CompuServe Messages

Craig, I noticed your message a while back about trying to compare ARRIS to Autocad. I work for a company that develops third party engineering utilities for CAD. We are not architects and we sell no computer products except what we write. We are an Authorized developer for both Autocad and ARRIS, and from a developers viewpoint they are both radically different. 1) ARRIS runs in XENIX as opposed to DOS. If you are unfamiliar with XENIX please reference my article in March's CADENCE. XENIX is much more sophisticated/complicated than DOS, and this makes anything that should be easy to do, complex and expensive. IE. Networking Backing to floppy/tape, and even turning the computer on and off. 2) you noticed the orientation of SIGMA to Architects which means it does not easily do plant layout, electrical schematics or machine design. This means that it will never sell 110,000 copies and have near as abundant user groups, third party hardware and software. 3) The hardware required is much above that required for Autocad and the software (XENIX, and other ssoftware add ons are much more expensive. I'ld have to suggest that you make sure your dealer is capable of supporting this equipment, and that you are capable of paying for this support. Although ARRIS is touted as Microcomputer CAD it isn't. It is minicomputer CAD that used to be Solely proprietary and was (much to their good) ported to the SUN and 286/386 UNIX platforms. DAVE SLY CIMTECHNOLOGIES CORP.