BERLIN, Germany, Mar 20, 2020 – Graebert GmbH  – a pioneer in developing high-performance CAD solutions across desktop, mobile and cloud, announced its full browser-based solution ARES Kudo will be offered free of charge until the end of May 2020.

Facing the Covid-19 pandemic, staying at home is the civic behavior that we must all adapt to stop the expansion of the virus and save lives. The resilience of the global economy will also rely on our ability to sustain jobs and maintain a continuity of business.

Wilfried Graebert, CEO and founder of Graebert commented: “By all means, Cloud is the easiest solution to organize the collaboration and grant each employee access to a solution to create and modify technical drawings in DWG format. Our solution ARES Kudo is currently the only mature cloud-based solution serving that purpose. There will be obviously a cost for Graebert to run and scale up the infrastructure accordingly but we are prepared for it. We feel it is our duty to encourage people to stay at home and help the CAD community to maintain their activity.”​

How to use ARES Kudo free of charge

Users are invited to sign up for a Graebert Account from https://kudo​.graebert.com​.To begin with the creation of a Graebert Account will trigger a free 30-day trial of the ARES Trinity of CAD software which includes the Cloud version ARES Kudo but also of the desktop version ARES Commander and of the mobile version ARES Touch. After the 30-day trial expires, the access to ARES Kudo will be maintained free of charge until the end of May.

Similarly, users that have already previously expired a free trial can connect again with their Graebert Account and will enjoy free access to all the features of ARES Kudo until the end of May.

Detailed information about this offer will be regularly updated on the page https://www.graebert.com/istayathome​.

CAD in home office with Cloud collaboration

The most obvious advantage of a browser-based technology such as ARES Kudo is that it can be used from any computer connected to the internet. Nothing to install, nothing to update, it simply runs in your Internet browser from the URL https://kudo​.graebert.com​.This makes it easy to use any personal or occasional computer at home. Graebert is operating servers all over the world.

Moreover, ARES Kudo is a very flexible solution able to connect with multiple file systems which enables each company to connect it to the storage they already use such as Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive. Alternatively a private server can be connected leveraging the WebDAV protocol. ​It is also possible to simply upload a file from your computer.

The benefits are also found in terms of collaboration:

• Secured access: Each user is authenticated by a login and password and can only access the files to which he was granted viewing or editing rights. These rights can be revoked by the file owner at any time.
• Synchronize files: Any update one user is making to a drawing is instantly shared with the other users. No risk to work on outdated versions.
• Continuity of work: No need to copy files or use external drives, the files follow the user on any device.
• Session handling: When one user is editing a file, the others can only view it which avoids creating conflicting versions that would be hard to reconcile.
• Collaboration tools:​Enable users to discuss the project with comments and markups
• Collect feedback and validation: Possibility to generate free-to-use view-only links that enable your contacts to view and comment your drawing directly in their Web browser. Besides, this link is constantly updated as you continue to modify the drawing and can be protected by password or disabled at any time.

How does ARES Kudo compare with traditional CAD software such as AutoCAD or ARES Commander?

ARES Kudo offers an easy switch as the user interface is relatively similar. The commands are available from the command line, the toolbars or a hamburger menu.

ARES Kudo offers a complete feature set of 2D tools to create or modify technical drawings including layers and properties palette, Xrefs, layouts, block insertion, hatches and more.

Compared to traditional CAD software the main limitations are:

• Opening time for large drawings can take longer because your Internet browser will need to load the geometry, but after loading the zoom and pan operations are reasonably equivalent in terms of performance.
• While most 2D features are available, 3D features are mostly limited to viewing and annotation.
• Printing features are limited by the capabilities of your Internet browser, but the logic is rather to share your drawing as a link to keep live updates or to print as a PDF to freeze a specific version of the file.

A 46 pages white paper “ARES Kudo vs AutoCAD Web” from the independent industry expert, Ralph Grabowski, gives a detailed layout of Graebert’s Cloud-based CAD product’s features and how it compares with Autodesk solutions. Download the white paper from https://www.graebert.com/compare-areskudo.

About Graebert

Graebert is a leading developer of DWG-editing CAD software headquartered in Germany with additional offices in Japan, India, and Russia. Gräbert was founded in 1977 and has ever since pioneered multiple innovations in the CAD industry, including the first solution to run on Windows, macOS and Linux, the first mobile CAD solutions and more recently its Cloud version ARES Kudo.

The Graebert product portfolio is anchored by the ARES Trinity of CAD software – a powerful suite of 2D & 3D CAD software for desktop, mobile and cloud. Graebert’s CAD software are specialized in the production of technical drawings in DWG format.

These solutions are sold both directly to end customers under the brand ARES, or indirectly, as a development platform that other developers use to build their own solutions. Altogether, Graebert has the second largest installed base (after AutoCAD only) with millions of professional users and year-over-year revenue growth in 2019 of 30%.