By Randall S. Newton
Editor-in-Chief
Noel Browning of the Construction Industry Resource Service has been a member of my kitchen cabinet for too many years. Occasionally he writes or calls to remind me that a majority in the construction industry are still using 2D CAD. The other day he forwarded a note to let me know how General CADD Pro is doing.
General CADD Pro is a reincarnation of Generic CADD, the most popular retail-priced CAD program of the DOS era. To this day thousands of satisfied users continue to make it work on Windows rather than switch to a more modern CAD program. (For a bit of the story about the last days of Generic CADD, see my CADwire.net commentary from earlier this year.) Seeing a market opportunity in such loyalty, Jim Faliveno (one of those loyal users) got together with two members of the former Generic CADD programming team, Matt Brown and Carl Ransdell. Together they created a new CADD program that blends the Generic CADD user experience with Windows.
How well have they succeeded? Noel Browning's message included this note sent to the General CADD team, written by someone with more than a passing interest in their progress:
Jim, Carl & Matt:
Have installed General CADD Pro and have had a little opportunity to play around with it. I should be able to give it a work out soon as we begin planning for building a new home this Fall and building two new rental homes.
First of all, CONGRATULATIONS on a great product! The installation has to be the easiest one I have done since originally switching to Windows. This is in marked contrast to products from, especially, Symantec and Intuit, where I dread receiving a new version. Thanks for not junking up my files with totally unnecessary links, desktop icons and countless strange registry entries. On installation alone this deserves an award.
Using General CADD Pro was like pulling an old favorite bicycle out of storage and finding to my delight that not only can I immediately ride it but someone has added new tires, a new seat, tuned it up, and given it a new paint job. It was great fun to find out all the two-letter commands I remembered and how that is still probably the fastest way to execute commands in a CAD program. I really hope this goes well for you as excellence should always be rewarded. If I can provide a testimonial or comment for your use in promoting the product, just let me know.
Again, GREAT JOB!!
Regards, Bob Fulton, Former President Generic CADD Software