Articles and Press Releases

Not many CAD companies today can say they're 40 years old. Congratulations to ITC member, Carlson Software!

In 1983, a land surveyor and engineer named Bruce Carlson took his smarts, ingenuity, and can-do approach to begin creating land surveying software. Carlson Software was born and now delivers CAD software for the land surveying, civil engineering, GIS, construction, and mining industries. For more details about their history, see the Carlson news.

Carlson Software has been a member of the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium since 2007. To find out how Carlson Software and the ITC work together, see the success story. To find out more about IntelliCAD's .dwg technology, go here.

 

Carlson Software just released its Carlson 2023 product line. A brief roundup of new features and enhancements: Carlson Survey supports multiple centerline files and GNSS base point adjustments, Carlson Civil contains improved 3D design tools, Carlson Point Cloud includes improved color edge identification, and Carlson Hydrology delivers enhancements to HydroNET and GIS features. And there's much more!

To find out more about Carlson Software's latest tools and CAD software for the land surveying, civil engineering, GIS, construction, and mining industries:

• Get the news >>
• Learn about Carlson 2023 >>
• Download a trial >>

IntelliCAD is the default CAD engine that comes built-in to Carlson Software products. To find out how Carlson Software and the ITC work together, see the success story. To find out more about IntelliCAD's .dwg technology, go here.

All DotSoft CAD add-on products are updated to include support for the new IntelliCAD 11.0 release:

• ToolPac: CAD Productivity Tools
• XL2CAD: Excel to CAD Connectivity, eliminating OLE problems
• WD2CAD: Word to CAD Connectivity, eliminating OLE problems
• MapWorks: Civil/Survey, Mapping & GIS Tools

Existing DotSoft users should contact DotSoft directly to obtain discounted upgrades to their existing versions.

DotSoft is a member of the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium. For details about the IntelliCAD platform, go here.

Got GeoTIFF files? Carlson users are bringing drone images from Carlson PhotoCapture into Carlson Point Cloud for greater accuracy in land development projects. In a video from Carlson, you can watch GeoTIFF files be inserted into Carlson Point Cloud, which is based on the IntelliCAD engine, and then used with ground control points for surveying a driveway culvert site.

• Watch the video >>
• Learn about Carlson Software >>

Carlson Software delivers a wide range of CAD products across the land development and mining industries. Because they designed their CAD software to run with IntelliCAD or Autodesk® AutoCAD® from a single Carlson source code base, their users have a choice: work with built-in IntelliCAD for free or purchase a subscription to AutoCAD. To check out the ITC and Carlson success story, click here.

ZWCAD Civil is available now! Developed by Sivan Design as an add-on to ZWCAD, the program includes aids for surveying projects, road planning and design, mechanisms for infrastructure design, and more.

ZWCAD Civil is available in these versions: Survey, Standard, Roads, Pipes, and Full.

Silvan Design designed their civil technology exclusively for ZWCAD after evaluating multiple CAD platforms for performance, stability, and APIs. ZWCAD is based on the IntelliCAD engine.

Get the details and a trial >>

ITC President David Lorenzo will be the keynote speaker at Carlson Software's "Go West" user conference April 20-22, 2020 in Portland, OR. The conference offers more than 60 educational sessions crossing a variety of industries, products, and workflows.

Carlson conference manager Jim Reinbold says:

We’re always excited to have the opportunity to connect with our users and hear what’s been going on in their world, and learn what they need our products to do."

Conference details >>

Thinking of attending? Be sure to check out how Carlson Software incorporates the IntelliCAD engine into their product lines. Interested in how Carlson Software benefits from their ITC membership? Read the success story >>

Carlson Software recently released version 2019 of its product suite including Carlson Mining, Carlson Survey, and Carlson Civil/Hydrology/GIS. Carlson products come with IntelliCAD built-in and an option for their end-users to purchase Autodesk® AutoCAD® separately if desired. 

As expected, new features are found throughout the Carlson product line. Special mention goes to working natively with both .dwg and .dgn files. Open, save, print, and edit all with one CAD editor thanks to the IntelliCAD 9.0 engine.

For more details from Carlson, see:

• Carlson Survey 2019 >>
• Carlson Mining 2019 >>
• Carlson Civil/Hydrology/GIS 2019 >>

IntelliCAD has always — since its first release twenty years ago — been based on technology that is now governed and advanced by the Open Design Alliance (ODA). In the beginning the focus was on .dwg, but over the years, both technologies have seemed to outgrow their initial aim on replicating the .dwg file format (ODA) and replicating its end-user capabilities (ITC).

This point was not necessarily highlighted in Prague, but the link between ITC and ODA technology was mentioned throughout the conference with the nonchalant transparency that is commonplace among the IntelliCAD community.

• IntelliCAD — Uses the latest ODA libraries.
• BIM — Attach Autodesk® Revit® files as underlays, based on the ODA BIM component. 
• Mobile — Based on ODA libraries. 
• Walls, windows, doors, slabs — Draw and edit architectural entities (new in IntelliCAD 9), based on the ODA Architecture component. 
• Smart meshes — Draw and edit lightweight 3D meshes (new in IntelliCAD 9), based on the ODA Facet Modeler. 
• Custom objects — Work with custom architecture, civil, and mechanical objects, based on ODA Architecture, Civil, and Mechanical components.

The ITC employs many components of ODA technology (including ODA source code), then customizes that technology according to the needs of their members. And that's exactly what ITC members do: they employ many components of ITC technology (including ITC source code), then customize that technology according to the needs of their end-users. It's a consistent business model from start to finish.

Check out the news coming from ZWSOFT — makers of ZWCAD which is based on the IntelliCAD engine — about how ZWCAD is integrated and compatible with these applications:

• Spatial Manager for ZWCAD users is a tool used to import, export and manage geospatial data. Get the news >>
• CivilCAD by ARQCOM is software designed for civil engineering and topography users in Spanish speaking countries. Get the news >> 
• Windchill PLM is design software used in industries such as automotive, industrial equipment, data communication, aerospace, defense, medical, oil and gas, consumer electronics, energy and subsea communications. Get the news >> 
• Caddossier by Komdex for Product Data Management and Microsoft Office document management. Get the news >> 

Carlson Software will host its "Go West" user conference April 9–11, 2018 in San Diego, California. Thinking of attending? Be sure to check out how Carlson Software incorporates the IntelliCAD engine into their product lines. About the conference, host director Shane Gardner said:

We poured over your feedback from past conferences. You wanted more options. We have added courses on CAD basics and have broadened the overall offerings to give you more and better choices."

Early bird pricing ends this week, January 31. Conference details >>

Interested in how Carlson Software's membership at the ITC works out? 

• Read the success story >>
• Read about Carlson's presentation at IntelliCAD World >>