Corel releases new CorelCAD 2015 for Mac and Windows—unparalleled native DWG file support

Ottawa-based Corel Corporation, the makers of the popular CorelDRAW and Corel WordPerfect® Office suite, announced this week the latest release of CorelCAD 2015 for Mac OS X and Windows platforms.

CorelCAD for Mac

CoreCAD 2015 is a native DWG-file based 2D and 3D professional CAD (computer-aided drafting) application that runs fully native on Apple’s Mac OS X platform, along with Microsoft Windows operating systems.

“CorelCAD 2015 delivers one of the strongest and most cost-effective CAD software solutions for users of all levels,” said Klaus Vossen, Senior Product Manager for Technical Graphics, Corel.

01 – Corel Corporation has released new CorelCAD 2015 for Mac and Windows environments, providing native DWG file CAD.

“It’s one of the best choices for architects, engineers and other CAD professionals because of its affordability, familiar ribbon UI and extensive file compatibility,” continued Klaus Vossen. “The new parametric design capabilities accelerate productive design workflows. With an extensive set of 3D design tools, CorelCAD 2015 is the ideal software for 3D enthusiasts looking for an affordable 3D design application with 3D output capabilities from concept to finished goods.”

What’s New in CorelCAD 2015

• New Drawing Constraint (Parametric Drawing for Windows — this system, which is only available on on the Windows version, increases drawing precision by applying dimensional constraints to ensure 2D designs meet exact proportion, angle and size requirements by forcing a geometric shape to perform in a specified way
• New 2D Editing Tools — Maintains the attribute values while exploding blocks to editable shapes with the ExplodeBlockX, the DiscardDuplicates tool simplifies geometry, and the interactive trim path precisely trims curves and corners on screen
• New PopUp Dimension Palette — displays settings for dimensions quickly on screen for frequent access settings
• Enhanced In-Place Text and Table Editing – creates and modifies existing text with the ability to quickly stack text and paste formatting text from Microsoft Word within a project, advanced table editing features
• Enhanced Windows Ribbon UI – enhances productivity and allows users to easily transition form other CAD programs with customizable Windows ribbon UI workspaces

Pricing Availability

CorelCAD 2015 for Mac and Windows is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Brazilian-Portuguese, Czech, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean. North American pricing is 699.USD. Registered users of previous versions can upgrade at lower pricing of 199.USD. Educational pricing available and volume licenses with flex licensing for hybrid deployment on mixed Windows and Mac operating systems.

02 – A screenshot of CorelCAD 2015 on Mac, a fully native DWG-file based 2D/3D CAD system.

More information including a trial demo version can be found here. The complete product brochure is also linked here.

Architosh Analysis

An interesting tech note is that the constraint system is only Windows now for this product supposedly due to Spatial Corporation’s constraint solver technology being utilized which is currently not supported as an API for Mac OS X. Berlin, Germany, based Graebert however told Architosh at its event this month that Spatial is working to release its constraint system API technology for OS X in 2015.

It is quite interesting to read the CorelCAD 2015 product brochure because the company has a solid understanding of the CAD market and its recent tectonic shifts, including factors such as AEC’s shift to 3D BIM workflows and the necessity of legacy 2D CAD in MCAD markets. Important to the latter, many of today’s youngest engineers trained on 3D only MCAD systems like SolidWorks or Inventor, have little experience in 2D CAD systems. Yet detailing and schematics are important 2D components of many workflows for engineers. Corel is utilizing Graebert’s ARES DWG-based CAD engine, the same one in Dassault Systemes’ DraftSight. They are all, in some ways, pitching the same arguments for their core shared product. The differences is in the UI, customizations and product orientations and the support and resources from the company. And the the price, of course.

Given Corel’s proven excellence in customer support and software development and in serving both the Macintosh and the Windows markets, the company is well positioned to put some marketing effort behind this CAD product, marketing it to architects, technicians in need of CAD, builders, engineers and graphics and marketing professionals who need to work with DWG files as part of their workflows.