What is AutoCAD OEM?

[CAD Panacea]

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from a longtime friend of CAD Panacea, former Senior Manager for Autodesk Corporate PR, and current entrepreneur Angela Simoes.

Growing your business starts by addressing market needs not served by existing solutions. When you see those opportunities, you need to move quickly to fill the market space and reap the rewards. Developing and selling plug-ins was a good first step for your business, but now you’re ready to drive revenue and margin growth by creating your own applications.

Very simply, AutoCAD OEM is a platform for rapidly building unique applications that address specific needs and specific market niches.

To make it your own application, simply “hide” any unneeded AutoCAD functionality, add your unique value by adding plug-ins, and stamp the application with your own brand and look-and-feel. This is a great way to successfully extend your reach by entering the software application business.

There are multiple benefits to using AutoCAD OEM to create your unique application. But perhaps the biggest one is the ability to fast-track your development. You can begin your project closer to the end goal because most of the work is already done – you’re building on top of the gold standard CAD program so there is no need to re-invent the CAD wheel or license other technology. Just add in your specific functionality. You can do this easily with intuitive wizards and productivity tools that keep your development schedule on track.

What are some applications that have been created with AutoCAD OEM? Everything from cabinet making to shipbuilding to shoe design. Whatever niche you’re trying to address or need you’re trying to fill, AutoCAD OEM can help you build a powerful, unique application that fits the bill.

“When we compile the OEM, we select the features that we want to include in our product,” said Clay Swayze, Director of Marketing at Microvellum. “In our case, for our toolbox flagship product we enable all the features within the OEM. And this year in the 2019 release, we received some great, new tools that were previously unavailable in the OEM, and I think our users are going to really appreciate what they get in this release. Year over year, we get to control the new features, either enabling or not enabling them.”

You might be worried that building an application will be time and resource intensive, but the good thing about building on top of AutoCAD is that you will have support for the latest operating systems and platforms, and the broad appeal of a familiar interface and logical commands, access to a wealth of
development tools, online help, forums, training and the vast Autodesk Developer Network.

From a technical perspective, there are multiple development options. AutoCAD OEM provides support for Object ARX with C++, .NET, ActiveX, VBA, AutoLISP and Java Script APIs, and there is the option to develop your application in nine different languages (English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish) using the native fonts. You can enable your customers to interact with your application via a desktop application, through a child window, Microsoft Windows .NET, or a web page.

And finally, your application will look and feel like your application. You can create a customized look-and-feel through one-of-a-kind images, splash screens, icons, drop-down menus, licensing, naming, and branding. Your product may be built on AutoCAD OEM, but the customer will experience an application uniquely yours.

Do you have an application that you’ve been wanting to build? Find out more about AutoCAD OEM here: https://www.techsoft3d.com/products/autocad-oem

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[tzframpton]

Very interesting. This has me thinking though... this is a little late? Autodesk should have released this concept ten years ago? I wonder how that would have changed things if they did. Thanks for sharing RK. 

 

-TZ

[BIGAL]

 It was done more than ten years ago Autodesk is actually catching up when the cad alliance was created maybe not correct name they sold you the cad engine to build your software on top of. It has your product name. Intellicad comes to mind as well as many others that used this engine.  I am pretty sure a world wide civil product created here in AUS was done this way. 

 

It was just much easier to use the generic product with all its bells and whistles a good example now is BRISCAD with 3rd party developers sitting on top same as many others using Autocad.

 

No doubt the OEM path is part of the Autocad developers program which is not cheap to join.

Edited November 6, 2018 by BIGAL