A company executive cites "good fit" with Apple's Spotlight search as well as IMSI's recent acquisition of Aladdin Systems as keys to the company's reunion with the Mac.IMSI, a developer and publisher of consumer, business and precision design software, has returned to the Macintosh market after a 10-year absence, announcing the release of TurboCAD for Mac OS X.
"We stopped selling in the Mac market because the market just wasn't supporting it," said Bob Mayer, executive vice president of the Precision Design group in charge of TurboCAD.
"We think now, with Apple retail outlets giving us a marketplace, we can try to sell in this space again."
The new version of TurboCAD, which is based not on the Windows version but on separate code, includes more than 250 design and drafting tools with tips and customizable keyboard shortcuts.
"We see our market as graphic designers who use Macs. The tie-in is to the people that already use Photoshop and Illustrator," said Mayer.
TurboCAD contains more than 275 dimensioning tools plus a full menu of snaps. The program can handle the import of 15 different CAD and graphic formats and export in 11 formats.
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TurboCAD supports import of the follow file formats: DXF, DWG, ACIS SAT, Adobe Illustrator, BMP, CATIA v4, Grid Surface, IGES, PICT, ProE, Rhino 3DM, Spline, STEP, Tex, Truespace COB.
TurboCAD exports to the following file formats: DXF, DWG, ACIS SAT, Adobe Illustrator, CATIA v4, CGM, EPS, IGES, PICT, STEP and text.
Mayer said the quick search capabilities of Spotlight work to TurboCAD's advantage, allowing users to access the extensive TurboCAD symbol library using relevant keywords to easily identify candidate parts.
"This just lends itself to finding content on the Web, and with our extensive compatibility with other CAD programs, we see this as a good fit."
The TurboCAD Explorer, the main component of TurboCAD, includes an intuitive Layer Manager and Symbol Palette with drag-and-drop access to more than 8,000 symbols and parts including electrical, mechanical, bathroom, kitchen, construction, LAN, CMOS, doors, windows, counters, fasteners and HVAC components.
TurboCAD for the Mac includes a conversion tool that automatically allows users to create precise 2-D wireframe and hidden line drawings from imported 3-D components or assembly drawings, including AutoCAD DXF and DWG files.
With this tool, the user can quickly create production-ready drawings and additional auxiliary, detail and section views.
Another reason the Mac market looks good for IMSI now: In spring of last year, the company purchased Aladdin Systems, now called Allume, which has the perk of having a built-in base of, according to Mayer, more than 1 million Mac users.
"That's definitely nice, having a built-in market to start from," Mayer said. Aladdin is the maker of StuffIt, the compression software.
TurboCAD for the Macintosh runs natively on Mac OS X 10.2 and later and is available directly from IMSI and selected retail outlets.
TurboCAD sells for $99.95. IMSI plans to release a second, 2-D/3-D version of TurboCAD for Mac OS X in July.
"Depending on how this sells and the one in July, we'll decide if there's a market for us to expand our product line," said Mayer.
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