CAD Tech News (#53)

▶ With Launch of ARES Kudo, Graebert Completes Its 'CAD Trinity'

New browser-based application joins ARES Commander and ARES Touch to provide interconnected solution for DWG editing across desktop, mobile, and cloud platforms.

By Cyrena Respini-Irwin

Graebert has been in the CAD business for decades: licensing its ARES engine for use in other vendors' solutions, selling its own ARES Commander desktop product, and more recently, moving into mobile devices with ARES Touch. But at Graebert's Annual Meeting last year, leaders of the Berlin-based company shared their enthusiasm for something new on the horizon: a cloud-based CAD offering. ARES Kudo was designed to deliver the functionality of the full ARES CAD platform in a browser-based, installation-free format. "The goal is: You should be as productive as you are on the desktop," said CTO Robert Graebert.

During this year's Annual Meeting, Graebert introduced the first version of Kudo, which will begin a gradual rollout next month. In the initial stage, only the sharing and viewing capabilities of Kudo will be available; additional functionality, including editing features, will be added over the coming months.

"The editing features of ARES Kudo will be released in future service packs because we want also to keep working on the performance and some UI [user interface] elements," explained Cédric Desbordes, sales and marketing executive for Graebert. "ARES Kudo is fast to edit files, but we noticed that some types of files are long to open/load. We will work on these performance aspects before we deploy the editing features in order to offer a smooth experience."

Kudos to the Testers

Kudo's development has been shaped by feedback from the early-adopter test group, Desbordes noted. "We realized, for example, a strong interest to share a view-only access right to partners and customers. The file may be created with ARES Commander on the desktop, but instead of sharing it as a PDF you will share a URL to see it in ARES Kudo, where the file is always up-to-date and the owner can add or remove access rights. The recipient of this link would get a free access to ARES Kudo but in a restricted mode, where he can view and even turn layers on and off, but could not save any changes." Read more »

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Cyrena Respini-Irwin is the editor in chief of Cadalyst.

▶ CorelCAD 2017 Comes to Windows, Mac, and Android

The latest version of Corel's ARES-based CAD offering promises platform flexibility at an affordable price

By Cyrena Respini-Irwin

Earlier this week, Corel introduced CorelCAD 2017 — the sixth version of its 2D/3D CAD application for architects, engineers, and designers. CorelCAD is fully DWG-compatible, and uses the format natively for opening and saving files. It also supports DXF, DWF, and PDF, as well as STL output for 3D printing.

CorelCAD is built on Graebert's ARES CAD engine, and unlike most offerings in the CAD marketplace, is available for both Windows and macOS. Rather than choose between one or the other, however, users can access both platforms through a single license. This "hybrid license" can be installed on up to three devices, in any combination of Windows and macOS.

The Perpetual Question

CorelCAD licenses are perpetual; there is no subscription option at this time, although the company is looking into that possibility. According to Klaus Vossen, senior product manager for technical graphics at Corel, the relatively low price of the product ($699 for the full version and $199 for the upgrade) makes upfront purchase more easily achievable — even by the smaller companies that make up the bulk of CorelCAD's market — and renders a low-cost subscription plan unnecessary. "CorelCAD is an affordable CAD solution that provides a lot of features in the 2D drafting and 3D CAD area," he commented.

"We see Corel customers as not being ready or not willing to move to subscription, and we don't want to force our customers," Vossen continued. "We do see increasing interest from customers asking for the perpetual license option [in the wake of Autodesk's decision to stop selling perpetual licenses]," he observed.

Each purchase of CorelCAD 2017 also includes a 1-year license to CorelCAD Mobile for Android, which has garnered about 25,000 users since it was launched in August on Google Play, Vossen reported. Although he noted that a phone is "probably not the right device for creating CAD designs," CorelCAD Mobile users can perform full 2D editing, in addition to viewing and annotation, on their Android tablets and smartphones. "It's perfect as an on-site companion app," Vossen noted. Read more »

▶ WHAT’S NEW

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