Articles and Press Releases

A CAD development company's view of where IcARX shines, where it required workarounds, and what we'd tell another team starting today.

This is part of a series sharing how development companies are using IcARX to bring their products to IntelliCAD-based CAD platforms. IcARX is the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium's ObjectARX®-compatible C++ API. For developers with existing ObjectARX projects, it offers a familiar API surface and a practical path to a new host CAD without a complete rewrite.

Why This Post Exists

If you're a development team weighing whether to bring an existing ObjectARX-based product to a new CAD platform, the questions you actually want answered are technical. Will my code compile and behave the way I expect? Where will I hit friction? What kind of testing matrix should I plan for?

This post is built around those questions. The source is a structured Q&A with Cadomation's CEO, Imran Anees, about their work bringing SPCAD, an advanced geospatial and surveying toolkit with more than 180 specialized commands, into the progeCAD environment using the IcARX API.

Three Months, One Familiar API, and a New Market: Aplitop's Journey Bringing tcpMDT to progeCAD

How a 20-year-old geospatial software company added another CAD platform to its lineup using the IcARX API, what the migration actually looked like, and what they wish had been easier.

This is part of a series sharing how development companies are using IcARX to bring their products to IntelliCAD-based CAD platforms. IcARX is the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium's ObjectARX®-compatible C++ API. For developers with existing ObjectARX projects, it offers a familiar API surface and a practical path to a new host CAD without a rewrite.

The Story

For more than two decades, Aplitop has built software for surveyors, civil engineers, and construction professionals. Their flagship CAD-based product, tcpMDT®, is in daily use in over 80 countries and runs on a handful of major CAD platforms. In late 2024 and through 2025, Aplitop added one more: progeCAD, the IntelliCAD-based CAD platform from progeSOFT.

When developers and software companies first look at building on IntelliCAD, the same question comes up almost every time: "Where do I actually start, and what's the right fit for my product?"

It's a fair question. IntelliCAD powers hundreds of commercial CAD applications around the world, from specialized plugins to full vertical products used by engineers, surveyors, architects, and manufacturers. But that range is exactly why a single answer doesn't work. The right way to build on IntelliCAD depends on what kind of application you're trying to deliver and who your customers are.

Here are the four main paths developers take, and how to figure out which one fits your goals.