I’ve been getting a lot of hits lately from people searching for OttoPDF. This is a free standalone software that converts a *.dwg into a PDF. I was a little surprised actually, because I’ve written just a tiny review a long time ago.

Investigation revealed that MyndKryme has pulled down the freeware version and is, instead, promising a better shareware version sometime in the future. Searching the Internet for an old version to download was futile. The program has effectively vanished. So it seems that cad users everywhere were on the lookout for a downloadable – hence the traffic.

I checked the original download (from 2 years ago) and read the copyright notice which, interestingly, grants the user permission to “…use this software for any purpose, including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it freely…” That makes it’s total disappearance even more difficult to fathom.

Anyway, since David McKenzie (the author of the program) obviously doesn’t want to distribute it as freeware anymore, I’m looking for alternatives to OttoPDF so that visitors to this site are not totally disappointed. Watch this space…