, when purchasing a CAD package, find out how or if , it's drawing files can be read by other CAD software packages. Keep in mind that you may eventually want to issue your drawings in another CAD software. If you don't know how to export your drawing to a more readable format, you may be stuck with files that have to be redrawn from scratch.