Drawing FAQ

Drawing 2023 released: 22.12.2022

“Drawing” is based on a technology called ARES Commander, but is adapted to users of Novapoint. To understand what Drawing is, and where the product comes from, it is easiest to look at ARES Commander.

ARES Commander:

• is a product and technology that is 100% developed and owned by Graebert GHmB
• uses DWG as its file format
• has been on the market since 2010 - but the story goes back to 1995
• used by millions of users daily, both in the form of ARES Commander and via so-called Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) -based products, in line with Drawing
• is designed to work in the same way as AutoCAD and other similar CAD applications. Graebert has 100% ownership of the source code.

Although Drawing was developed by Graebert, it is important to emphasize that we at Trimble are responsible for the CAD platform to you as users and customers. Since Drawing is based on Graebert's ARES Commander, you will be able to find many useful tips and tricks that are also relevant to you who are new users of Drawing:

https://www.youtube.com/user/GraebertTV

We recommend that you take a look at the videos that are there to learn more.

Expect the Novapoint modules to work in Drawing in the same way, and with similar functionality and performance, as you are familiar with from AutoCAD.

Since Drawing is based on a different platform than AutoCAD, there may be marginal differences in some features. Nevertheless, they should work and be usable with no difference in the result.

All files you work on in AutoCAD MUST work seamlessly in Drawing, and the opposite. This also applies to all Novapoint data produced in the drawing, such as, for example, center lines, traffic signs and the like. Expect this to work seamlessly, and expect drawings to be able to be used across Drawing and AutoCAD.

Drawing can be compared to “standard” Autodesk AutoCAD, and most of the functions/keyboard shortcuts should work as you are used to. Please note in this context that additional functionality found in the “AutoCAD Civil 3D” or “AutoCAD Map 3D” products is not covered.

If there is functionality you have previously used in AutoCAD that does not work in Drawing, we want to get feedback on this. Especially if this affects your daily work. We want to end up with a product that is 100% adapted to your everyday work.

Menus, function locations and the appearance of icons will mostly be different between Drawing and AutoCAD in the same way as this can vary within all software solutions. We have historically also seen this between different versions of AutoCAD, and also in Novapoint. We hope the differences do not become too foreign to our users.