The American company Autodesk — the developer of AutoCAD — has prohibited Russian businesses in the construction, design, and industrial design sectors from using its programs and services. In construction design, the share of the American company's products in the Russian market reached 90%.
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The decision is related to the 12th package of sanctions, which was adopted by the European Union at the end of December last year. It includes a ban on the supply of advanced dual-use technologies from the EU, chemicals, DC motors, machine tools, and much more, which, according to the EU, should limit Russia's capabilities in the industrial sector. In addition, the restrictive measures include a ban on the sale, supply, and export of software for industrial design.
Executive Director of ARPP "Domestic Software" Renat Lashin noted in a comment to RBC that in construction design, Autodesk products reached about 90%.
At the same time, in mechanical engineering, the volume of software from the American company was not so large. The share of Autodesk products in this industry accounted for about 50%, the rest was divided between Russian and other Western companies, said Mikhail Bocharov, Deputy Director for Science at JSC "CSoft Development", to RBC.
What will happen after the ban on Autodesk products
Design engineer Alexey Ivanov told www1.ru that he does not believe that this ban will cause serious damage to the industry. The fact is that after Autodesk left the Russian market in 2022, many construction companies continued to use AutoCAD for their own purposes, despite the revocation of licenses. Others switched to domestic software.
Autodesk has no leverage over Russian construction companies, so this letter will not lead to any consequences
According to the www1.ru source, Autodesk's departure aroused business interest in domestic software solutions similar to AutoCAD, such as NanoCAD. Most of these programs have a similar interface and a compatible drawing file format.
Let us remind you that Autodesk officially announced its withdrawal from Russia in March 2022.
Earlier, www1.ru wrote that Russian businessmen and start-ups are not ready to switch to domestic software.
