Opinion
Graebert Gmbh held its annual conference today, this year online again. Here’s some of the things I learned while watching the two-hour event.
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Graebert puts 50% of its revenues into R&D, possibly more than any other CAD vendor. Now, I think that this is possible, because most of this company's sales are to third-party vendors, who resell the software under their product names -- such as DraftSight from Dassault Systemes. This means the company has lower sales and marketing costs than others.
ARES Commander runs on desktop and laptop computers, and version 2024 came out on April 1. Graebert calls ARES the #1 alternative to AutoCAD, in terms of number of users and new technology. It is family-owned, and so engages in long-term strategies, instead of worrying about quarterly financial results.
Nine years of ARES costs the same as one year of AutoCAD, Graebert says. While you can pay for subscriptions, Graebert also offers perpetual licenses and network licenses, popular forms of licensing that Autodesk abandoned. This year, a new type of license is offered by Graebert: the Flex Cloud license is like a network license, but licenses are shared over the Internet. All licenses include Trinity, which is Graebert’s name for its desktop-mobile-Web combo of CAD software.
Perpetual licenses do not, however, give you access to some features, such as cloud and mapping functions, unless funded by the annual maintenance fee.
What’s New in ARES 2024
The What’s-New document is 100 pages long. Here are some of the highlights:
MacOS and Linux versions get an optional Windows-style ribbon interface.
Flatshots make flattened, projected 2D views of 3D models, and now allows hidden lines to be customized.
Trinity Block Library centralizes block libraries in the cloud, available to subscribers only. This means that people using the Web and mobile versions of ARES now have access to them, as well as Commander desktop users connected by networks and internet. Sharing of blocks can be limited to specific users.
TopoPoints module connects with surveyors' total stations, such as from Leica and Trimble (see image at left). It is included “free” with the Maps feature, but you need to stay on subscription or maintenance after the first year of a perpetual license, because Graebert pays a license fee to ESRI.
For a couple of years now, desktop ARES Commander has been reading in BIM models, converting them to DWG format, yet maintaining links back to the source files. New this year is drawing automation to process imported BIM file using scripts and LISP programs, which you can edit. By default, it creates floorplans for each level, certain sections, and an elevation for each cardinal point.
Dimension groups can be simplified.
BIM module operating inside ARES Command
Graebert is collaborating with Snaptrude BIM collaboration design software as an ARES Partner solution. I wrote about Snaptrude last year at upfrontezine.com/2022/04/upf-1128-1.html. See www.snaptrude.com/ for more.
Web-based ARES Kudo can now compare differences between two similar-looking drawings. Both files have to be on the cloud. After comparison, the new version (that encompass agreed-upon changes) can be uploaded to the Version Manager, which shows all versions of the same drawing in time order.
Comparing two similar drawings in ARES Kudo for Web browsers
ARES Touch for mobile now converts PDFs to DWG, if the PDF was originally generated from a DWG file. Touch runs on Android and iOS phones and tablets. I found that the Android version also works with ChomeOS tablets.
The MCAD module adds Feature Control Frames, automated part nesting -- unique in DWG editors --, and the ability to create and modify enlarged detail views (coming soon).
For third-party developers, ARES desktop now offers a Visual LISP editor and debugger.
A 14-page version of the What’s-New document is available from https://files.graebert.com/Marketing/brochures/newfeatures2024/EN+-+Top-New-Keyfeatures-ARES-2024.pdf.
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