Open Design Alliance Announces Legacy Application Recovery

Phoenix, AZ: The Open Design Alliance (ODA) announces new services for CAD developers and end-users to implement DRX support for obsolete or legacy ARX custom object applications developed with the Autodesk® ObjectARX® programming environment.

Custom object applications are often designed for specialized CAD drawings, such as mechanical, electrical, architecture, or civil engineering, allowing end-users to create custom entities quickly and accurately and use custom commands that increase productivity. If the source code of these custom object applications is lost or not maintained over time, end-users become restricted to using legacy CAD applications that do not work with, or take advantage of, the latest features found in more recent DWG file formats.

This new service will allow users to convert obsolete ARX applications into current DRX applications, which are usable within any DWGdirect™ host application. DRX source code will be provided, making additional development on such applications possible. This opens a wide range of possibilities for CAD developers and end-users to work with more recent DWG file formats and to further develop and enhance their custom object implementations.

Arnold van der Weide, President of the ODA, commented, “The inability to update an ARX application to work with the most recent versions of DWG forces a CAD user to prematurely retire a productive application and lose the ability to correctly display legacy CAD drawings. ODA’s Legacy Application Recovery services allow users to continue working with their older CAD drawings and applications productively and efficiently, which is exactly what the custom object applications were designed to do originally.”

The ODA is committed to providing CAD users and developers open access to their data and drawings. The ODA’s Legacy Application Recovery services are available to all CAD developers and users, regardless of membership with the ODA. More details about these new services can be found at http://www.opendesign.com.