progeCAD 2013 Free Upgrade Offer - Begins 15 August 2012

Sydney, Australia 13 August 2012 - CADDIT announces a global free upgrade offer for all new and upgrade purchases of progeCAD Professional 2011 from CADDIT.net. The free upgrade will be for the upcoming progeCAD Professional 2013 version, after its release. progeCAD 2013 is currently scheduled for release in the next few months. progeCAD 2013 is the first release to have IntelliCAD 7 technology included in the end-user version. Along with this new technology, several new progeCAD features are planned:

• 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

Here it is - the very first sneak peek of progeCAD 2013 :)



Lower level enhancements of progeCAD 2013 include the use of several new developer languages (APIs) in progeCAD: true DRX and IRX application support with VBA and VSTA object models for prototype applications, while still supporting legacy SDS and AutoLISP languages making the new progeCAD 2013 an excellent foudation for specialized CAD application development.

The progeCAD 2013 free upgrade promotion begins 15 August 2012 AEST (Australia Sydney Time) for all new full and upgrade orders placed for progeCAD Professional 2011 version (current) ENGLISH LANGUAGE ONLY - including progeCAD Pro, progeCAD USB, progeCAD Network NLM and OFFICE licenses. This promotion does not include progeCAD Standard licenses.

For more information visit our website or contact CADDIT.net HERE.

$99 Alibre Announced, Special Promotion in Australia

PRESS RELEASE (Modified for Australia)
Richardson, TX (August 11, 2009) - Alibre, Inc. (http://www.alibre.com/) today announced the boldest marketing initiative in the history of 3D CAD - making professional grade 3D CAD software, including parts, assemblies, and 2D drafting, available to anyone for under $100. In Australia the promotional price will be AUD $149.00, sold through CADDIT.net.

For a limited time, anyone can get Alibre Design for $99 (regularly $999). Alibre Design is the core CAD component of Alibre's product offering, providing a complete parametric toolset for unlimited 3D part and assembly design and 2D drafting. Capable of creating complex mechanical designs with thousands of components, full assembly motion, automatic 2D drawing updates, and many other benefits, Alibre Design is similar to products such as SolidWorks, Inventor, and Pro/E. Tens of thousands of Alibre Design users in 50 countries and 15 languages use the software to design, verify, and virtually test their products.

With today's announcement consumers have the option of spending $99 for Alibre Design or a minimum of around $5000 for competitors' software. Paul Grayson, Chairman and CEO of Alibre, Inc., says, "Alibre has the unique ability to offer its professional engineering products at a fraction of the cost of the competition. But by lowering the price to $99, the offer is irrefutably the best in the history of 3D CAD. It's absolutely unheard of given the tools we're offering, without restrictions of any kind, and we expect a lot of people and businesses to take advantage. It's really that simple. We also know that our competition can't begin to come close to this, not even within a few thousand dollars."

Alibre is ideal mid range 3D CAD for Australia, offering the best of both worlds in design function, interoperability with other systems like CATIA and Pro/Engineer via Alibre Translate, and - most of all - value. Alibre Design Standard includes the basic 2D/3D design tools as well as Tutorial access, IGES & STEP import/export and Excel spreadsheet driven design. In Australia see CADDIT.net for more information, other countries can see Alibre.com for their nearest representative.

Does Google Abuse Position to Promote Their "CAD" Software?

I am not sure how many follow the PageRank™ system that Google uses for 'assigning a numerical weight (of importance) to a web page'. For some time now Google has been assigning Sketchup.com a higher PageRank(PR 8) than Autodesk.com(PR 7). Could Sketchup.com possibly be a more important resource on the web than Autodesk.com?

According to most web traffic indexes, Sketchup.com doesn't receive a small fraction of the traffic which autodesk.com gets. Autodesk.com is also a much older site than sketchup.com. By Google's own index, Autodesk product names are searched several times more than "Sketchup" as a key word. Most of those searches are strictly related to Google free version of Sketchup. Sales of Professional version of Sketchup don't actually surpass Autodesk - not by a long shot. But Google does happen to own Sketchup.

Here's the problem. I think Google doesn't actually know much (or care) about CAD software, much less the needs of engineers and architects who use it. Some people (like myself) wouldn't even consider the free version of Sketchup to actually be a true CAD program. Yet Google PageRank seems to assume the position that this brand is arbitrarily more important, somehow more significant, more useful than any other CAD resource on the web. This artificial manipulation of "significance" influences the results people see when they search for terms like "CAD".

Is this what happens when a large company in control of a large infrastructure uses that position to cross-promote unrelated products from other sectors? Google could just as easily buy an accounting package tomorrow, brand it as Google something and suddenly their site has PR 8. Just like that.

It's probably true that Sketchup is a significant product, as many use the free version for creating buildings and other features in Google Earth. Other CAD programs, including AutoCAD and progeCAD can do this as well BTW. But would anyone besides Google consider the site (and by natural connection, the product) more significant than ALL other CAD software sites?

Free AutoCAD a Hoax

Autodesk recently published an article reading, in part, "In order to get ahead in the workplace, you need to invest in yourself by increasing your knowledge and expanding your skills.. The program offers... Free Software License*"

The timing for this announcement was probably no accident. Autodesk's paying yearly upgrade buyers (unsubscribed) got a big shock just two weeks earlier when Autodesk unveiled plans to triple their upgrade prices. So this quick fix to bury any bad karma was probably planned weeks in advance.

But is the "Free Software License" really free? Actually the license only lasts for thirteen months. Applicants must be able to prove that they are an unemployed design professional, and give reference to their last place and time of employment. Appearantly it is also watermarked "Educational", so it can't legally be used for any kind of commercial work. In other words, this isn't what you were thinking it was. Autodesk is really just expanding their educational program to include recently unemployed users of their software.

Far from "caring about the little guy", Autodesk continues to relentlessly charge high prices to their paying customers, accost people trying to sell AutoCAD on eBay, drag small businesses to court who try to enable high-end functionality in the lower price Autodesk products like AutoCAD LT and kill open interoperability of their file formats.

Sorry, no free AutoCAD.