Opinions

IntelliCAD for $50 Only

This thread on the IntelliCAD.net forum alerted me to the fact that you can now get the latest version of IntelliCAD for $50 only. Rolek Ltd., a Hong Kong reseller, posted this download.com link in reply to a question. Take a look at the comments at the bottom of the page. The price is so low that one person has called it illegal and has requested CNET to take down the listing from download.com. The responses from Rolek (the reseller) and DP Tech (the French IntelliCAD vendor) are also interesting.

I went ahead and downloaded the 24 hour trial. I tried to load one of our IntelliCAD plug-ins, but it failed to load. In fact, it could not even load some of it’s own DLL’s. Maybe they block plug-ins in the trial version.

Such a low price got me wondering. Back here in India, where software piracy is rampant, it is not uncommon for people, especially professional like architects and freelancers, to buy an IntelliCAD license to be legitimate and use pirated AutoCAD for their real work. I did a quick search on the internet and found that I could purchase an AutoCAD 2009 cracked DVD for $75. So a licensed IntelliCAD is cheaper than a cracked AutoCAD. I never thought I would live to see this day.