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CAD Central (News and Analysis)
1 Nov, 2008 By: Kenneth WongIMSI/Design Freeware Targets AutoCAD LT Users; Quiet Eulogy for Mechanical Desktop; Joel Harris Wins Hot Tip Harry Challenge 2008; Student’s Facebook Efforts Earn AU Scholarship; Autodesk Announces 64-Bit Revit; Autodesk Fights SolidWorks over DWG; Dell Debuts Mobile Workstation to Covet; Object 3D Printer Fits on Desktop
IMSI/Design Freeware Targets AutoCAD LT Users
This holiday season, the developers of TurboCAD at IMSI/Design will deliver a gift to the CAD community. Their latest creation, tentatively dubbed A/CAD LT Express, is set to follow the distribution model of Google SketchUp — availability by free download.
Whereas some 3D software makers are targeting AutoCAD users with their 2D giveaways — for example, Solid Edge 2D, touted by its makers as the product that "eases the transition from 2D AutoCAD" — IMSI/Design is setting its sights on Autodesk's AutoCAD LT users. According to IMSI/Design CEO Royal Farros, the new product is a CAD application not based on the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium's code but its company's proprietary code. He described the product as "a reliable and robust work-alike alternative for AutoCAD LT."
 IMSI/Design s A/CAD LT Express is designed to appeal to AutoCAD LT users. |
In an early draft of its announcement, IMSI wrote, "A/CAD LT Express is a full-powered 2D CAD application and is DWG (AutoCAD) and SKP (Google SketchUp) compatible." In A/CAD LT Express, IMSI/Design has created a work area that mimics that of AutoCAD LT. A preview reveals a product offering the same menu items and drawing tools as AutoCAD LT. Users can even use the same high-level AutoCAD LT command lines within A/CAD LT.
To give AutoCAD LT users a reason to switch from their familiar drafting environment, Farros realizes his company's offering should provide more than similar features. He hopes that self-healing walls, self-aligning blocks, advanced hatch-and-gradient fill tools, handle-based editing paradigm, and tight integration with Google SketchUp will set A/CAD LT Express apart from the competition.
"We take great care to import all geometry, to convert all SketchUp components to A/CAD LT Express blocks to optimize drawing performance, to create a Paper Space for each camera view, even to convert 3D models into 2D hidden-line presentations," IMSI/Design stated in an early draft of its FAQs.
A/CAD LT Express serves as an introduction to the commercial version, A/CAD LT, priced at $695. This version includes 2D constraints, a range of intelligent (parametric) architectural objects, automatic drafting detail (associative), parametric parts manager, bill of materials (BOM), xrefs, design director, and premium customer support, all of which are reinforced with what its makers call "one of the widest varieties of file filters in the CAD industry, including support for DWG, SKP, 3DS, OBJ, SAT, IGES, STEP, and more."
Farros expects that both versions of A/CAD LT could excite the small and mid-size businesses whose work revolves around AutoCAD and SketchUp. "There are hundreds of AutoCAD shops that have spent thousands of dollars buying AutoCAD LT seats for basic drafting and detailing," he observed. He thinks the same buyers will be tempted to use the more affordable and powerful A/CAD LT as an AutoCAD LT replacement. AutoCAD LT sells for $800–$900 through Autodesk authorized resellers.
In Farros' view, "we hope A/CAD LT will shake up the status quo." A/CAD LT Express and A/CAD LT are expected to be available for download at www.acadnow.com by December 2008 and January 2009, respectively.
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