Another New Chapter

It is just over 9.5 years since we sold Cadimage to Central Innovation and last week saw the next chapter in the story begin with Graphisoft entering into an agreement to purchase both the New Zealand and Australian Archicad distributions.

For those who weren’t close to it, Cadimage was never just a reseller. We built tools, content, and workflows around Archicad because we believed deeply in the platform and in the architects using it. Our relationship with Graphisoft was long-standing — more than two decades in total for me personally — and that connection shaped much of what we built.

Over the past decade, Graphisoft itself has evolved significantly. It has become more global, more structured, and more integrated across product, services, and regional operations. The company today is very different to the one many of us first worked with in the 1990's.

That evolution makes this latest move logical.

Bringing distribution in Australia and New Zealand closer to Graphisoft aligns incentives more directly with customers. It shortens feedback loops. It simplifies decision-making. And it creates a clearer line between product development and the people using the software every day.

There are still a handful of our original Cadimage team involved in the New Zealand business, and it has been encouraging to see their positivity about this next step. Continuity matters. Culture matters. And institutional knowledge matters — especially in a specialist industry like AEC technology.

From a distance, this feels less like a dramatic shift and more like a natural progression. The industry continues to consolidate. Vendors are moving closer to customers. And regional markets are becoming more tightly integrated into global strategies.

For customers, the real question will be simple: does this result in better support, clearer direction, and faster product improvement?

If it does, then this next chapter will have achieved exactly what it should.

If you are interested in the early days you can read more about the early days of the Cadimage Story.