RasterDWG

Here is the agreement whereby softelec hands over the RasterDWG trademark to Autodesk "for good and valuable consideration":

It's not noted in this agreement, but softelec gets to continue using the RasterDWG name. Autodesk owns it, but softelect uses it. Could this cause confusion in the minds of consumers?

What RasterDWG Is

In an earlier post, I noted that ownership of RasterDWG was important to Autodesk for its appeal in canceling ODA's ownership of OpenDWG. But RasterDWG is important for a second reason: for it is not only a program software, but also the name of a file format, as explained by softelec:

This RasterDWG format contains standard DWG information together with raster information in one single file! To view the raster image in AutoCAD, just install the free RasterDWG utility, available in the download section of this website.*

My guess is that the RasterDWG format is DWG that uses ARx to hold images as custom objects.

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* If you're thinking that DWG already handles raster images, softelec explains that it doesn't fully: "While AutoCAD includes raster import capability, it does not save raster inside its own DWG format, nor can AutoCAD vectorize the raster contents." AutoCAD's ImageAttach command attaches images, and does not embed them. 

Comments

[jacob dunkelman]

a. the dwg file already includes a raster image (preview image). so the claim: dwg does not.." is not completley corruct.

b. Has softelec the right to share it with other companies ?