Graebert Systems is officially launching its brand-new ARES CAD system today at MacWorld. ("Launching" does not mean releasing nor does it mean shipping. It means shipping some of it soon, the rest of it later.)
I've written about ARES in upFront.eZine after visiting Graebert in Berlin last year. It is AutoCAD compatible, is not based on IntelliCAD, and is a fresh rewrite based on the experience Graebert learned from its earlier CAD systems, which had names like FelixCAD and PowerCAD.
From this mornings press release:
That the price is lower than AutoCAD goes without saying. Everyone's price is lower than AutoCAD. And with Autodesk tripling the cost of one-year upgrades next month, this is a great time for the ARES, Bricscads, and IntelliCADs of the world to pounce on the marketing faux pas.
ZWSOFT of China is the first, tweeting just after midnight:
PS: ARES is named after the Greek god of war, known as Mars in Roman mythology.
I've written about ARES in upFront.eZine after visiting Graebert in Berlin last year. It is AutoCAD compatible, is not based on IntelliCAD, and is a fresh rewrite based on the experience Graebert learned from its earlier CAD systems, which had names like FelixCAD and PowerCAD.
From this mornings press release:
...significantly greater performance than competitors such as AutoCAD (yet also AutoCAD-compatible), full native cross-platform support on all 3 major operating systems + mobile (planned support for Windows Mobile and evaluating iPad and Android as well), much lower price, and more.This company's older CAD software has been running on Windows Mobile (aka CE) for many years, so porting ARES should be easier for Graebert than other CAD vendors.
That the price is lower than AutoCAD goes without saying. Everyone's price is lower than AutoCAD. And with Autodesk tripling the cost of one-year upgrades next month, this is a great time for the ARES, Bricscads, and IntelliCADs of the world to pounce on the marketing faux pas.
ZWSOFT of China is the first, tweeting just after midnight:
Time for you to say goodbye to AutoCAD!
PS: ARES is named after the Greek god of war, known as Mars in Roman mythology.
I see on Graebert's site that you can register to the Linux & OS X beta testing program.
Graebert might be the first to market a native Linux product, not Bricsys...
Posted by: Norm C. | Feb 09, 2010 at 01:36 PM
How do you know the AutoCAD upgrade-price-tripling is a marketing faux pas? At this stage, nobody knows the effect it's going to have, Autodesk included. If it does what Autodesk intends and drives most of the user base into Subscription, is it still a faux pas or is an inspired move?
I agree it's a great time to be marketing an AutoCAD clone, though. I reckon they will have all sorts of fun with advertising aimed at tempting away annoyed Autodesk customers.
Posted by: Steve Johnson | Feb 09, 2010 at 10:26 PM