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Comment by CaliforniaKarl | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised nobody in the Eurozone has raised similar issues about Adobe.

Currently in the Eurozone you need to submit autodesk formats to get your building permissions and certifications approved.

Architecture is a protected profession in the EU and you’ll be surprised just how many architects from construction firms do nothing more than to trace plans they got from interior design and other architecture firms in a PDF format in autocad.

There are a few gems on the autodesk forums where people asking for line trace capability then getting replies that basically saying well if it did that well be out of a job.

Having recently interacted with Architects that are strictly stuck on using Autocad (that's all they know, from University and through their whole career), I can testify to the accuracy of that statement.

Also, trying to communicate with them with anything outside of a PDF is damn near impossible. The very idea of them sending a 3D file to their customers scares them shitless.

I put in my contracts with architects that I want the source files to any drawings they make. Not a single one has ever refused to work with me for that reason. Surveyors, too.

Europe should build their own software. Instead of complaining about US monopolies the EU should stimulate innovative startups right here. Create an environment where talent doesn’t flee to the US.

And if it’s not about creating multi-billion dollar/euro companies, but civil liberties and data protection: just invest some spare pennies in open source alternatives.

The only reason US (and Chinese) tech companies form a threat to European citizens is because for some reasons we have zero local alternatives.

Europe does build its own software. And anything even remotely successful then gets acquired by some US entity.

This has been a common theme. Dassault owns CATIA and Solidworks tough, and they've been used a lot in Europe.

Ever tried to use CATIA?

Best thing there is if you want a head trip back to the 70's

Probably, but Solidworks is quite well regarded.

used CATIA - it's like C compared to the host of the fad languages out there.

Dassault does both Catia and Solidworks, and as far as I know, they're French.

Isn't ArchiCAD european?

It is, it's Hungarian.

The need for friction-free interoperability combined with the technical challenges of competing vendors implementing fully interoperable software means most domain-specific software markets are an economic natural monopoly where only one product can dominate.

There is no obvious good economic or technological solution to this, short of heavily regulating software vendors so they are responsive to customer needs or stripping vendors of their copyrights and open sourcing everything. Neither choice is politically possible.

CERN sponsors Kicad for EDA.

Well, we do, and we are pretty successful.

Archicad is Hungarian, Allplan is German, Tekla originates from Finnland.

(Also please note: the offices which signed the open letter to Autodesk are mostly UK-based, so strictly speaking are not members of the EU ;))

There is this one:

https://www.allplan.com/us_en/

Not an architect myself, but heard good things.

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