[comp.sys.atari.st] Drafix CAD for the ST

dmh@JULIET.CALTECH.EDU (David M Hull) (01/05/87)

Moderator:  I hope this is useful in providing information about our product.
I do not mean to use the net as advertising space, and I'm not all that
available on it anyway.  Please let me know if this is not OK.
(And if you could make sure my email address is right i.e., matches the address
at the top, that would be nice, too.  Like I said, I don't use this very often,
and post stuff even less :-)
Thanks.

-----------------------------post everything after this--------------------------

In Info-Atari16 digest #62, Todd Burkey writes

> . . . Drafix I saw
>when I was out at Comdex, but to be truthful I didn't look at it very
>closely after I saw the $295 dealer price. For those with access to the PC
>world, it is a direct port of Drafix from the PC and seemed to have most of
>the features of Autocad and Generic Cadd 2.0. If anyone does buy drafix, let
>me know it if was worth it.

Drafix1 is currently in Beta release for the ST, full release due Real
Soon Now.  The $295 price is *ON THE IBM*, not on the Atari.   We  are
still arguing about  the  price  on  the  ST,  but  it	will  be  less
(especially after management sees that posting!).

The deal is, we are releasing Drafix1+, which is an enhancement of the
original to include curve fitting, arbitrary 2-D transformations (like
aspect changes and isometric skew), dynamic assignment of menu options
to  function  keys,  a	pop-up	text  editor  for  notes,  and	 other
enhancements.  Both versions (drafix1 and drafix1+) will  be  released
simultaneously on the Atari (as I understand --- but I'd hate  to  get
embroiled like Neil has with GDOS :-).

Drafix1 already includes all the standard features of  an  entity  (as
opposed to pixel) based drawing editor, in an especially easy  to  use
package.   (Help!   What  can  I  say  here  as  a  representative  of
Foresight   Resources	without   using   the	net   for   commercial
advertising??) Our menuing system avoids much of the climbing  in  and
out of menu trees (as in "OK, I'm done drawing a line . .  .  take  me
back to 'draw' . . . OK, now take me back to 'main' .	.   .").   The
item attributes (layer, pen# and line type) can be changed on the fly,
as can the current snap mode (will the next point be on the  grid,  at
the nearest endpoint of an item, at the  intersection  of  two	items,
etc.)

All in all, it's a pleasant but still powerful way to  put  real  live
useful drawings together quickly.  Perhaps someone out there  has  the
IBM version and can give a less biased report.	There are  Atari  beta
versions "floating around out there", but I'm not sure where.


Sorry for the delay in answering, but I don't log  on  this  net  very
much (and in fact, I probably shouldn't be using this account, since I
/did/ graduate) and things are still a bit up in the air.

		--dmh

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* The opinions above are my own, not necessarily those of Foresight Resources *
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David Hull
dmh@juliet.caltech.edu (I think)

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