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V5 will have support for a new DWF/AutoCAD file plugin. (But not DWG format).
As background to the decision not to support DWG, this is the reason. DWG support was going to cost us many thousands of dollars in license fees and Autodesk (the company) were only interested in getting the money, and not really interested in promoting the wider use of DWG files. So we decided not to provide support until either AutoCAD was interested in supporting their solution or some large company wanted to fund the purchase of an AutoCAD development license on our behalf.
Update: Nov 13, 2006. It seems that Autodesk, the makers of the AutoCAD software, are actually suing a 3rd party, the Open Design Alliance, that was trying to reverse engineer their file format. Autodesk clearly want it to be a closed format. I would feel sorry for ODA except their licensing policies are just as awful as Autodesk. ODA want $5000 upfront to use their code to read DWG files, then $2500 annually for something thay call membership dues.
As background to the decision not to support DWG, this is the reason. DWG support was going to cost us many thousands of dollars in license fees and Autodesk (the company) were only interested in getting the money, and not really interested in promoting the wider use of DWG files. So we decided not to provide support until either AutoCAD was interested in supporting their solution or some large company wanted to fund the purchase of an AutoCAD development license on our behalf.
Update: Nov 13, 2006. It seems that Autodesk, the makers of the AutoCAD software, are actually suing a 3rd party, the Open Design Alliance, that was trying to reverse engineer their file format. Autodesk clearly want it to be a closed format. I would feel sorry for ODA except their licensing policies are just as awful as Autodesk. ODA want $5000 upfront to use their code to read DWG files, then $2500 annually for something thay call membership dues.
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