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Interview first
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q & a
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drcauto Telephone: +61 2 9957 2200 Fax: + 61 2 9957 6464
Gary D'Arcy
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This Q&A is with Hugh Fox, head of drcauto, Australia's largest third-party developer, and one of the companies extending LT for his customers. Ever since Autodesk pulled the LISP programming language days before shipping AutoCAD LT Release 1, smart programmers have been adding programmability to the cheapest AutoCAD -- first in Germany, then Australia, and later in other countries. At 1/4 the price of AutoCAD, LT is a tempting target. Despite Autodesk's persistent effort to prevent extensions with each new release of LT, it is the Windows operating system itself that allows programmers to extend LT. This is ironic, for Windows was designed to create a software monopoly by making it more convenient for developers to use Microsoft's programming tools and APIs than those of other operating systems or from third parties (like Borland). Because LT relies on universally-documented calls to the OS, clever programmers can hook in, thereby extending LT. - - - Q: Where did drcauto come from? A: drcauto commenced as an architectural practice/building company. We bought AutoCAD for our own use in 1984, and began development of an enhancement for in-house use. By 1987 the software development business overtook the building business, and drcauto began to grow a national AutoCAD dealer network. In 1996 drcauto re-oriented to concentrate on software development, and commenced selling its product internationally via the Internet.
Q: And "drc" is short for? A: [Gary] D'Arcy Auto[CAD]. Say "D'Arcy" and it sounds a bit like drc.
Q: I notice your Web site describes drcauto as "The Global CAD Specialist." Tell me about your range of software. A: Our traditional program is an architectural enhancement named Smart Architect. It is written in ObjectARX; we've ported it to work on both full AutoCAD and LT. The other product is really a line of LT productivity tools for 3D modeling, LISP, and ARX enablers.
Q: Autodesk keeps trying to close off access to LT. How do you keep getting around them? A: LT was written to work in Windows, and it uses Windows calls to communicate between the various portions of the program. This means that there is always a way to connect. Over time Autodesk has tried to make this more difficult, but at the same time increased knowledge at drcauto has actually decreased our time-to-market for new LT products.
Q: What with record companies trying to shutdown sharing of music, and Microsoft steamrollering pirate CDs, is what you're doing "legal"? A: Oour software "interoperates" with another software program. This type of programming is covered under different local laws. In Australia, where drcauto software is developed, the Copyright Amendment (Computer Programs) Act covers it. They allow a software developer to delve into another program, and even modify it for interoperability with another separately developed program. There are some provisos: the programming API must be not available otherwise, and copies of the software used during development must be legally obtained.
Q: Reminds me of an important court case four decades ago in the USA where IBM tried to prevent plug-compatible manufacturers from creating hardware that worked with IBM mainframe computers. IBM lost, fortunately. From one of your FAQs, I take it you're not fond of Autodesk's use of Object Enablers? A: Object technology comes at a price: non-standard objects in AutoCAD drawings. One solution is to distribute an Object Enabler; another solution is to provide a mechanism for saving the custom objects as standard AutoCAD objects. Autodesk has chosen the first method; drcauto has chosen the second because it allows other, non-Autodesk products to access the objects. In Smart Architect, we covert our 3D objects into polyface meshes, which is ideal for external rendering programs. When we save our 3D drawings as 2D, we completely dumb-down the Smart Architect entities, squashing them to simple 2D lines and blocks. The 2D option is a one way process, the 3D option is reversible.
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