”ARES Commander began as a replacement to AutoCAD, and then found its greatest impact as OEM software (licensed and branded by other firms) by firms such as Dassault Systemes (“DraftSight”) and Corel Software (“CorelCAD”). Graebert GmbH found further success in selling into verticals, such as facilities mapping and kitchen design.
Graebert sees that much BIM work is also done in DWG — 3D modeling in BIM, 2D drawings in DWG. Drawings are useful in organizing the complexity of BIM models, and for focusing on the details that are needed to carry out building projects — never mind the legal weight that signed drawings carry.
ARES Commander speeds up the process of organizing large drawings with the Sheets Sets Manager. The Sheet Set Manager is a great tool to organize the work with sheets, keeping all drawings and sheets accessible at the same point and at the same time offers a flexible way to customize the structure making it able to support several kinds of projects and workflows. Sheet Sets are typically used in large projects involving multiple drawings and sheets to print. Such projects will imply multiple versions and each version will be printed on paper or PDF.
ARES Commander speeds up 2D DWG drawings production from a BIM project. We can import BIM files in RVT format of Revit, or IFC format. Most interestingly the BIM drawings created with ARES Commander retain all the BIM information and can be updated when a new version of the BIM model is loaded.
‘Graebert is approaching this “broken workflow” with a three-pronged strategy: enabling CAD users to access a broader scope of BIM project information, accelerating and automating drawing production, and minimizing the effort needed to update CAD drawings when BIM projects are modified. To that end, the Graebert team is expanding capabilities in ARES Commander that can help CAD users work more efficiently on construction projects with BIM users, especially during the documentation phase.’
One of the key competitive advantages of the ARES CAD Software is the Trinity concept building synergies between ARES Commander, the desktop version for Windows, Mac and Linux computers, ARES Kudo (Cloud) and ARES Touch (Mobile version for Android and iOS).
A Beta version of ARES Commander 2022, including some of the new features described in this document, is already available for test, but only for Windows 64bits and macOS.
At one time, it may have been possible to consider Graebert as the maker of products to compete with AutoCAD but that was a long time ago.
Graebert’s CAD tools—from DraftSight for Dassault’s customers, to the Ares products, and CAD products such as CorelCAD licensed to other companies—have found their own places in the world. Ares technology represents the second largest base of CAD DWG users in the world behind Autodesk. Just as important, however, is Graebert’s continuing work within the ODA to improve workflows from drafting to BIM, which was a major focus for the company when it presented its annual update for press and analysts as a virtual conference.
Although the damage the COVID-19 pandemic wrought on supply chains, customer demand and other essential business components pummeled many companies this year, Graebert thrived. “Unlike most of our competitors, our company is not owned by investors … we create value for our customers and partners, not for the stock exchange,” said CEO and founder Wilfried Graebert during this year’s online-only Graebert neXt conference. “Despite corona, we keep this year hiring strongly,” he said, increasing the company size by some 30% in 2020.
Graebert GmbH held a 30-min exclusive online event was by invitation only for its partners and guests. The online event served as a replacement for the Graebert’s Annual Meeting held in the past years in Berlin. The event summarized Graebert’s upcoming innovations and gave a glimpse of the new features of ARES 2022 releasing in spring 2021. The ARES 2022 launch event open to the public is expected in spring 2021.
