FastCAD

[tmedin]

We are working on moving away from FastCAD and into AutoCAD. I was wondering if anyone has a plug-in or utility which we can use to open a FastCAD drawing in AutoCAD; or even better a batch convert. I know I can export from FastCAD to ACAD, but I would rather not open FastCAD.

[Anonymous]

You got no choice: you will need to open FastCAD and it's files,
and use SAVEAS to get them to be read in AutoCAD.

--
Dean Saadallah
www.pendean.com
---
"tmedin" wrote in message
news:f06324f.-1@WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> We are working on moving away from FastCAD and into AutoCAD. I
was wondering if anyone has a plug-in or utility which we can use
to open a FastCAD drawing in AutoCAD; or even better a batch
convert. I know I can export from FastCAD to ACAD, but I would
rather not open FastCAD.
>

[Anonymous]

"tmedin",

You do have one choice. I took a look at FastCad's web site. It appears
that you can do custom programming with Assembly and C using their XP
development kit (not to be confused with Microsoft's XP). If you have a lot
of drawings you may want to hire a programmer and get them to take a look at
getting an automated conversion program for you or even contacting FastCad
themselves to see if they have a solution. Of course, when you start doing
stuff like that you are talking about BIG bucks ($1,000's or $10,000's of
dollars). So you really need to figure out how many drawings you have to
convert, how long it takes to convert each one (on average), how much it
costs the company for you to have a person doing this all day long (or even
part time), and just when you want/need to have the drawings converted.

You may want to contact one of these companies as well to see if they have a
solution:
http://www.fastcad.com/addons.html

This company, http://www.pkdata.se/xp/freeware/index.html, has a Batch
Printing add-on for your FastCad, so I'm sure that it wouldn't be hard for
them to create a Batch SaveAS add-on.

HTH
--
Kevin Nehls

[Anonymous]

Well, yeah, if you want to throw a bucket of money at a solution.... 😉

Dean


"Kevin Nehls" wrote in message
news:3452877629CA05EAA5E589751EB44492@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> "tmedin",
>
> You do have one choice. I took a look at FastCad's web site. It appears
> that you can do custom programming with Assembly and C using their XP
> development kit (not to be confused with Microsoft's XP). If you have a
lot
> of drawings you may want to hire a programmer and get them to take a look
at
> getting an automated conversion program for you or even contacting FastCad
> themselves to see if they have a solution. Of course, when you start
doing
> stuff like that you are talking about BIG bucks ($1,000's or $10,000's of
> dollars). So you really need to figure out how many drawings you have to
> convert, how long it takes to convert each one (on average), how much it
> costs the company for you to have a person doing this all day long (or
even
> part time), and just when you want/need to have the drawings converted.
>
> You may want to contact one of these companies as well to see if they have
a
> solution:
> http://www.fastcad.com/addons.html
>
> This company, http://www.pkdata.se/xp/freeware/index.html, has a Batch
> Printing add-on for your FastCad, so I'm sure that it wouldn't be hard for
> them to create a Batch SaveAS add-on.
>
> HTH
> --
> Kevin Nehls
>
>

[Anonymous]

Well, you never know. It might save them buckets of money. Of course this
all depends on how many drawings they have to convert and how long it takes
to convert each drawing *and* how much it costs the company an hour for you
doing your work (this is usually quite a bit more than what they are
actually paying you).

For example:
5 minutes for each conversion (12/hour)
It costs the company $40/hour to have you around
You have 10,000 drawings

10,000 / 12 = 833.33 hours
833.33 * $40 = $33,333.33

Who knows they may end up making money off of this add-on (*if* it's theirs
in the end), by selling to all of the other FastCAD users out there 🙂

We have $15,000 wrapped up into a custom Bill of Material application that
reads it's information from our ERP system.

--
Kevin Nehls


"Dean Saadallah" wrote in message
news:D820CF3AD825FDDE2B26F143E89B4B12@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Well, yeah, if you want to throw a bucket of money at a solution.... 😉
>
> Dean