| Archimedes - The Open CAD | |
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 Archimedes User Interface |
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| Developer | Archimedes Project, University of São Paulo |
| Latest release | 0.52.0 / 28th of May, 2007. |
| OS | Linux, Windows, Mac OS and any platforms supporting Java and OpenGL. |
| Platform | Java |
| Genre | Architectural Computer Aided Design |
| License | GPL |
| Website | www.arquimedes.org.br |
| Free software Portal |
Archimedes - "The Open CAD" - (aka Arquimedes) is a Computer Aided Design (CAD) program being developed side by side with architecture offices in order to fulfill all their needs. In this way, the developers hope to create software better suited for architects than the currently widely used AutoCAD, or other available CAD software.[1] The program is free software released under the GNU General Public License.
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Function
The latest stable version of Archimedes is a step closer to the state it was before it migrated to an RCP architecture. Relatively simple in its current development phase, it nevertheless includes basic drawing tools; some advanced CAD functions, such as filleting; auto-save; SVG export; an Italian translation; and greater stability. It uses its own open format, which seems to have a similar structure to SVG, although it has yet to support exporting to other CAD formats, which may limit some advanced uses.
Timeline
The Archimedes Project started as a collaboration between a group of programmers and architecture students at the University of São Paulo, in Brazil, in 2005. The project is still running as a university project, with a few restrictions on contributions (developers must work in pairs etc.). The university part of the project will be finished in July 2007, and the project will become a fully fledged open-source package.
- Archimedes was registered as a SourceForge project on the 12th of July, 2005.
- the latest stable version is 0.52.0, which was released on the 28th of May, 2007.
Programming
Archimedes is being programmed in Java, and the Current Version, 0.52.0, Runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux/Unix based systems, and might run on platforms that have a native OpenGL implementation and a Java Virtual machine. The software uses a Rich Client Platform and is now running to recover all the features lost during transition. The developers hope to have this work done by the end of July 2007.
