Application Review: ARES Commander Edition for Linux (Part II)

Continuing from Part I

• Workflow

 ARES is the end-result of more than 250 man-years of development (5 calendar years) from Graebert, one of the pioneers in CAD software development since 1983

from Graebert's website.


Well I think that ARES developers tried very hard to provide a usable and fast workflow. The relevance between the usage of the two input devices (mouse and keyboard) seems to be the part on which they spent a lot of time.
Also the need of staying familiar with the AutoCAD-like workflow, still necessary especially for people who need to migrate from AutoCAD to ARES without spending a lot of money for training,  continues to exist.
I think that the result is really very good. Definitely workflow is not a reason for someone to abort the migration to ARES.

• Features

ARES Commander Edition is a full-featured product.

The Linux version has the same functionality with the Windows version. 

There are missing only some Windows-specific features (OLE, EMF) and APIs (VSTA, COM, ActiveX, encrypted  LISP). 

The support of ACIS 3d modelling makes ARES unique at the time being in Linux world, so if this feature is necessary for you, ARES Commander Edition is your only choice at the moment.

Conclusion: If you want a solid and full-featured dwg-based CAD solution that works well with Linux and for productive purposes, ARES Commander Edition is the right application for you.

Rating: 5/5 Anything lower than this will be unfair

My last thought is about the right configuration of a Linux machine for long-time, stable, easy and productive usage with ARES Commander Edition. I think that the best distro for that is the new Debian Squeeze.

If you are not familiar with Debian try Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx.

You will not be disappointed.