For more than 35 years, CADAM has been the premier 2D Design Drafting product for many companies. Since its inception, it has remained the most copied CAD user interface in the marketplace. During the 2D growth era of the 80's and 90's, many "CADAM look-alike" products were very successful in the 2D marketplace.

As 3D solutions became the clear successor product, few people wanted to invest in a 2D-only solution. The CADAM look-alike developers began to invest in 3D solutions, but they have been unsuccessful. Only CADAM, now called CATIA CADAM Drafting has a viable, indeed the premier 3D solution, CATIA. With CADAM there is a clear, one-vendor path to 3D and further to a complete PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) solution.

Over the past several years, the industry has witnessed the departure of many CADAM look-alikes, leaving only a handful of choices: Mainframe CADAM (yes, it's still supported!), CATIA CADAM Drafting, MICROCADAM Helix, and CADRA.

Predictably, MICROCADAM Inc. announced the withdrawal of Helix and MICROCADAM from the U.S. and European markets. They are now completely de-supported. Because MICROCADAM was not a publicly traded company, many of their customers were surprised by the desupport announcement.

Because Softech, the developer of CADRA, is publicly traded, it is much easier to predict what will likely happen soon. Although Softech has attempted to position CADRA as a MICROCADAM migration alternative, a company would be well advised to review CADRA's recent SEC filings before even considering CADRA as an alternative. Even Softech's own CEO, as evidenced in a very recent report, has become much less optimistic about his company's future. If the company were to cease doing business, it is unclear who, if anyone, might continue to provide support for CADRA users.

Fortunately, Dassault Systemes, along with its marketing partner, IBM, has created a new program to help CADRA users upgrade to CADAM Drafting and the entire PLM solution set. Not only is CADAM Drafting a more powerful, supported and enhanced product, data migration can be easily and accurately accomplished. Also, there is a very substantial, pre-approved discount available to CADRA users until the end of this year.

CADAM Drafting has a record of supporting its customers throughout its whole history of nearly forty years. Mainframe CADAM drawings from the first days of CADAM are still retrievable on the most current CADAM Drafting system. We still have mainframe CADAM customers who are still supported. No other CAD vendor has provided this kind of support for so long.

To protect the future of YOUR business, please take a moment to find out about CADAM Drafting and a program that can help you move to CADAM Drafting, a complete 2.5D solution. Or, if you prefer, you can move to any of the entire suite of Dassault Systemes PLM solutions, now or in the future.