General Information

What Different Versions of IntelliCAD are there, and what do they cost ?

Commercial members of the ITC license the IntelliCAD source code and are free to modify the technology to meet their particular needs. Members are free to name their products IntelliCAD but have the option of identifying their products with a different name.

Since the IntelliCAD technology is under continuous development, most members choose to add on to their
products using the LISP, SDS, and/or VBA API's rather than directly modify the source code. Most member's products contain the standard features as shipped by the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium. Some members combine the technology with their own vertical solutions to create a complete design package for various engineering and architectural disciplines.

The ITC has a list of their Member's and their respective products at www.intellicad.org/members.

Thus you will find terms like Standard, Classic, Iron, Silver, Gold, Pro, Pro Plus etc. etc. That means that a Standard Edition from Member A may not be the the same as a Standard  Edition from Member B.

Currently the Base Product Suggested Retail Price from the ITC web site is $249

I'm currently in the process of creating a, ITC Members IntelliCAD Features Comparison Chart in order to sort out the confusion. It is based on suppliers of an English version with ACIS 3D Solid Modeling and It will be posted here once completed.

  Can you purchase IntelliCAD in the UK ?

Finally it is possible to purchase IntelliCAD from a source within the UK.

Not everyone is happy purchasing goods over the internet using credit cards, because of the obvious security issues. One also has to remember that Customs will add 3.5% Import Duty and 17.5% VAT, plus the Post Office will add a handling fee for pre paying the Import Duty and VAT and then recovering it from you.

For this reason CADopia have appointed Astec Computing as the UK Reseller for IntelliCAD.

Astec Computing UK CADopia IntelliCAD Reseller

Click on the box for a UK IntelliCAD Price List and Order Form

Who are CADopia ?

CADopia is a privately owned company with a network of strategic ISV partners, distributors and resellers, and a user base of over 200,000 users spanning 80 countries, they are one of the world's most popular providers of professional CAD software.Their software is affordable for the masses, yet powerful enough for the most demanding projects. They empower engineers and architects the world over with the tools needed to create highly successful solutions for their customers.

CADopia is creating the industry standard for an affordable and powerful CAD solution. Their goal is to deliver highly reliable, and powerful CAD solutions and services for engineers and architects at an affordable price.

They enable their customers to create professional CAD drawings and solutions for their mission-critical requirements. They are partnering with other companies such as Web4Engineers, Inc. to enable their customers to collaborate on the Internet, review and markup drawings and access their drawings anytime, anywhere.

CAD Support

Where Can I Get Help When I Need It?

The best ways of getting help, in order of expense are:- Manual, Help Screen, Peer to Peer Support i.e Forum, User Group and Service Contract.

It's always useful to use the programs Help facility, and or the Manual. Most people don't use the index to a manual for find what they are looking for. Statistically, women are better at reading and using manuals than men. ( it's more than likely a woman statistician that came up with that gem! )

Forums are the quickest way to get an answer to a question. If you post a question on an active newsgroup of forum, you normally get a or a number of replies within 8 - 24 hours.

If you need more hand holding than that, then it's always worth considering a Help Line or Support Contract.

CADopia offer a support contract called LiveSupport^TM They provide live technical support for IntelliCAD when you want to work -- 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, around the globe via the Internet. Their support engineers are well trained to diagnose and resolve a problem quickly.

CADopia LiveSupport is surprisingly affordable. The rates begin at $99 per quarter (certain limitations apply, see Cadopia Web site).Both quarterly and annual support contracts are also available.

To sign up for this service visit the CADopia eStore or contact CADopia support.

AutoCAD Compatibility

Here is a FAQ from the alt.cad.autocad newsgroup?

Q I worked very hard on an AutoCAD file and then it crashed. When I tried to open it, I got on the screen a window with written fatal error. Also the autosaved drawing does the same. I tried to open the drawings with the command recovery, but it didn't work.

I don't have any other copy of the drawing, even very old ones (silly of me). Do you have any suggestions? Is there any possibility to save the drawing?

enrico galliani <enricogalliani@aol.com> a écrit dans le message :

d34b550a.0111101030.10160484@posting.google.com

tep : download for free IntelliCAD, in many cases IntelliCAD can open that AutoCAD can't.

BTO

A:  Your last chance: almost 90% of those drawings which AutoCAD doesn't open can be opened and saved by IntelliCAD (free from http://www.cadopia.com). [ When this Answer was posted there was a FREE version, these days it's a 30 day evaluation version ]

Your very last chance: a commercial service offers help for recovery of severely damaged dwg files. I forgot the name of the company, but sometimes they offer their service in this NG. You may also be lucky searching your favourite search engine for "dwg recovery".

Tom Berger

Cadalots Comment

I have had experience of this with a corrupted drawing. I remembered seeing a posting similar to the one above and gave it a try, and It worked a treat. Even if you have a number of copies of AutoCAD, it's got to be worth purchasing a Standard Edition just for the possibility of recovering drawings that AutoCAD can't!

Can I make IntelliCAD look Like AutoCAD?, or If I learn IntelliCAD will I be able to use AutoCAD?

Yes to both questions. If you check out the IntelliCAD Notes Section of this web site, you will find lessons / reviews (for want of a better description ) on the differences and similarities between the packages, and how to get IntelliCAD to look like AutoCAD.

I have used various CAD packages since 1974, when I started in CAD. It is nice to be able to make packages look similar. Some years ago I was using Cadvance (DOS Version) at work and Generic CADD at home, I re wrote the Menu System of Generic to look like Cadvance.  Later I wrote an application to give Cadvance (Windows) the Generic CADD two key commands, later still I wrote an AutoCAD Lisp to give AutoCAD many of the Generic CADD Two Key Commands.

And so it goes on........

Operating Systems other than Windows

Is there a LINUX Version of IntelliCAD ?

There are currently two members of the ITC that I know of that are Beta testing a LINUX version of IntelliCAD, they are briscad and ProgeSOFT. You will find links to these companies on my Links Page.

IGES Conversion & CAD Translation Software

Can I Get IGES Files into IntelliCAD?

Not directly there are a number of freeware, shareware and commercial conversion programs that will convert IGES to DXF etc. A request for information on AutoCAD and IntelliCAD Forums and a search on google.com came up with this list.

Design Engineers Software Downloads by Engineers Edge has a Free Download of a DXF-Manager for viewing DXF files and conversion to IGES, CNC-Code, HG-PL, HP-GL2, Postscript, Pascal, C.

WorkView3D The viewer for IGES, SAT, 3DS, VRMIL-2 STR&#8230;.. and Converter to VML-2, STL. There is a demo version available which runs for one - two months.

A comprehensive list of CAD Translation Software and Companies can be found at TenLinks.com

IGES Workshop / Tools web site has links to many resources, which they have divided into three categories:

Configuration management, Public Domain and Commercial Tools.

If there is anyone out there who knows of other resources or freeware please let me know, and I will add the information here.

Lisp Routines

Can I Run Lisp Routines in IntelliCAD?

You can run LISP Routines in IntelliCAD ( even the standard edition )

You can not run LISP Routines in AutoCAD LT without purchasing an add on program from Drcauto called LT Toolkit 2000 Check it out at http://www.drcauto.com This product alone will cost you $250 - $350  in addition to the average selling price of $650 - $700 you paid for AutoCAD LT

Blocks / Symbols

Is there a way to get Blocks out of the drawing and onto the hard disk as Wblocks?

Head over to http://www.dotsoft.com on the main page you'll find WBLOCKM.LSP.  It will ask you for a path and slam them all out to that location.

Plot Files

Is there a way to load plot files into IntelliCAD

Not directly, you can't load them directly into AutoCAD either. However there is a utility called HPGH2DXF from http://www.output.tmfweb.nl/ that will convert HPGL and HPGL/2 Plot files into DXF.

Raster to Vector Converters

Can anyone tell me where I can find Raster to Vector Converters ?

Check out the AutoCAD link page on this site for links to

Scan2Cad by Softcover International Ltd. In England. Professional vectorisation for around £83 ($149 approx). IMHO It handles larger A0 scans above 400 dpi better than WinTopo.

WinTopo Pro is a low cost Raster to Vector conversion program, but you can also download its baby sister that's Freeware. Worth trying but IMHO the free version is not as good as Scan2CAD.

RasterVect Software were established in 1997. Their Web Page states RasterVect is a professional tools for converting raster images into vector format.

MapScan combines several components into one package, graphics tolls for editing & cleaning raster & vector maps, OCR engine for extracting text labels, line vectorization.  Distributed Free of Charge to UNFPA-Supported programmes, government agencies and academic institutions.

VECTORY will convert raster images of large scale drawings up to A0 @ 600dpi, into DXF or DGN vector format. Vectory also provides a DWF drawing format. A demo can be downloaded from the web site.