CAD Schroer Group (CSG) announced the latest release of its free personal use version of the powerful MEDUSA4 design automation suite, available for Windows and six different Linux distributions. The industry-proven 2D/3D CAD solution now also includes a Sheet Metal Design module, and many additional enhancements.

CAD Schroer, serious about offering engineering solutions that support flexible systems strategies, released the commercial version of MEDUSA4 3.0.1 in Autumn 2007. Now MEDUSA4 Personal users can benefit from additional functionality, and support for the current versions of the following Linux distributions: CentOS, Fedora, Mandriva, RedHat, SuSE and Ubuntu .

“MEDUSA4 Personal offers almost all of the functionality available in our most advanced MEDUSA4 package, including basic 3D (sheet-based modeling), parametrics, and all of MEDUSA4’s drafting power tools, like SMART Edit (“parametrics on demand”), and hidden line removal,” explains MEDUSA4 Product Line Manager Mark Simpson. “Now users can also try our simple and powerful integrated Sheet Metal Design module.”

Enhancements on the drafting side include full TrueType/operating system font and Unicode (multi-language) support, easier top-down and bottom-up design, a new parts balloon tool and parts list table, and even more intelligence in the SMART Edit tool.

MEDUSA4 Personal is expressly restricted to non-commercial use. Small technical differences from the commercial version include a different sheet format, watermarked print output, and the ability to import from, but not export to, DXF/DWG format. The commercial version is highly customisable, while MEDUSA4 Personal is not.

“Since the day of its first release, MEDUSA4 Personal has been met with great enthusiasm. Home users seem to have a keen interest in deploying professional CAD software, and the latest version, with all the additional functionality of the professional 3.0 release, makes it an even more attractive system. As a result we are extremely confident that MEDUSA4 will keep climbing the ranks in terms of significance and value as perceived by designers in the private as well as professional spheres.” says Michael Schroer, Founding Director of CSG, whose success has been built on long-term customer relationships, and a firm “by engineers for engineers” approach to software development.