ITC Legal Documents

IntelliCAD Technology Consortium - Legal Documents

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Founded in 1999, the IntelliCAD Technology Consortium (ITC) is a non-profit consortium directed by its members to share in the development of CAD technology. By sharing the cost of development for complex projects, ITC members develop solutions for far less money than any single company could do alone. There have been tens of millions of dollars invested in over 600 man-years of development, the result is a complete CAD engine and development platform: IntelliCAD. ITC members use the IntelliCAD platform to create some of the most popular CAD engines and applications for surveyors, architects, and engineers. As a result, millions of end users are working and drawing in products based on IntelliCAD in more than 130 countries.

Our Mission

Create a trusted CAD platform that empowers our alliance of members to develop innovative design and engineering solutions.

Our Purpose

To create a trusted CAD development platform on which our members can safely build their businesses. To serve our members as directed, maintaining the existing technology, and creating new technologies as directed. To protect the resulting intellectual property created by the consortium, and to ensure open access to all members for future generations.

What we do

We create, license and support technologies that make it easier for application developers (our alliance of members) to create end-user products for CAD markets. We also provide tools, processes and consulting services for large scale development that help members bring products to market.

What we don't do

We don’t sell any end-user products as this could compete with our members.

Why we exist

There are many CAD development platforms, but IntelliCAD is the most trusted CAD platform. As a non-profit cooperative, there are no shareholders demanding profits. There are no end-user products that might compete with members, as our only funding comes from members who also direct our mission. This keeps the ITC focused on creating core technology and services for our members, unlike other platforms that seek to gain profits in markets created by their partners.

ITC Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws

ITC Articles of Incorporation
Our founders’ thoughtful formation of the ITC gives the consortium the protection it needs to fulfill its mission. The ITC is registered in the state of Washington as a non-profit.

ITC Amended and Restated Bylaws
The ITC bylaws are set up so that it’s very difficult for any single entity to acquire or kill the consortium, as an acquisition requires 80% approval from all members. In addition, the bylaws provide a perpetual license to all active commercial members should the consortium be dissolved. 

ITC Certificate of Incorporation
The ITC Certificate of Incorporation from 1999. 

ITC Membership Agreements

Commercial Membership Agreement
Commercial Members have full access to the IntelliCAD source and have a license to distribute an unlimited number of IntelliCAD licenses worldwide. The commercial license can be royalty-based ($35,000 annual fee plus $15 royalty) or royalty-free ($68,000 annual fee). First time members also pay a one-time  $7,000 initiation fee. Commercial Members develop, sell and support products based on IntelliCAD technology, and have world-wide distribution rights. Commercial members can also participate in the governance of the ITC; they elect and can serve on the board of directors.

API Membership Agreement
API Members have access to development resources but do not have access to the source code and do not have a license to distribute IntelliCAD technology. API members can purchase IntelliCAD technology (an OEM engine) from a Commercial Member.

Membership Rules
Pursuant to our bylaws, the Board of Directors of the Consortium has established and adopted these Membership Rules (which may be amended, revised and supplemented from time to time).

Third-Party Technology License Agreements

The main mission of the ITC is the development of IntelliCAD Standard – a general, native .dwg CAD editor and development platform. IntelliCAD Standard provides a familiar user interface and is compatible with .dwg file formats (release 2.6 - 2020). In addition to the Standard version, the ITC can acquire optional components, or negotiate special pricing for optional third-party components as directed by our members.

Once given a directive, the ITC will negotiate special member pricing for a third-party component, and then create an implementation for the component. When members license an additional component they receive both the component and the source code for our implementation. Members simply update their source, and the new component and the source for our implementation appear in their download. Then members can control which components build by simply making a change in their build configuration properties. This allows members to mix and match different components to create different product SKUs. See the agreements below for three of our optional third-party component implementations:

ITC Member and Open Cascade STEP/IGES Converters License Agreement
The STEP and IGES import and export features are enable through components licensed from Open Cascade. Most of the components from Open Cascade are open source, but there is a specific Spatial® ACIS® converter component required that has an annual license fee. The first-year annual fee from Open Cascade is $1,800, and each subsequent-year annual fee is $700. No royalties.

ITC Member and Pictorex ARTISAN Photo Realistic Rendering License Agreement with Appendix
ARTISAN is an easy-to-use photo realistic rendering product that links to IntelliCAD. Price is $500 annual ITC fee, $4,500 annual fee to Pictorex. No royalties.

ITC Member and Spatial ACIS 3D Solids Modeling Licensing Agreement
Create and edit solids that are completely compatible with ACIS solids in Autodesk® AutoCAD®. Price is $2,500 annual ITC fee plus 7% royalty per copy to Spatial.

ITC Special Interest Group Agreements

Special Interest Groups (SIGs) allow ITC members to pool resources to fund new technology that's useful to their companies, without negatively affecting the resources needed to maintain the core IntelliCAD platform. Only SIG members can release features developed by the SIG, giving them a competitive advantage over non-SIG members. While SIG members define the scope, the projects are managed and developed by the ITC. SIGs provide members a process to cooperatively fund development for new features outside of the core.

These are also handled as separate components similar to third-party components that members can easily license and include in different SKUs. See the agreements below for our optional special interest groups and their descriptions:

ITC Building Information Modeling Special Interest Group Agreement
The BIM SIG is funded independently from the core, and the cost is $5,500 annually with no royalties. Here is a quick review of what you get with the BIM SIG:

  • Access to the libraries that read/write Autodesk® Revit® files
  • IFC Underlays (with visualization pane, snap, explode to mesh, works with ARTISAN)
  • Revit Underlays (with visualization pane, snap, explode to mesh, works with ARTISAN)
  • IFC import to Architecture objects (should improve with ODA 2020)
  • Creation methods for walls, doors, windows, slabs, stairs, handrails, etc. that are AutoCAD Architecture (ACA) compatible

ITC User Interface Special Interest Group Agreement
The UI SIG was started to accelerate UI development for members. Members felt this area needed additional funding and resources, and the best way to do that is through a SIG. The UI SIG has created the ribbon interface, customize/CUI/QCUI commands, CUI revision control, tool palettes, modeless panes, start page, and many other UI enhancements. Price is $2,750 annually, no royalties.

ITC DGN Special Interest Group Agreement
The DGN SIG is funded independently from the core, and the cost is $15,000 annually with no royalties. The mission of this SIG is to create a robust native Bentley® MicroStation® .dgn editor that is similar to IntelliCAD for .dwg. Carlson Software started this SIG as they have customers who work with both .dwg and .dgn files, and they wanted their IntelliCAD solutions to work with both native file formats.

ITC Mobile Platform License Agreement
The IntelliCAD Mobile Platform SIG provides a framework for mobile CAD viewing and extension development for Google® Android™, Apple® iOS, Apple macOS®, and Microsoft® Windows® mobile devices. Price is $4,000 annually with no royalties.

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