The Open Design Alliance today announced that version 2.1.1 of its DWGdirect software libraries for all operating systems have been released, and no longer include support for what Autodesk calls “TrustedDWG technology.”
A spokesman for the Alliance could not say exactly how many members have actually shipped software containing the offending code, noting that many members have downloaded it but have not yet incorporated it into their products.
This new release is in response to the Temporary Restraining Order issued on November 22, 2006 as part a lawsuit filed by Autodesk against the Open Design Alliance. The order, signed by U.S. District Court Judge Marsha J. Pechman, states:
“The Court hereby temporarily restrains and enjoins Defendant, its agents, servants, employees, attorneys, and all others in active concert or participation with Defendant, from using or simulating Autodesk's TrustedDWG technology, including but not limited to the Autodesk watermark and/or TrustedDWG code, without Autodesk's authorization; from distributing DWGdirect libraries that use, incorporate or simulate Autodesk's TrustedDWG technology or that otherwise insert or mimic the unauthorized Autodesk and/or TrustedDWG code.”
The Alliance says DWGdirect is used by hundreds of brands of CAD and engineering software applications to support reading, writing, viewing and editing of DWG format files. The new release of DWGdirect incorporates support for all the new features and entity types introduced in AutoCAD 2007, but excludes support for setting the TrustedDWG signature when saving a DWG file. The alliance asks all members to replace their libraries containing the TrustedDWG signature with these new libraries.
“The Open Design Alliance is founded on a mission to serve its members—and the millions of CAD users worldwide—who need accurate and reliable interoperability with their DWG data,” says Arnold van der Weide, chairman of the Alliance board, in a prepared statement. “The ODA will continue to provide exceptional quality technology to the global CAD ecosystem enabling the right of choice to use the best in class software solutions regardless of the data file creation source.”
The new DWGdirect file libraries for all operating systems are available now for download by members at www.opendesign.com.
--RSN