progeCAD 2013 Released - AutoCAD 2013 & Windows 8 Support

Sydney, Australia 30 October 2012 - The long awaited progeCAD 2013 has been released on the CADDIT.net website. Since 2006 progeCAD has offered high-quality CAD software with distinctive AutoCAD-like features - like native AutoCAD DWG read/write (no conversion) and similar commands and toolbars. Engineers, architects, surveyors, builders, landscape designers, manufacturers and other hobbyists and professionals alike prefer progeCAD as the affordable AutoCAD alternative. progeCAD 2013 is a major new release, and the first version to include IntelliCAD 7 source code into its product.

progeCAD pricing will continue at the low $400+ level (as opposed to AutoCAD's full $6000 license cost plus Autodesk maintenance subscription, etc). progeCAD 2013 continues to offer features used in previous versions, like DWG-to-PDF and PDF-to-CAD support, the free EasyArch add-on for architectural drawing, 3D solids and rendering, advanced hatching, text and dimensioning commands, thousands of free symbols and more. progeCAD 2013 also adds new features including:

PC3 plotter configuration file support

New Print Style Manager Interface

New Printing / Plotting Interface

AEC visualization (AutoCAD Architectural Desktop objects)

STL (mesh) and DAE file export

New Dimension Style Manager Interface

Advanced Spline Editing

New wireframe "HELIX" command

New ACIS Solid "LOFT" command

CAD Underlays of PDF, DWF and DGN files

Microstation DGN File Import (selected versions, as underlay)

New LMAN (Layer Manager)

Improved Purge command

Multigrip editing

New overall GUI style

Windows 8 Support

AutoCAD DWG 2013 file format support

AutoCAD and progeCAD users alike are invited to download progeCAD 2013 free at: http://www.caddit.net/progecad/progecad.php

This is a free full version 30 day trial which will allow you to save, print, etc and experience the cost savings benefit of CADDIT progeCAD for yourself. progeCAD 2013 licenses will be available as progeCAD single, mobile USB, network NLM, academic and corporate solutions.

Please contact CADDIT International for more information about progeCAD HERE: http://www.caddit.net/store/index.php?main_page=contact_us

For technical questions and user experiences about progeCAD, visit our forum HERE:
http://www.caddit.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

Press Release: The Open Design Alliance (ODA) today announced the availability of a new enhancement request system

Phoenix, AZ, October 26, 2009 – The Open Design Alliance (ODA) today announced the availability of a new enhancement request system designed to improve communication between ODA Sustaining and Founding Members and ODA development.

As a member-driven organization, the ODA has consistently delivered technology that stems directly from the focus set by members through long-term development relationships and close communication. The newly implemented enhancement request system further strengthens the role of members within the organization by enabling them to enter and vote on new requests for ODA platform components, enhancements, and features. Members will also be able to collaborate on requests with each other and with ODA development.

ODA Chief Technical Officer Neil Peterson stated, “The ODA has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. As the size of our organization and the sophistication of our platform increases, we need to adopt infrastructure tools which are better suited to handling the increased communication load. The new enhancement request system will play a key role in future growth by providing an organized framework for expressing and prioritizing new ideas and development goals. It’s a strong addition to the membership infrastructure of the ODA.”

More information about the ODA and its members is available at http://www.opendesign.com/.

"Foreign DWG File" Scare Tactic from Autodesk?

AutoCAD 2010 users might see this "Trusted DWG" message box when opening DWG file created in progeCAD:

See it? Looking scary ..almost like an anti-virus warning? But read closer: "This file was saved by an application that was not developed or licensed by Autodesk." Well, duh... We knew that already. So why the big warning? Have a wild guess, then read here.

Now our concern changes from what was "bad file warning" to "how do I stop this idiot box from opening every time I open a file from progeCAD?" The answer in AutoCAD 2010 is simple: either click the little check box at the bottom which says "Always open DWG files regardless of origin" or disable "Open - Foreign DWG file" in the System "Hidden Message Settings" - it amounts to the same thing.

progeCAD is a low-cost compliment for AutoCAD users to reliably create, edit and print AutoCAD files without the high cost of AutoCAD software. A free 30 trial of progeCAD may be downloaded HERE.

How to Make 3D Alibre Designs from Imported DXF Files

Alibre Design CAD software can import a number of other file formats, including AutoCAD DWG and DXF format 2D drawing files. Alibre is also ACIS based and can import AutoCAD 3D ACIS kernel .SAT files directly. A common question however is how DXF or DWG drawing can be imported into Alibre, constraints applied and used as a base profile for a parametric 3D model directly in Alibre. The question is valid because Alibre imports 2D geometry from DXF and DWG files as 2D drawings, as we will see. To start we will create some (hopefully) simple demonstration geometry in progeCAD as below:


progeCAD can be a good compliment for Alibre, in part for it's very low cost and in part for it's strong support of AutoCAD semantics like pline-polyline entity creation and DXF export. From progeCAD we export this simple profile as a DXF file and import into Alibre from the Alibre toolbar:

However, as every Alibre user well knows, the result of DXF import opens our AutoCAD polyline DXF file as a new 2D drawing - not as a sketch:

The key here is to "Activate 2D Sketch" as shown above. However, our polyline still doesn't seem very flexible. This is because Alibre imports them as symbols which need "exploded" by selecting the shape(s), right clicking on them and selecting "Explode Symbol" as shown here:

Then it is just a matter of "edit-copy" from the drawing window and "paste" into an active model sketch window, where constraints can be applied as desired. Note the nodes now visible at the corners of our former polyline now that we have "exploded" it:

Here is a final result after constraint and boss extrusion in Alibre Design:

CADDIT has recently added free Alibre support to their CAD forum. Feel free to post your comments or just say hi and introduce yourself and your project.

Free Online CAD Symbols, Models and AutoCAD Blocks

There are many places available for downloading free CAD symbols and AutoCAD DWG DXF blocks from the Internet. Ready-made CAD symbols can be inserted into CAD drawings instead of creating them from scratch, therefore saving a designer time and making their job easier.

CBEN (http://www.cben.net/) home to one of the largest communities for continually updating large free AutoCAD DWG block libraries of anything from construction and architecture to vegetation, people, 3D models and more. All downloads are free. If you work a lot in AutoCAD and don't know about this site, you probably should.

Polantis has just launched a new but extensive visual website for 3D designs of mostly IKEA furniture - lots of IKEA furniture. This library already offers a good selection of their build-it-yourself virtual furnishings.


Archibase offers many free CAD models and patters, but this website seems to want users first to install a free "Archibase Toolbar" on their browser before downloading any blocks. We didn't care to, but I guess you can if you want...

Designers might also try http://cad.3dmodelfree.com. This site offers a visual library of drawings containing numerous blocks and templates for interior design, room and building drawings, furniture, shopping centers, elevation plans - even some Chinese symbols. The drawings come mostly RAR compressed, and some use passwords but the password is normally displayed on the web page for downloading that drawing as far as I can see...

Engineers looking for free 3D mechanical parts can try Dassault's http://www.3dcontentcentral.com. At first glance this site appears to go beyond offering simple CAD model downloads by trying to tie users and vendors (the model contributors) together with what appears to be an almost WEB 2.0 approach. I remember our first try with one of the listed suppliers (for a 3D stepper motor model I think) kept returning an error that the model wasn't found or couldn't be downloaded. But usually it works rather well I guess - offering all kinds of free 3D mechanical industrial vendor models in various formats like STEP IGES ACIS .SAT (for AutoCAD) and much more...

http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/cadfiles/index.html offers a small list of free CAD libraries and links to more libraries for wood working.

Of course, there are also many downloadable CAD symbols libraries as well. progeCAD Professional design CAD includes a free library manager with about 11,000 AutoCAD blocks called ALE. CP-System takes 2D CAD blocks a step further, giving users the ability to add, insert and modify new CAD blocks parametrically.

If you have a good link to free online CAD block or model resources you would like to see added to the list, feel free to post it in the comment section below.

New progeCAD Professional 2009 Video Tour

progeCAD Professional 2009 offers a powerful new CAD interface - similar icons, commands and interface. Raster image editing, raster-to-vector software included. DWF, SVG, O2C and Google Earth KML export, IntelliCAD AutoLISP, VBA & DIESEL, ACIS 3D Solids modelling, temporary point snap (oSnap), layers, blocks. Hatch and xref editing. 3D shading and rendering options. approx. 11000+ CAD symbols library. progeCAD Professional can be downloaded for a thirty day trial HERE or register your full license online HERE.

New progeCAD 2009 Professional Offers Serious Performance

Como Italy, 12 January 2009 – progeSOFT announced the worldwide release of progeCAD 2009 Professional DWG CAD software. progeCAD 2009 now offers Google Earth export, "Quick Dimensioning" commands and an improved CAD drawing interface.

Architects, engineers, designers and drafters using AutoCAD, Auto CAD LT, or IntelliCAD will be impressed with progeCAD 2009's overall unique performance for price combination. Unlike most AutoCAD compatible CAD programs, progeCAD 2009 Professional goes far beyond mere DWG file compatibility with dozens of extra features like an updated spell checker, DIESEL expression support and the addition of over 1000 new CAD symbols organized by the included ALE block manager. Nevertheless, progeCAD’s most inviting feature continues to be its incredibly low price compared to AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT.

Google Earth has become very popular since its release, used by professional surveyors and architects to visualize their projects in a realistic setting. Many people spend hours in fascination discovering new far off places using the tool. progeCAD 2009 Professional now allows users to send their drawings directly to Google Earth via the KML format - minus the rusty auto parked in the neighbors front yard of course.

progeCAD 2009 sports powerful interface updates like right-mouse click context menus, improved speed and reliability. AutoCAD LT users should be especially interested in continued support for PDF import, true ACIS 3D modeling, AutoLISP, VBA, and SDS (C++) program extensions – features not supported by AutoCAD LT. progeCAD 2009’s new "Advanced Data Extraction" wizard guides users in easily sending entity and block information to applications like Microsoft Excel. Other interface enhancements include new "one-click" text editing, an interactive "purge" command dialog, and "one-click" entity grouping.

progeCAD's new layout "print area visualization" feature shows you exactly how drawings will appear on paper. An "AutoCAD like" interface for properties modification has been added making modifying entity properties similar to AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT.

Other features and bonus software include photo realistic rendering, eTransmit, PDF, ECW, O2C, JPG, SVG XML image file support and basic raster-to-vector conversion software. Polar tracking, eTrack, and a new eSnap-From mode help entity creation and placement.

progeCAD's "Express Tools", easy-to-use attribute editing, DWG redlining, in place external reference editing, and "Find and Replace" text and attribute search make progeCAD 2009 Professional a truly "professional" platform that is still unbelievably affordable – less than USD $400.00 suggested retail price. The release of progeCAD 2009 Professional comes at a time when just such an affordable yet robust AutoCAD-compatible drawing program is really needed.

Current progeCAD users are reminded that they can upgrade to the latest version at a significant discount to the already-low full version price. progeSOFT has improved the progeCAD software registration and activation interface making licensing progeCAD 2009 simple and reliable. Network NLM, USB mobile, and corporate licensing options for the 2009 version are available.

Users are encouraged to download or buy progeCAD in English from the closest of over 120 local authorized progeSOFT resellers world wide. Refer to progeSOFT North America (http://www.progesoft.us) for local resellers in United States, Canada or Mexico. CADDIT (http://www.caddit.net/) serves Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific. Others may refer to http://www.progesoft.com/?page=shop_listino .

Why Buy AutoCAD LT?

Economic slowdown, credit crunch, sustainability - these once academic buzz words have become household language in the last several months. But the falling prices of oil and stocks hasn't affected the high price of AutoCAD and its limited feature version, AutoCAD LT. Professional engineering staff, including architects, civil, structural and industrial designers in various disciplines are affected. The American Institute of Architects reports, "The AIA’s Architecture Billings Index (ABI) recorded its ninth straight monthly decline in October. However, the October drop to 36.2 was the steepest decline in its history, surpassing the weakness reported last February and March as the broader economy was just beginning to decelerate".

Autodesk CEO Carl Bass admits, "We realize that there is no quick or easy response to the current economic environment." For years Autodesk enjoyed good profits from its popular brands in a lucrative industry. However, Autodesk has offered no significant initiatives at this point to ease the financial burden felt by many of their customers. Retail price for Autodesk's latest AutoCAD LT 2009 ("lite" version) CAD software still averages well above $1000.00 USD.

Seeking an affordable alternative that they can trust, CAD engineers are choosing to use progeCAD instead. progeCAD sales have increased a dramatic 400% over the past year in some areas. This may be partially due to the increasing reliability of the overall progeCAD program to read and write AutoCAD files, as well as to offer a user interface and commands very similar to those used in AutoCAD. But it may also have to do with the fact that a company can buy almost three licenses of progeCAD for the same price they would pay for one of AutoCAD LT.

The full version 30-day demo of progeCAD (save and printing are not disabled) can be downloaded from CADDIT. Try it yourself!

progeCAD 8.0.22 Upgrade Released with Improved AutoCAD Compatibility

Sydney, Australia – In partnership with progeSOFT CADDIT announced today announced the worldwide release of progeCAD Professional 8.0.22. This important upgrade offers several minor performance, reliability and DWG-compatibility enhancements. Over five months in development and testing has been invested in the release of 8.0.22. This upgrade is free to all progeCAD Professional 2008 stand-alone, network, USB and corporate customers.

progeCAD is used loyally by many professional architects, designers, mechanical and civil engineers, surveyors, builders and landscape artists around the world. progeCAD Professional offers important design features like robust AutoCAD DWG™ / DXF™ / DWF™ 2008 editing, Polar Tracking, eSnap (like oSnap™), PDF import / export, ACIS 3D solid design, raster to vector conversion and advanced hatching using a similar interface to AutoCAD - all at a small fraction of AutoCAD’s cost. Now progeCAD 2008 8.0.22 fixes several issues including:

• A known problem was fixed involving "create as new layout" with certain AutoCAD DWG files and "copy layout" commands, possibly causing the loss of existing layouts.
• Fixed progeCAD ETRACK behavior for entering the distance from command line
• Resolved issues around the progeCAD Express Tools "Copy M" in 2D regions
• "Copy quick" issue with "paste as a block" has been fixed.
• A bug regarding UNDO when used with REFEDIT has been addressed
• Print files extension is now ".plt"
• Solved a crash related to double-click with multiple entities selected
• Many other small improvements in performance and reliability...

A full version of this update in functionality can be downloaded from http://www.caddit.net/auto-cad/AutoCAD.php . There is also a smaller patch executable that will update a currently existing installation using the built-in progeCAD Professional update function. progeCAD Standard and progeCAD Smart upgrades will be released at a later date.

CADDIT Pty Ltd, an Australian owned company, locally supports progeCAD and many other CAD CAM CAE products. Their head office is located in the Liverpool Fairfax Building in western Sydney. They can be contacted via their website at http://www.caddit.net/ . The full version of this article can be found here.

progeSOFT Como, Italy has been specializing in CAD for the last 20 years and is an executive member of the IntelliCAD® Technology Consortium. They can be contacted via their website at http://www.progesoft.com/ .

IntelliCAD 7 Release Announced by ITC at Athens Conference

October 29, 2008 Athens, Greece - Today the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium (ITC) announced the release of IntelliCAD 7 to its members in Athens, Greece. The IntelliCAD 7 code base has been rewritten from the ground up to include objectARX-DRX compatibility, faster graphics and better maintenance. Apparently the goal is to start having end-user releases shipped to the public by June or July 2009.

The rewrite of the original IntelliCAD code base has been long in coming. Stability and speed issues have plagued some of the vendor releases. Additional support for ODA DRX will also mean more vertical applications for architecture, electrical, HVAC, land survey and engineering. An additional tool for porting legacy SDS applications to DRX was announced by the ODA just prior to the ITC conference.

For a while now the new IntelliCAD 7 code base will still need to run through an end-user testing cycle before it can be considered by many to be robust for commercial use.

Users can download and trial a current tested end-user release of IntelliCAD here.

CADDIT is a professional CAD and CAM software consulting company based in Sydney Australia. The full version of this article can be found here.

Autodesk Escalates War on "Open DWG" File Technology

progeCAD and similar products continue to win user confidence as low cost substitutes for overpriced CAD. And American corporation "Autodesk" is getting mad. Passive resistance to DWG clone technologies has developed into all out war, both in the court room and in the board room.

The Open Design Alliance (ODA) is a nonprofit consortium of CAD companies cooperating in a rare way to clone one of the few major reasons people still pay Autodesk prices - the binary DWG AutoCAD file format. The ODA posts regular updates of their robust DWG and DGN libraries on a website for member use in their own software - software like progeCAD.

When Autodesk itself was invited to join the ODA, the company declined. Gradually Autodesk began a long series of legal attacks on the ODA. On November 13 2006 they officially filed suit for their "Trusted DWG technology" which superficially warns users about opening DWG files that didn't come from their own AUD$6000 CAD system. They are also litigating for ownership of the letters DWG as a trademark belonging to Autodesk. The problem is that the USA trademark office doesn't recognise file extensions as "trademarkable". DWG is really just another file extension like ".doc" or ".txt".

Meanwhile, Autodesk finally realeased their own "RealDWG" toolkit to compete with the ODA, the caveat being that any applicant must meet with Autodesk's approval as a developer that will not compete with any of the Autodesk high-priced product line. It was quite an effective move to begin cherry-picking "realDWG" converts from important ODA contributors, undermining it. ODA gets its funding from its members.

Autodesk has quickly made their next move in this apperantly two-prong gambit to weaken the ODA. Following at the heals of the completed million-dollar Autodesk assimilation of Moldflow, Autodesk has announced a new "cooperation" with their next unlikely target, Bentley Systems(Microstation). At one time, Bentley was a serious AEC market competitor. Then, in February 2008, a key Bentley developer changed sides to Autodesk. Strangley, Bentley Systems has now been approved for use of the Autodesk "RealDWG" toolkit. A press release was posted celebrating this "Advance in AEC Software Interoperability". Now think, would you let your worst enemy watch your house while you were away? The truth is that Autodesk is as unconcerned in promoting real file interoperability as they have ever been. The endgame in this gambit really stood later in Bentley's own reaction, stating that their ODA was "now irrelevant". There is further speculation that Bentley Systems is next in line for Autodesk assimilation.

progeCAD is a product that reads, writes, edits and converts Autodesk DWG format files in a CAD interface very similar to AutoCAD 2002. Some consider it a clone. Recently this product has become very stable and robust so that even large companies are saving thousands by replacing expensive AutoCAD installations with progeCAD.

It is obvious that Autodesk is now at a de facto state of all out war against such products. Should they win, businesses will have no choice but to pay big AutoCAD prices. My gut tells me that Autodesk is scheming something parallel to their 2010 release to finish the ODA for good. Is the world's best hope is that the EU will take the same anti-trust motions against Autodesk as they have against Microsoft? Maybe the ODA needs to move to Europe?

CAD File Formats

Since there is a lot of confusion about CAD files, I thought some of this would be helpful.

Almost every CAD program has their own binary CAD format. And most CAD formats have many versions! For example, AutoCAD 12 cannot read AutoCAD 14 DWG any more than Word 97 can read Office XP docs.See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CAD_file_formats

There are some "more or less generic formats" used for exchange. Here are some:
DXF (many versions over the years)
IGES (Current version 5.3 ?)
STEP (*.stp - be careful of this one - several versions called "application protocols)
STL (for polygon models)
XYZ (just coordinate data for "point cloud")
DWG (Autodesk proprietary made public by ODA see http://www.opendwg.com/)
ACIS *.sat 3D Solid ModelsParasolid x_t 3D Solid Models
HPGL - Hewlett Packard Plotting data files
SVG - A new XML vector data format, could be used in CAD

That's just the tip of the iceberg.Almost every CAD has their own format:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CAD_companies

It is possible to convert between CAD formats. Several things are required. Both formats must support the entities (CAD object types) that are being converted. A software program is also need that can provide the actual translation. CADDIT is a regional distributor for TransMagic CAD Translation Software, as well as providing CAD conversion services themselves.

progeCAD 8.0.18.18 software patch released

A new free upgrade for progeCAD Professional 2008 has been released:

Two bugs are fixed:
ALE: Fixed a general problem that could cause an error in the ALE library
DRAW: Fixed "Snap-From" command

progeCAD 8.0.18 Free IntelliCAD Upgrade for Current progeCAD 2008 Customers

progeCAD 2008 8.0.18 IntelliCAD has been released. This is a free upgrade for all current progeCAD 2008 customers. progeCAD Professional users can upgrade online simply by clicking "Help -> Check Update" from the progeCAD menu bar. progeCAD Standard and progeCAD Smart! will also be upgraded soon.

New features and fixes in 8.0.18
General features and fixes
TEXT: Dwgcodepage will be automatically set to syscodepage in new drawings in order to handle different charsets (cyrillic, greek, chinese, etc)
TEXT: "Open this dialog when the drawing and system code differs" option has been fixed in the CODEPAGE dialog
TEXT: Fixed text alignement in right to left languages
TEXT: Fixed MTEXT dialog issue with very small text size
DIMENSION: Fixed prefix/suffix direct change in dimensions
DIMENSION: Fixed text direction after a dimension mirroring
DIMENSION: Fixed crash on angular dimension mirroring command
DRAW: Fixed Proxy AEC support in drawings
DRAW: Fixed opening problem with some files having anonymous blocks in them
DRAW: No more progeCAD crashes with close zoom in viewports inside the paper space with hidden lines
DRAW: Fixed opening by double clicking dwg files (problem related to just a few systems)
DRAW: Fixed NONE temporary snap issue
DRAW: Rotate now works even with ANGBASE and ANGDIR different from default
COMMANDS: Added -block command from command line
COMMANDS: Fixed crash with some "Multiple copy" command options
COMMANDS: Fixed ATTDEF command options
IMAGES: Incremented the available memory for images insertion, avoiding so some progeCAD 2008 crash
IMAGES: Added the georeference automatic management for ECW images
DISPLAY: Fixed real time Zoom and Pan commands in paper space
DISPLAY: Fixed viewport diplay problem with hidden lines and ucs that differs from the global one
DISPLAY: Fixed a display problem with some drawings having viewports in paper space
PERFORMANCES: Improved saving performances of dwg files
PERFORMANCES: Improvement in selection/deselection in blocks with attributes
PERFORMANCES: Fixed the Esnap selection problem in drawings having Xref or Blocks with a lot of entities (the mouse slowed down)
PERFORMANCES: Memory improvement in saving operations
PERFORMANCES: Little SNAP steps cause no more problems
PERFORMANCES: Fixed opening issue in a few situations with files having Proxy entities
PERFORMANCES: Speeded up work on drawings with not available inserted images. No more persisent error messages at command line.
MENU: Fixed Draw->Surfaces->3D Face menu item
MENU: The maximum number of menu items now is 8000 (before it was 3000)
ALE : "Back to ALE after insert" option now works correctly
INSTALLATION: No more error message while installing with the NOPDF option if the user privileges are low
REGISTRATION: Fixed USB key registration

A complete trial verion for progeCAD can be downloaded from CADDIT or purchased online.

New AutoCAD style drafting tutorial: Blocks & XREFs

progeCAD Australia staff member demonstrates the how to create DWG blocks, insert them in a DWG drawing file, and how progeCAD saves additional time with their ALE DWG block library of 10,000 blocks that is part of the progeCAD Professional software, USB and Network Licenses options available from CADDIT.net.

progeCAM 2008 Released by CADDIT.net

Machinists and designers alike will be interested in this affordable, scalable solution for mechanical design, drafting and CNC machining. progeCAM will be sold in two flavours:

• progeCAM Basic: Will be sold worldwide. Bundles the "Professional Version" of the world's favorite IntelliCAD (statistically speaking) with the well-know PartMaster from Dolphin (Level 1).
• progeCAM Professional: Will be sold and supported only in Australia, New Zealand and surrounding region. Bundles progeCAD Professional with the buyers choice of professional machinists multi-axis CNC/DNC milling, lathe turning or wire EDM.

progeCAM offers the economical "best of both worlds" to mechanical engineers: progeCAD's robust AutoCAD-like drafting framework with PartMaster industrial-strength CNC machinining software. progeCAM is sold and supported exclusively by CADDIT.net and their authorized resellers. Read the entire press release on CADDIT Australia.

ProgeCAD Smart! Smarter Than Ever!

progeCAD Smart! has been downloaded more than 10,000 times since the announcement of the free AutoCAD clone. Smart! traffic has exceeded a total of more than a terabyte of bandwidth (a thousand gigabytes by ISP accounting). Because of increasing international demand, limited bandwidth and high costs in Australia, CADDIT has been forced to move the primary download to a server in the USA. progeCAD Smart! can now be downloaded directly without initial registration on the CADDIT CADstore.

The new URL for progeCAD Smart! is:http://www.progecam.com/download/progeCAD_Smart_Free_Personal_CADDIT.exe .
A new direct download URL for progeCAD Professional has also been announced:http://www.progecam.com/download/progeCAD_Professional_2008_CADDIT.exe

progeCAD Smart! Free Personal CAD Released

ProgeCAD 2008 Smart! is available for download at:
http://www.caddit.net/progecad/smart.php
This is the long-awaited free successor to progeCAD LT 2006. Smart! is fully functional and powerful DWG based CAD software that is absolutely free for personal use only. There are no rivals on the world free CAD scene in terms of AutoCAD compatibility and functionality. Smart! derives it's features directly from the professional codebase of progeCAD. The software is easy to learn and simple to install. Some significant features of progeCAD include:

• AutoCADr 2007/2008 DWG files completely compatible
• Express tools availability
• PDF format printing
• Photorealistic Rendering
• True Colour Support
• eTransmit
• Asiatic fonts support
• ALE blocks management module with more than 10,000 blocks (separate download)
• 
  
incredible enhancement of the services performances

Only some of these excellent features are included in Smart! The software may be freely downloaded by anyone. It may be made available on websites and reviewed on the Media without any limitation. Commercial or business use of any kind, however, is prohibited. No commercial license is granted for Smart!
Ethical Business - Like its predecessor progeCAD LT 2006 the software is related to a charitable initiative in favour of Doctors Without Borders for the Darfur, a westernSudan region in Africa, that endures a humanitarian crisis without precedents. All of the users that want to help us in the initiative can carry out some donations. Donations do not limit in any way the free usage of the software.
CADDIT Pty Ltd is legally based in Sydney, Australia and provides a wide range of design solutions, ranging from consulting to design contracting, software development and sales. They can be contacted via their online website at

http://www.caddit.net.
ProgeSOFT SAS Como, Italy has been specializing in CAD for the last 18 years and is an executive member of the IntelliCADr Technology Consortium.
c CADDIT Pty Ltd Australia. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.