AutoCAD Family

The AutoCAD family could include the following products:

AutoCAD itself

AME

Autoshade

This is only one possible breakout: the General Management team for the AutoCAD family has the authority to make the final breakout decision. At this time, the breakout of AutoCAD into products is so undecided that the breakout listed above does not match in any recognizable way the functional chart which accompanies this document.

In creating product lines, one usually wants to break a family into as many independently profitable products, with individual accountability, as possible. However, just because a product can have a separate price tag doesn't make it an independent product. A good example would be an ADS application that generates IGES files. Such an application could be priced separately--but its profitability is irrelevant to its success because IGES's main purpose is strategic, to help AutoCAD penetrate markets where IGES is required.

One could also make a case that Autodesk sells AME and/or Autoshade for strategic reasons. If these products get bundled with AutoCAD, their profitability no longer matters, and they should cease to be independent product lines.

In the end, the General Management team will make these decisions.