Having read the posts on this site it is obvious to me that we "Mechanical" types are all thinking along the same lines. VW is poised to change the face of Design Engineering the same way Mohamid Ali changed the face of boxing! all of the "Heavy Hitters" (Expensive, high-end CAD programs), have done a good job of selling their product to large companies that can afford the price tag. The problem is that those same companies are now downsizing in order to cut overhead. As a result, engineers and designers are turning to consulting and "virtual offices" to pay the rent. Here's where VW comes in to play. Like Ali, VW can use it's speed and power to KO the big boys and walk away with the market..... IF (and that's a big IF), they can provide reliable file translation capabilities for a reasonable cost. DWG and DXF translators are a good start. After all, AutoCAD has done a good job of marketing. The real money is in compatability with Pro-E, CADDS, UG, IDEAS and the like. I suspect that there is a good bit of money to be made by an enterprising prorammer that can write IGES and/or STEP translaters to go back and forth between VW and these other programs.
