in March 2021
BERLIN, Germany, Dec 2, 2020 – Graebert GmbH, a pioneer in developing high-performance CAD solutions across desktop, mobile and cloud, hosted its virtual event Graebert neXt to announce upcoming features in ARES Commander 2022, to be released in March 2021, which includes new features for BIM projects.
Make the best-in-class solution to create DWG drawings for your BIM projects
The BIM features announced fulfill part of a multi-year roadmap announced by Graebert in November 2019. Graebert’s ambition is to fix the broken workflow between BIM and CAD users with three ambitions:
- Enable CAD users to access the rich information contained in BIM projects
- Accelerate and automate drawings production
- Minimize efforts to update CAD drawings when BIM projects are modified
Graebert is a major player in the CAD industry with the second largest installed base for DWG-based CAD software after AutoCAD. Among other prestigious customers, three of the top five construction groups in Japan use ARES and Graebert recently entered into a partnership agreement in India with the Indian Institute of Architects.
ARES Commander is also differentiating by its modern Trinity concept – combining Desktop, Mobile and Cloud technologies – and its aggressive pricing with a choice between 1 year license for 250$/€, Perpetual license for 795$/€ and Network license for 995$/€.
While BIM software is increasingly used to design buildings and their systems in 3D, the DWG format used by CAD software such as ARES Commander remains the lingua franca to document such projects with 2D drawings. As a result, it is estimated that 80% of the users in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry keep using CAD software.
Cédric Desbordes, Graebert’s business development & marketing director commented: “BIM, with 3D models, and CAD with 2D drawings, are two processes running side by side. And behind each BIM user there are 4 to 10 times more CAD users working with DWG. But unfortunately, the workflow between BIM and CAD users is broken. It is a terrible waste of resources for the AEC industry, and this is what we believe is our mission: Make the best-in-class solution to create DWG drawings for your BIM projects.”
BIM Drawings in ARES Commander
As a CAD software, the ambition of ARES Commander is not to replace BIM software such as Revit, ArchiCAD or AllPlan. The value of the features implemented in ARES Commander is instead to empower the CAD user to work efficiently on construction projects with BIM users, and more specifically to accelerate and automate the documentation phase of the BIM projects.
The features released in the current version ARES Commander 2020 included:
- Import BIM files:IFC (2×3, 4, 4×1, 4×2, 4×3) or Revit format (version 2011 to 2021 included)
- BIM navigator:Visualize BIM model with ability to select and show/hide entities by discipline, class, feature, level and more.
- BIM properties:Read the rich information contained in the properties of BIM objects
- BIM filter: Isolate entities by properties to select and visualize only the BIM entities that are needed for a drawing or quantity takeoff
- BIM data extraction:extract BIM information into tables or csv files for quantity takeoffs and cost estimation
- BIM drawings:In the summer of 2020, a service pack of ARES Commander added the ability to extract 2D drawings from the BIM model such as floor plans, elevations and sections.
Robert Graebert, CTO of Graebert commented: “Drawing automation in ARES Commander can save you a precious time. In addition to the entities generated from the BIM model, the software is automating tedious tasks such as the insertion of callouts to reference other drawings, the insertions of symbolic graphics such as door or swing symbols and the configuration of sheets with multiple views.”
The BIM drawings in ARES Commander retain all the BIM information, they are not only sections of the BIM model but keep instead an associativity with the BIM model. Consequently, when a new version of the BIM model becomes available, the geometry of the BIM drawings can be refreshed.
Another advantage of the BIM drawings is to let the user draw additional details with any of the CAD features available in ARES Commander. Each BIM drawing represents a detailed view of the BIM model that can be placed at the right scale on a layout sheet. Each sheet can be configured with multiple viewports. Most interestingly, ARES Commander will save all these sheets as a DWG file that can be shared, viewed and printed with other DWG-based CAD software.
New BIM features in ARES Commander 2022
At the Graebert neXt event today, Robert Graebert further commented: “In ARES Commander 2022, we focused on delivering fast and automated drawing production. In addition to the generation of drawings, we are further leveraging the intelligence of BIM entities to create smarter annotation tools, and automate the style of 2D entities with the new materials mapper.”
In March 2021, Graebert will release ARES Commander 2022, including the following features demonstrated at the Graebert neXt virtual event:
- BIM dimensions:Select multiple entities on a BIM drawing and generate aligned dimensions that will automatically update when the BIM model is refreshed.
- BIM labels:Select multiple entities in a BIM drawing and auto-generate labels that will remain associated with the BIM entities and will therefore auto-update when the BIM model is refreshed.
- BIM material mapper:Configure rules customizing and harmonizing the style of the entities in BIM drawings following your preferences. A “set-once / use for every drawing” name mapping interface to assign to materials a specific color, hatch or graphic style.
Additionally, the version 2022 will become the first one to offer feature parity for BIM features in the macOS and Linux versions of ARES Commander.
Robert Graebert concluded: “Efficiency is our driving factor. We will further increase the automation to produce most of the drawings semi-automatically. Down the road, we aim at accelerating the process of drawings by a factor of 10x.”
About Graebert
Graebert is a leading developer of DWG-editing CAD software headquartered in Germany with additional offices in Japan, India, and Russia. Graebert 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 specialises 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%.
For more information, visit www.graebert.com.