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Back in the sixties, a company called Gorlier devised a marketing technique destined to become famous and much imitated. 

It was based on the idea of giving their encyclopaedias away free, instead of selling them.  The salesman would tell you the encyclopaedia was being offered to you free-of-charge, in return for your endorsement of the product, to be used in a future advertising campaign.  Great!  “I’ll take them”, said everyone, but - and, of course, there had to be a ‘but’!

The encyclopaedias were free, but the annual updates had to be paid for.  The stock phrase was, “We’re giving you a free encyclopaedia - the least you can do is pay for the updates!”

The Gorlier method has been copied for sales campaigns of all sorts of products – including computer software.  For example, “We’ll give you the computer and software free – all you pay for are the updates, or the access to such-and-such a database (usually of dubious value)”.

Just recently, some software companies have been offering “free” programs – “all you have to pay for is the (obligatory) technical assistance”.  Surprise, surprise! The true value of their software corresponds to the cost charged for technical assistance.

We at Interstudio entirely disagree with such sales tactics and believe that ‘you should call a spade a spade'.

A sale of software should have a sales price.  A rental should have an annual rental cost.  Any time limits on software should also be clearly stated.

And if a product is described as ‘free’, then it should cost absolutely nothing!

Interstudio 'takes the road' with an internationally acclaimed road design program

Interstudio is delighted to announce that it is taking up the worldwide development and support of HighRoad, the advanced road design software, designed by Chris Baker of Creative Engineering, which we have distributed in Italy for the past ten years.

The ongoing development of HighRoad will now be carried on by us, while Creative Engineering will continue to work on the porting of HighRoad source code from Forth to C++ and the adoption of WXWidgets for user interface devices.

Gradually HighRoad international sales and support, too, will be moved over to Interstudio. In the meantime, for HighRoad technical support questions. feel free to contact either Creative Engineering or Interstudio on:

   interstudio@interstudio.net
   info@createng.com.au

Both Creative Engineering and Interstudio are passionate about the professional possibilities offered by worldwide web communities of experts working together (as our decision to liberalise the price of HighRoad shows) and we are enthusiastic about this new development.

Our company websites are being updated to reflect these changes - keep an eye on the HighRoad Page.

Domus.Cad 14 for MacOs X is downloadable from the Internet site of Interstudio. A Windows version will be available soon. There are a lot of improvements and modifications – here are a few:

• Extended snap functions: snap to barycenters, axes, borders, perpendicular, tangents, corners of images and objects, combined snaps, alignements and others. Interactive visualization of different kinds of possible Snap (cursor changes shape depending on whether the Snap is 'normal”, to an Axis, to the Barycentre, etc.)
• Linear fills: it is now possible to assign ordinary Tiles or BitMap Fills to Lines and Polygons. The Tile is repeated side by side along its own “X” axis, towards the right.
• Multi-lines text:  As well as containing characters on more than one line, Multi-line texts can also be aligned (Left, Center or Right) and are automatically fitted into their Rectangular Space, which you can modify as you please.
• Great DWG-DXF Import/Export: it is now much easier to import/export DWG and DXF drawings, with improved compatibility with AutoCAD of AutoDesk (up to 2006 versions
• Texture antiliasing: quality checks of “Antialiasing of Textures” have been added to the 3D views Dialog Window.
• Stair railings: the StairRailing module, from the Modules menu, allows you to build various types of stair railings, using parameters and automatic functions.
• Extended stairs parameters
• High Resolution 3D
• Converting geometry into text
• Mantaining roof vertexes coplanarity
• Many others. See the Release notes

Most software manufacturers – and some hardware ones, too – offer what is known in the trade as “education prices” to students, teachers and educational establishments.

We at Interstudio, for many years now, have offered integral versions of our programs (updates and technical support included) to the world of education, at what is effectively “cost-price”.

Established architects and other professionals, of course, purchase our programs at their market price – perhaps taking advantage of our exclusive Rent-to-Own formula.

But what about newly-qualified young professionals, just starting out in business, with not a lot of spare cash?

For them, from “education” to “market” prices, there is a big leap.

Now Interstudio has decided to give them a ‘hand-up’ by introducing a price-list dedicated to newly-fledged graduates, offering 50% off all our programs.

We are talking about complete software packages, including updates and technical support. The only difference is that manuals are supplied in .pdf format.  However, hard copies of manuals can be purchased separately.

This 50% discount applies to :

• All purchases made within 3 years of completing your degree or diploma (a copy of which will be requested along with your order)
• All technical support or maintenance contracts
• All updates
• Rent-to-Own solutions – the amount repayable is 50% of the full price*

For full details see the Price List page

Two major developments in Nonio C – Interstudio’s program for modeling and drawing landscape!

The first good news is that the Windows version is now complete, thanks to the valiant input of all our beta testers.  The free FC (Final Candidate) version has therefore been removed from our website.

And secondly – the Mac Os X version is out, while the Windows version is due for release September 2007.

Here are some of the new things you’ll find in Version 9.2 :

• Improved graphic interface – all dialogue windows have been redesigned
• Interactive updating of your entire project (including contour lines) after each modification, even using mouse
• Improved 3D model
• Possibility of changing Z-axis of selected points, using mouse if wished, with interactive update of all windows
• Rototranslation of selected points
• Several new operations regarding images : rotation, rescaling, deformation, modification of colors and transparency

Click here for more information on Nonio C and download a demo version.

The monthly review  ‘Applicando’, which traditionally dedicates a lot of space to creativity, graphics and design in the computer world, published an article on Domus.Cad written by Italian architect, Carlo Magri.

Mr Magri was very complimentary both about the latest version of Domus.Cad and about us at Interstudio!  Below are some excerpts from the article :

Software house Interstudio, for twenty years or so, has been developing solutions for the complex sequence of tasks commonly known as the ‘building process’. 

From architectural surveys, plans, structural calculations, measurements – right through to planning permission, Interstudio understands user requirements perfectly and has come up with a software solution for every step of the way.

Domus.Cad, as a program, over the years has grown and improved constantly, never losing its innate user-friendliness, clarity and ease of use, while maintaining its own unique procedures and tools.

Version 14, without shaking the original foundations on which the program is based, introduces a new, improved system of Attaching, which can recognize not only the Ends of an Element, but also its barycenter and mid-point.  In addition, the program can recognize tangents and perpendiculars between two Elements ….(omissis)……If you already use Domus.Cad, this innovation alone is worth the cost of the update – your work pace speeds up exponentially!

Domus.Cad has always been an excellent program for architectural drawing.  The new version 14 confirms just how agile and simple-to-use this powerful application is.

The article examines the various program functions in detail.  Mr Magri comes up with some suggestions for future versions.  Finally, he takes a look at our company policy regarding students (the free Edu version) – in his exact words, “ truly impressive”.

What more could we ask?

A May 2006 issue of Computer Week contains an article entitled “Software for design and interior decoration”.

The article reviews four programs, including Domus.Cad and the conclusion is that Domus.Cad is “THE BEST” !

Below are a few excerpts from the article:

Domus.Cad is a 3D design program which contains a host of user-friendly tools to enable you to create and develop your ideas in the simplest way possible.

The program has many automatic functions which help you simplify your work.  For example, to create any architectural element, all you do is select the type of element you want (pillar, wall, window, etc.) and its final dimensions (height, depth, width).

Domus.Cad 14 also has advanced modeling functions and the possibility of working in 2D, on all aspects of the plan drawing.

One small correction: the article states that Domus.Cad requires Windows 95 or later.  This is incorrect – the minimum requirement for Windows users is the 98 version.  The program is also available for MacOs 9 and MacOs X.

Since our article entitled ‘Paperless printing’,  the use of .pdf format has spread like wildfire!  However, not everyone uses .pdf to best advantage.  Some users are still going down to the printing services with a DWG file, plus handwritten notes, full of instructions!

The following is an update on this format, including some information on available programs and utilities.

Adobe Acrobat

.pdf format was invented by Adobe, so we cannot go without mentioning their Acrobat and Acrobat Reader.

Acrobat Reader is Adobe’s free software which allows anyone to view and print in .pdf format.  However, this program’s ‘big brother’ (which you pay for) is also extremely useful and allows you to create .pdf files, modify existing ones, add indices, summaries, notes, data sheets / spread sheets(?), create JavaScript programs and much more…

For more information, visit : http://www.adobe.com

Following after Adobe, here are some other programs for Windows and Macintosh.

Windows

PDF Creator:  allows you to produce documents in  pdf, png, jpg, btm, pcx, ps, esps and other formats, from all programs which support Windows print drivers.  Contains Ghostscript.

see: http://www.mrbass.org/freeware/pdfcreator/

Cute Pdf Writer (free):  Allows you to produce pdf documents. Requires Ghostscript.

see : http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

Primo Pdf (free): Driver for printing in .pdf format from all standard Windows programs.

see : http://www.primopdf.com/

Verypdf (http://www.verypdf.com/): offers a whole series of programs for .pdf printing, conversion to other formats and editing of .pdf documents.

Macintosh

MacOs X users are very fortunate, because .pdf format is handled directly by the operating system and all programs can save printouts in .pdf format.

.pdf format is handled directly by QuickTime which means that the many programs compatible with QuickTime – and that includes all ours at Interstudio – can import documents in .pdf.

But there’s more…  Apple also has Preview, a program which reads documents directly in .pdf and has several advantages over Acrobat Reader – like its start-up speed and its compatibility with numerous other graphic formats.

Who could ask for more, you say?  Well, that depends!  If you need highly professional results, top quality printing and compression, the possibility of deactivating the printout or the copy, or inserting forms to be filled in, then you can do no better that the complete version of the Acrobat program.

There are other programs on offer, which operate with .pdf documents, such as :

Cocoa Booklet (free): Well worth a look, this very interesting program enables you to create perfect booklets, with pages printed both sides, by simply folding the pages and stapling them together.  Fast and impeccable results – even better if your printer does double-sided printing.

Visit :  http://www.iconus.ch/fabien/cocoabooklet/

PDF Labs (free): enables you to join and divide .pdf documents, insert pages, images, etc.

See :  http://www.iconus.ch/fabien/pdflab/

And for those of you who still have Mac Os 9?

PrintToPdf is the shareware answer for .pdf printing.

See :  http://www.jwwalker.com/pages/pdf.html

The following excerpts are from an interview with Australian architect Wendy Wheatley, Domus.Cad user for some time now.

The article, entitled “Wendy Wheatley : Domus.Cad for residential use Down Under”, was published on Creative Engineering’s website :

http://www.createng.com.au/projects/wheatley.htm 

On being asked if Domus.Cad was quick to pick up, Wendy replied :

When I saw how fast I could input an idea and see it immediately transformed into 3D, I suddenly realized how this could help me understand potential problems and resolve them quickly and efficiently.

Wendy found that ….

..once I had learnt the basic tools and how to use them, the rest came naturally.  In less than three months, I was designing and creating all technical documentation with one single program.

She added:

The more I use Domus.Cad – and with each updated version of the program – the more it becomes an integral part of my work.  I have had excellent and valid technical support, both from my local distributor and directly from the producer of the program in Italy, Interstudio.

See the article ...