Just what is the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium?
As I understand it ICAD is not the product of a specific company (like ACAD is to Autodesk) but is a share platform of Consortium (ITC) members.The Intellicad.org sight says "Members are encouraged (not required?) to submit fixes and improvements of the technology back to the consortium, allowing a larger pool of developer's to work on our technology, more resources than any single company could apply."In effect if BricsCAD fixes a but they tell ITC who gives it to CADopia, CMS and the others who incorperate the fix and vice versa (Apperently each is waiting for the other to fix the stretch bug).Im also told that no matter who you buy ICAD from you get the EXACT same product (bugs and all) so appart from the +/-$10 in price it makes no difference who you use (seems odd but gasoline is like that).So who is responsible for bug fixes and enhansements and who decides what bugs to fix (and which to ignore) and what enhansments to make?JT
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I was considering the purchase of this product, but the more i find out about different versions by different vendors, of different intellicads, with ALL DIFFERENT BUGS AND PROBLEM. , it seems to me that this is a can of worms product that one should try to avoid investing too much money into.
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I must disagree with you. We have many satisfied users of IntelliCAD an NO it is not a "can of worms product that one should try to avoid investing too much money into". BricsCad is one of the most active members of the ITC and we are constantly working to improve the software by fixing bugs and adding new functionality. At present BricsCad IntelliCAD is a good alternative for AutoCAD either as a replacement or as additional CAD seats that function alongside AutoCAD.
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I am not saying that you don't have many satisfied customers. But most likely most of them are only in need of using the product just for their own use. What happens when you are billing the product to be "compatible" even with itself, in different versions, by different vendors, all selling differnt products of the same product. How can one reasonably expect that all the different versions with different bug fixers, be of the same value as one another, ... especially if you depend on the necessity of swapping files with different users of what is suppose to be the same product, but then each and every one turn out to be just a "tad" different. I can easily see how there would be a great disparity between the version by different sellers of the products. Hey ! don't get me wrong here. I too would just LOVE to have a $200 clunker that would be compatable with the $4000 luxury sedan. but logic and common sence just does not confirm that. I mean now, what other reason could there be than for Icad to remain a 2 bill product? It don''t take a rocket scientist to figure out that If it was really as compatible as every low budgeter would like it to be, it would at least be selling for half as much as the cadilac.
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Different versions of IntelliCAD does not mean that they are not compatible with each other. IntelliCAD uses the DWG file format as its native format. No conversion is needed: it's DWG! So, if you are looking for a good alternative for AutoCAD whether it be as a replacement or for one or more additional seats, IntelliCAD is the best choice!
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So is Bricscads ICAD the same as Cadopias or not? Are there slight differances in the performance?JT
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They are of course not identical. They are separate companies. Each company is responsible for the build they release to the public, for the timing of the release, for whatever extras or enhancements they throw in. Because Bricscad are doing their own Intellicad development, their releases will contain bug fixes not yet merged with the common ITC source at the given time of the release. This may not be the case for those vendors who do not have an in-house development staff, thus building their releases directly from the ITC source. This would be the case for Cadopia and CMS.
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It is remarkably naive to say that neither CADopia nor CMS has in-house development staff. Also, the ITC rules require that each company submit any code changes to the Consortium BEFORE shipping a product. Deliberate violations may result in suspension of membership in the consortium. Surya SardaPresidentIntelliCAD Technology Consortium and CADopia
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I am not saying anywhere that Bricscad fixes are not submitted to the ITC before they ship a new release. What gives you that idea?"Remarkably naive":By in-house I mean developers within the company structure effectively working on the shared Intellicad source. I am aware that Cadopia is paying for development through the ITC/Cybage Software. That is not what I would call in-house. Those organizations are (of course) submitting their changes directly, not through Cadopia.Scrolling through the Intellicad changelog, I find the following companies have contributed the source:Cybage SoftwareBricsnetITCStabiplanEbaTechDaVinci TechnologiesCosmo ElectronicsPMS Photo Mess SystemeSoftApplyMicrosoft(!)VisioThat's it.An estimated 90% of the changes/fixes have been submitted by the the three first on the list.
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Due to the economical cost of the product and the small number of commercial members, it appears that ITC resources to contract code hacking by Cybage is limited. Based on forum comments, end-users feel like the pace of development is slower than desired. It seems like a chicken vs. egg situation in that A/E firms are awaiting a certain maturity of the product before buying in quantity, resulting in lower revenues for code development. Doesn't it make sense to establish an open-source CVS tree and let the masses have at it? This method has served well for OpenOffice.org, Mozzila, Linux kernel, and numerous other projects. The commercial members could then focus on add-on or vertical applications and value-added support services. Respectfully,InsideOut Design
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It's not the development of new features that everyone thinks is to slow.....it's getting the existing features to funtion correctly and removing bugs in the Intellicad softwear that is to slow and is of critical concern to all users
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Let me clarify... by "pace of development" and "maturity", I meant rock-solid and compatible. Who wants to see added features at the expense of stability?
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