Sarah Sammis

December 1, 2001

Concept Draw Pro is a visualization package that aims to provide a cross platform program for drafting, flow chart design, map design, etc but falls short of its mark. This newest release from Computer Systems Odessa runs natively in OS X but has a few stability problems when importing non-native files, namely sluggishness and occasional crashes. The program runs best when using its own file formats.

Features

Concept Draw Pro has a very straightforward interface. The layout of the tools is user friendly and well organized. It's also customizable. Besides the saving of documents (.cdd files), the program allows for the saving of templates (.cdt), libraries (.cdl) and workspaces (.cdw), all of which aim to make customization easy and quick.

Concept Draw's strongest features are those aimed at the engineering sector. The libraries for electrical schemata and other scientific visualizations are more extensive and complete than the others. The built in grid system is another great tool for precise draftsmanship.

The program also comes with built in templates and an extensive library (large enough to require it's own 136 page PDF guide). The individual library files could be more detailed. The current library, for the most part, resembles clip art from the early to mid 1990s. Serious users of this program will probably want to either spend the time creating their own library of images or augment the library with some higher quality clip art.

Although Concept Draw offers a way to control object styles, including stroke color and width and fill color and pattern, the number of choices for the color and pattern are limited to program's palette, rather than the computer's. Concept Draw only offers a selection of 256 colors for objects created within the program. This limitation is unnecessary given the high color depth of modern computers and graphic cards.

In the end it is difficult to decide who Concept Draw Pro is aimed at. Given that most computers come with either Microsoft Office or AppleWorks, two options that offer similar limited drawing capabilities along with other useful items such as a word processor and spreadsheet, Concept Draw Pro is not the obvious solution for the general home or office user. The scientific and engineering community has it's own higher end applications that provide greater and more specialized features than this all in one package provides. If the price were lower, Concept Draw Pro could be at the high end of the shareware arena.

System Requirements

Copyright © 2001, Sarah Sammis, All Rights Reserved