10,000 Members Registered on CADxp, First French-speaking CAD and New Technologies Portal

1 November 2004 -- Since its creation, in November 2002, CADxp quickly became the first French-speaking CAD portal (Computer Aided Design). In two years, 10 000 members registered! An all the more astonishing result as CADxp is a private initiative, voluntary, and without financing. Beyond the success of this atypical project, demonstration is made for the need of exchanging experiences between CAD users. There are some users groups of CAD softwares, but these groups are narrowly sponsored by editors themselves and allow only occasionally to discuss CAD in general, i.e. respective merits of such or such software, strategic choice of a software, and especially of their interworking, an increasingly significant topic at a time when the word "PLM" (Product Lyfecycle Management) is on all mouths.

For several years, discussion forums also calls "newsgroups" have been the only ressource for technical support. They allow exchanging textual messages, and sometimes file attachments. CADxp wished right from the start to supplement the resources offered by these newsgroups by creating a true portal, i.e. a Web site gathering a whole of resources and not only discussion forums.

You will find on CADxp an images gallery, a download zone, a Web links directory, a Guestbook, quizzs, press releases, articles suggested by the visitors and published by the webmaster, reports, a video library, an encyclopaedia, a selection of CAD related books, ads, weblogs for the members, polls, a calendar of CAD events, an address book, a shared white board, real time chats, a neswletter, resources for the webmasters, a partners list, and so on...

CADxp wanted to be right from the start an initiative independent from editors and resellers in order to guarantee its freedom of expression. All CAD software without exception is welcome. It is true that one notes a preeminence of the Autodesk software, this is due partly to the actual market state and to the history of CADxp, created by Patrick EMIN, specialist in the AutoCAD software. After a few initial difficult months due to poor hosting conditions, CADxp reached several tens of new inscriptions per day. On average, there are about thirty inscriptions per day, 112 000 pages seen per month, 20 000 visits per month, 16 000 single visitors per month. One notices a strong presence of our quebec friends even if all the French-speaking countries are represented. One notes a very strong participation in the forums of discussion, with an average of 50 new messages per day; 629 000 messages were read (posts and answers), 3647 new topics were launched. The keyword search functionalities on the forums make CADxp the best place for technical support for the CAD French-speaking users.

If CAD is the main theme of CADxp, it would not be possible to talk only about software without also speaking about hardware, the relationships at work and the organization of engineering departements, to talk about new technologies, used and designed by CAD.

The success of CADxp is also related to the will not to censure any subject, provided naturally it does not contravene the Net etiquette rules, and provided it's not out of topic. In order to guarantee this editorial line, all information which is published on the site is permanently checked, several times per day. This very fast reactivity is one of the points most appreciated by CADxp visitors. Besides, one feels a very great implication of the participating members, who endeavour to guarantee this policy.

Although CADxp is not a company with lucrative goal, it is possible for companies, as for individuals, to benefit from the vast audience of the site by placing advertising banners at low cost. These incomes make it possible to deaden operating expenses of the site. If you have a professional or personal site, not necessarily related to the CAD world, you can very easily post your advertising banner on CADxp by clicking on the button "PUB" on the top right corner of the site. Detailed instructions in several languages, including english, will be then provided to proceed with the installation of your banner.

Although the webmaster of CADxp devotes a considerable energy with the daily operation of the site, in addition to its other activities, we arrive at a stage where it becomes difficult to manage that voluntarily. For some time now, CADxp thus calls upon its members for a donation. This donation is made by surtaxed phone call, it represents an extremely weak cost for the giver, but we have hope that a few hundreds or a few thousands donations will allow the continuation of this project.

www.CADxp.com