 |
|
Project Nora Ends
reprinted by permission of Ralph Grabowski, editor
WorldCAD
Access
September 8, 2004
I heard about it first from a
GIS e-newsletter, who learned of it from
TenLinks, who read it at
an
AEC website, who noticed an item at a
newsgroup, where an Autodesk product manager posted a obit
for
Architectural Studio, first codenamed Project Nora.
As of September 15, Autodesk won't license Architectural
Studio anymore. The software was meant for architects to do
pre-design work, sketching before drawing with CAD.
Shades of Actrix Technical, which came out of the same
programming town as Architectural Studio. I always find it sad
when people pour their lives into producing new software, and
then poor sales end the product. upFront.eZine had wondered how
much longer Architectural Studio would live, after the price was
cut from US$1,100 to $495, and there were no major updates since
November 2002.
Some notes on the product's history:
- I first saw it in May 2000 in New York at a press event
that also introduced AutoCAD 2000i.
- We media types were under an NDA [non-disclosure
agreement] for several months following the event, even though
a beta of the product was publicly available.
- I recall being phoned by Autodesk PR on Sept 30, 2000
telling me the NDA was ended, that I could write about Project
Nora. Ha!
- "Nora" is an abbreviation for something; one project
manager challenged me to guess its meaning. I failed; maybe it
had meaning similar to Lisa, the pre-Macintosh computer.
- Its second name was StudioDesk.
- Architectural Studio is not unique. There are products
like it from Nemetschek, Alias, and others.
- One member of the newsgroup has requested that Autodesk
open-source Architectural Studio.
- Some of the Architectural Studio code may make it into
other Autodesk apps.
- Current version is 3.1.
About the Author
Ralph Grabowski is
an editor at upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. (previously known as
XYZ Publishing, Ltd.). Ralph is the author of 60 books and
several hundred articles for dozens magazines and newsletters
about CAD, graphics, and the Internet.
More Autodesk Select Articles
|
