ODA and LEDAS Get Constrained

Earlier I had mentioned that there were some interesting things going in the ODA on the technology front. Today I can tell you what. The ODA and LEDAS, a Russian software company, formalized their partnership by issuing a press release announcing that LEDAS would implement their LGS 2D Geometric and Dimensional Constraint Solver into DWGdirect, a main component of the ODA Platform. This will give all ODA members (and hence ITC members as well) the ability to have a 2D constraint system in their applications, something that was introduced in AutoCAD 2010. So when the ITC does come out with IntelliCAD 7.0 (whenever that may be), every ITC member will be able to license the constraint technology from LEDAS and offer a similar constraint system as AutoCAD 2010.

At the ODA World Conference in Leiden, Holland, this April, LEDAS presented their proof of concept – A DRX plug-in running inside Bricscad, the only DWGdirect hosted application in the market. Earlier the same day, Siemens had made a similar presentation, showing their 2D DCM (Dimensional Constraint Manager), the constraint management system licensed by Autodesk for use in AutoCAD 2010. It looks like LEDAS beat Siemens to it.

I had a feeling that it would turn out this way. I remember the Siemens presentation ending with the presenter saying something like, “If there is sufficient interest among ODA members then we can consider working towards implementing 2D DCM into ODA technology“. Then later in the day, LEDAS floored the audience with their Bricscad plug-in. “We have already done it“, was how the LEDAS presenter started his presentation.

It will be interesting to see how good the LEDAS constraint system turns out to be. 2D DCM is seasoned technology used in a number of CAD systems for a number of years. LEDAS is basically a outsourcing company that uses its revenue earned though it outsourcing activities to fund the development of technologies like LGS 2D and 3D (yes, they have a 3D solver as well). But as far as high end scientific and mathematical software like solvers is concerned, the Russians do it like no other. Also, as far as licensing cost is concerned, I suspect that LEDAS would be able to offer ODA members a sweeter deal than Siemens.

I don’t think we will need to wait for long to find out. I suspect LGS 2D will soon find its way into a not so distant version of Bricscad.