Product Review: Graebert ARES Commander 2016 for Mac

Recently Germany’s Graebert GmbH has released the latest version of its flagship CAD product, ARES Commander 2016, a true DWG file-based 2/3D CAD system that runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. This is the first time Architosh has reviewed the ARES Commander product and as such the review will include our customary, though small, sections that help introduce and orient the reader to the use of the product.

The complete review will walk the reader through some history, product introduction, basic orientation and learning, new features in version 2016, and finally comparative information as it relates to Autodesk’s AutoCAD itself.

Astute readers will note that Architosh has a longstanding tradition of deliberately not discussing much if anything about competitor products inside of product reviews. We have done this deliberately to focus reader attention on what a product’s features do, are capable of, and not to enter the nebulous area of making superior/inferior distinctions between rival products. There is enough banter on the internet coming out of product-centric blogs, product fan sites, et cetera, and we need not go there.

Clone Wars

However, the decision has been made to treat products like ARES Commander as members of a unique “group,” along with AutoCAD itself, and thus do make key distinctions and comparisons inside of reviews of these products. At the very least, it is helpful to relate these products to each other because they are remarkably similar. This means too, that in future AutoCAD on Mac reviews we will make comparisons to the DWG competitors or what some others have called clones of AutoCAD.¹ Thus, the reader will find comparative commentary on ARES 2016 at the end of this review.

Some Brief History

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Graebert’s CEO and founder, Wilfried Graebert, when I was at the Graebert Annual Meeting event back in October, (see, Architosh, “Graebert Annual Meeting—ARES Breaks Down Walls in CAD,” 19 Oct 2015.) He gave me a brief run-down on the company’s history. Graebert has been in the business of selling and supporting CAD for over 30 years and was a valuable Autodesk reseller in Germany, helping to spread AutoCAD throughout German industry.

In the early 1990’s Graebert developed its own CAD software, called FelixCAD (later rebranded PowerCAD, not to be confused with the Mac-only PowerCADD). FelixCAD was not DWG based, nor was it aimed at being like AutoCAD. In 2010 the company spawned the ARES era with a brand new CAD engine behind it.²  And yes, it is DWG native. In fact, ARES Commander was the first CAD tool utilizing the DWG libraries from the Open Design Alliance (ODA) that used the format (.dwg) as its native file format, without any conversion layer. For those interested in Graebert more densely, we have a feature on the Annual Meeting event from Berlin.

Introduction to ARES Commander

“ARES Commander,” the latest version being 2016, is the name given to Graebert’s own international product offering; however, the company packages this entire CAD application and code base and licenses it to OEM’s (original equipment manufacturers) in the CAD industry. In the later years of the last decade, and prior to Autodesk releasing the Mac version of AutoCAD, Graebert begun discussions with key industry licensees, including Corel Corporation of Canada and Dassault Systèmes of France.

As such, today’s CorelCAD and DraftSight (from Corel and Dassault, respectively) are OEM-based versions of ARES Commander, with minor developer modifications to reflect, and relate to, those two company’s product lines and missions.

User Interface

The ARES Commander 2016 for Mac user-inteface (UI) embodies the older AutoCAD format UI prior to the advent and use of the Microsoft Ribbon-Style UI common now across many Windows-based CAD programs. (image 01 – 02) This means the primary Tool palette is on the left and the Properties palette is on the right, with the Command Line palette on the bottom. This should all feel instantly familiar to both veteran Mac CAD users as well as AutoCAD users.

Most of the UI is quite customizable. The Tools Palette can be altered and re-arranged with individual toolbars dragged off into the graphics window, where they free float over everything, or placed above the graphics window where they can lock into the UI arrangement. The Window menu Switch UI command enables the user to toggle between a classic Mac mode or the default SDI model for smart dock-able palettes. (images 02 – 04)

The Ribbon UI format exist in the Windows version of ARES Commander 2016 and it isn’t an option on the Mac. Most Mac CAD users will not care that the Microsoft Ribbon UI is unfamiliar to them and somewhat counter-intuitive to Apple’s longest standing UI standards.

Orientation and Help

AutoCAD users will instantly orient themselves around the program quickly. Like AutoCAD each drawing loads into its own window with tabs across the bottom to navigate back and forth between “model space” and initial “paper space” layouts. Right-clicking on these tabs will enable adding, deleting, editing or other functions related to model and paper space, including printing functions. (see image 05)

ARES Commander has always had a command line structure and longtime AutoCAD users who steadfastly rely on the Command Line interface will be right at home with ARES Commander 2016. Most commands are identical to AutoCAD, though reportedly a limited few vary.

For new users, especially those in the Mac side of the CAD world, unfamiliar with either AutoCAD or systems with Command Lines or both, the best place to start with ARES Commander 2016 is to open up the Help system.

Like any standard help system, this one contains a Home, Context and Index page and from each one can navigate learning about ARES 2016. For those experienced with DWG based CAD systems, and especially those experienced with using Command Line entries, the Help system is also helpful as a quick path to the complete Command Reference.

The first weakness that shows up in ARES Commander 2016 is actually in the Help system. There is no tutorial section for new users. The “Getting Started” section simply tells new users things like this:

“To create a drawing, Click File > New.”

“To open an existing drawing, Click File > Open.”

This “Getting Started” section is too basic and incomplete. A true tutorial would be a more “step-by-step” guide to actually doing something fundamental and task related, like creating your first drawing of a basic mechanical part or simple site plan for a building.

The Command Line Newbies

For those who are totally new to CAD systems with Command Lines—which is likely going to be a lot of CAD users if they are rather young or have been long-time users of popular solutions on the Mac platform— having a Command Line around in their CAD system is going to feel weird. So why not an example?

To get a quick taste of Command Line power, make sure the Command Line palette is actually visible by going to the menu Window > Palettes > Command window.

The first step is to locate the cursor in the bottom left row of the Command window. Then type the word Grid (ignore caps, as it doesn’t matter and are used with command line shortcuts for legibility and understanding). For example, you can type “grid” in all lower case, all caps, or a mix, it won’t matter.

Type the word “grid” into the Command window and hit the return key. Options will appear in BLUE. The underline segment is the next command line option (e.g.: Off or ON). Type the word “on” and hit the return key. Now a grid array will appear. (see image 06 above).

next page: New Features in Version 2016

New Features in Version 2016

ARES Commander 2015 was already a very feature rich 2/3D CAD program for its price point. In version 2016, Graebert continues to increase its capabilities.

Quick Input

A top new feature is the new Quick Input, offering dynamic information and input boxes directly near the cursor where all the drawing action takes place. For example, Quick Input displays helpful information about lengths, angles, prompts and options. (see image 07).

There are many options under the Quikck Input features, including the ability to Shift + Right Click for entity snap options. You can activate or deactivate Quick Input from the toggle buttons at the button of the main model space window. Hitting the tab key fixes a dimension in the Quick Input field and moves to the next field, such as an angel dimension. (see image 07). Hit “enter” to confirm the changes and create the next point. In the middle of this process the user can hit the Shift + Right Click to access a popup menu of snap entity options (keys), making it easier for the user to filter for the type of snaps they wish to use.

Annotation Scaling

Annotation Scaling is also new in this release and offers ARES 2016 users a lot more power over how both dimensions and other text elements appear and scale in viewports. The age-old problem with the “model space” versus “paper space’ paradigm was that if you put your text elements in model space they would naturally “scale” up in viewports to a specific scale just like all the drawing elements. CAD programs solve this various ways, sometimes by using scale factors or by enabling the ability for the text elements to stay at the size chosen (say 10 pt) in model space.

An interesting thing ARES 2016 enables is to establish not just the scaling solution—keeping text set across viewports regardless of their scale size—but something called an Annotation Entity Scale List. From here you determine per element what text appears in viewports and what text does not appear, all depending on the scale of that viewport. The Annotation Entity Scale List provide ARES Commander 2016 a lot of power.

There is a difference users need to focus on between making sure text, for instance, scales up automatically to a given viewport’s scale, versus whether or not the text or dimension element appear at all. Sometimes dimensions are too small for a given size to be legible in a given viewport. In that case, with ARES Commander 2016, the use of Annotation Entity Scaling Lists helps address the matter. (see image 08)

Other New Features

There are several other new features of a high order that are unfortunately not yet available on the Mac OS X version of ARES Commander 2016. One of those is the new Pattern Hatch tools, which is a component of the Windows-only XtraTools™ commands. The new feature is quite nice as it enables you to create hatches from photos or images or from blocks. Advanced options include scaling, spacing, and rotation. A video of the new feature can be found here.

Drawing Tabs is also a Windows-only feature, that greatly strengthens ARES Commander in this release. Drawing tabs enable multiple files to be opened at once and a graphic preview of the drawing shown when the cursor hovers over a given drawing tab. It should be stated the preferred Mac UI Mode, where palettes are not self-docking, it is possible to open multiple DWG files up. But in SDI mode, which a UI mode that has self-docking palettes and resembles the UI of ARES on Windows, I was unable to open up multiple files. This I found out was because of a graphics bug that appeared shortly before the final release. Graebert says that the fix should arrive in Service Pack 1 (SP1) or for sure by Service Pack 2.

Curved text is another Windows-only feature under the XtraTools menu but unlike the others mentioned above, not one most Mac ARES users will be missing all that much.

Finally, there are three other major new features that are not Windows-only. These include the new ImportDGN command which inserts DGN files as a block into your drawing. (see image 09 below)

This is a noteworthy mention because many civil and landscape architects utilize Microstation and hence designers and architects on the Mac need tools that can access DGN files. In fact, we believe ARES Commander 2016 is the only native DWG Mac CAD system that has this capability.

The new LayerState Manager is also a new top feature across all platforms. LayerStates are recorded layer scenarios (e.g.: some layers on, some off, etc) that allow the user to quickly switch between different layer scenarios (i.e.: Layer states). This feature was fairly straightforward in its execution and will be highly prized by existing and new users alike.

Lastly, the new Head-up Display toolbar is a contextually driven mini toolbar, horizontally displayed near wherever your cursor is located. Shortcuts from the Head-up Display toolbar include items like: zoom to selection, change entity layer, change line styles, or line widths, and the like. (see image 10 below)

Another set of options enable the user to create a dimension or create a block from the selection.

These are the highlight new features in ARES Commander 2016. While several, including ones not yet mentioned, involved the Windows-only XtraTools™ commands, one final item that is also on the Mac version is the new Select Matching function, which comes up on the contextual pop-up menu when the Head-up Display toolbar is present.

next page: Comparison to AutoCAD and Other Clones

Comparison to AutoCAD and Other Clones

For the purposes of this section, and within the context of a review, it may be worthy to point out some differences in ARES Commander 2016 compared to AutoCAD and other important clones. With respect to AutoCAD, we mean to compare AutoCAD for Mac versus ARES Commander 2016 for Mac.

Just like AutoCAD, ARES Commander 2016 isn’t a perfectly equal multi-platform CAD application. Nor should it necessarily be. For example, Autodesk makes use of Apple’s unique Mac features in its Mac version of AutoCAD, such as with touch. This is something that is not necessarily high on the priority list for Graebert. They instead would prefer to make the Windows, Mac and Linux versions as closely mirroring each other possible. This is an important difference in philosophy. An example might be in the Microstation DGN file support. Whereas Autodesk has chosen to not provide any DGN support as underlays or imports, Graebert has with its Mac version.

Both AutoCAD and ARES Commander for Mac support 3D modeling. But again philosophical orientation between these two and BricsCAD points to important considerations. In the case of the two former programs, neither of them is trying to provide BIM (building information modeling) features for the AEC market like BricsCAD is doing. There is no support for IFC (Industry Foundation Classes), an important file-exchange format in the BIM industry.

With respect to 3D CAD and modeling, Graebert’s orientation is most markedly different than BricsCAD and closer to AutoCAD, particularly on the Mac. The Mac versions of all of these products are typically less full, feature wise, than the Windows version, a reflection of where the CAD industry has been historically more than conditions in the trenches which, despite huge gains by Apple, remain more Windows-centric. This however is changing quickly, and all three DWG native CAD players have focused much attention on platform parity. To be fair, the European’s (Graebert and Bricsys) are further along philosophically perhaps as they have Linux support.

ARES Commander 2016 is built on the latest Spatial modeling kernel technology and supports SAT and ACIS and well as DWG and DXF 2/3D CAD file formats. It also supports PDF, DNG (Microstation) and PDF and DWF formats. Graebert’s chief focus with ARES Commander is at the broad 2D CAD industry, where AutoCAD has dominated. Despite PLM and 3D CAD in manufacturing, despite BIM in the AEC industry, Graebert feels strongly that 2D CAD is going to be with us for quite some time.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Graebert’s overall strategy is to be a direct competitive option to AutoCAD itself, with particular focus on the 2D CAD market. There are no speciality orientations such as Sheet Metal or BIM as in the case of its DWG rivals. Instead, Graebert is focused at being the fastest, most efficient DWG CAD drafting tool, within the modern context of cloud and mobile. Its “cross-device” license strategy is a unique and appealing benefit over its rivals as well. ARES Commander, ARES Touch and soon ARES Kudo are all designed to work seamlessly with the same data files, natively, and across a multitude of access points—Android, iOS, cloud, Windows, Linux and Mac. With every license of ARES Commander comes a free license of ARES Touch for mobile devices.

We keep hearing by those we interview and write about here on Architosh, about how important “access”really is now in the industry. This is perhaps the one very clear area where Graebert clearly excels over all its DWG rivals.

ARES Commander 2016 for Mac has some excellent new features. Annotative Scaling and Quick Input are implemented nicely but its Head-Up display toolbar was strongest in the area of speed and efficiency. The SDI (docked-palette) UI mode on the Mac is really nice also. Though Mac users have traditionally preferred Apple’s oldest UI paradigms of “floating” windows and palettes, today Apple is pushing in other UI directions, as we can see with Split View features in the latest El Capitan OS X release, which is also a feature in iOS on the new iPad Pro. Having a hybrid OS X user-interface option not only helps existing Windows users enjoy ARES on Macs but relates UI features to the latest Apple user-experiences (UX).

ARES Graebert, despite its many strengths, could and should pick-up its game in a few areas. Notably, the program assumes too much of users, something common in Microsoft world. Apple’s customers are not fond of dense manuals; Apple users are use to brilliant, engaging on-ramps to new products that get them going quickly. It would be nice to see some good video-based tutorials that introduce the product to at least two core audiences: existing AutoCAD users and Mac users.

Overall, ARES Commander 2016 is a strong option for DWG-based CAD workflows, in a wide array of industries. For those who seek out AutoCAD LT, in particular, due to its lower cost, ARES 2016 should be seen as a competitive option. For those with mixed platform enterprises, especially those with Linux seats, ARES Commander actually offers the best cross-platform functional mix. For architects who seek a cost-competitive, robust 2D-oriented DWG option to compliment BIM workflows, again, ARES is a must “side-by-side” comparison with AutoCAD LT. — Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP.

To learn more about Graebert’s ARES Commander 2016, visit them online here.

Pros: a robust feature complete native DWG CAD option to Autodesk’s AutoCAD, with support for AutoLISP, scripts, Autodesk workspace support (CUIX files) and more. Highly customizable UI. Multiple UI-modes on Mac version but avoids MS Ribbon. Nice array of efficiency oriented features in Quick Input, Head-up display and Annotative Scaling. New LayerState Manager will be much appreciated; Microstation DGN support on the Mac version too also a big bonus for some. Cross-device license is truly unique in industry, free Touch license; Windows, Mac and Linux support for heterogeneous environments.

Cons: No onboard tutorial system (via Help menu or Startup window) to help new users learn the app (eg: video based tutorials in AutoCAD’s launch window). Veteran Mac CAD users without any AutoCAD experience may struggle to figure out basic operations.

Advice: Excellent option for large heterogeneous enterprises/environments, particularly those looking for flexible licensing options; lower cost option for robust native DWG CAD, particularly with reference to 2D drawing production. Anybody with these concerns plus BIM users looking for app to support legacy DWG files or continued DWG access should consider ARES Commander a strong option.

Cost: 795.USD perpetual license, or 250.USD per year annual plan (includes LicenseToGo and ARES Touch for one year. 995.USD for network flexible, sharing license (use the same license on different computers on the LAN but not simultaneously.)

[Editor’s note: 11 Jan 2016, we made several corrections, most notably: (1) changed statement regarding ARES Commander was launched in 2010, not 2005; (2) corrected Microsoft’s file format designation from DNG to DGN; (3) corrected a typo on Dassault Systems name; (4) provided an outbound link to the Pattern Hatch video mentioned in the text.]

Notes

1 – The discussion of AutoCAD or DWG clones as a term began back around 2010. The link in the article post “AutoCAD: march of the clones” on the Linemine blog was actually in late 2013, but earlier “clone” term use was back in 2010, as in here at the AutoCADder blog. This last post also has an interesting comment from the summer of 2011 regarding Macs in architecture, where the acceleration of Macs in CAD environments started to really grow.

2 – Graebert’s ARES CAD engine is their own, written in a C++ language core which was designed to be compatible with Linux servers and was the first DWG CAD program to be fully compatible with all three major desktop operating systems, Windows, Mac, and Linux. The core is then wrapped using Qt (pronounced “cute” or officially “cue-tee” and is a cross-platform application framework, used to develop graphical user interface.

 

 

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