"Bentley has done something very few software vendors are willing to do," adds Evan Yares, president of the OpenDWG Alliance. This means it is willing to "compete on the merits" of its applications, not on forcing an upgrade path, he says.
The alliance is in the process of changing its name to more broadly encompass its expanded mission. Its original name refers to the file format made popular with Bentley rival Autodesk's AutoCAD program. Autodesk has not published its proprietary DWG file format, although it "supports open standards" through its open display format DWF and its exchange format DXF, says Mark Strassman, manager of AutoCAD marketing.