2004 – Going Global

With Gareth back in the fold but now 100% focused on Buildmedia I stepped back into the ArchiCAD side of things while continuing focusing on our development projects and the Cadimage Tools.

We had a couple of developers on board and were working on a project for Carter Holt Harvey which had a significant GDL requirement, so we were outsourcing work to Theometric software the developers of the Custom Libraries.

Late in 2003 we had merged the Lower North Island reseller into Cadimage and had employed Albert Wayers. Albert suggested we approach Andrew Watson from Theometric to see if he would be interested in joining our team. This seemed like a good idea for us.

I therefore started discussions and made the approach and things progressed well. I then got a call from Andrew’s brother-in-law Theo – the owner of Theometric libraries. Theo was very happy for the opportunity that I was offering Andrew, however, he said that basically “Andrew is Theometric” and without Andrew the libraries will go nowhere. It wasn’t an ultimatum, but a fact and Theo said he would like to sell Theometric to Cadimage. We were developing the New Zealand Tools at the time and could see how Theometric’s libraries would complement our offering, and we would also get Andrew on the team.

We sent Theo a proposal and after an intense negotiation Cadimage makes its first major acquisition and Andrew joined the team.

At the time we purchase Theometric they were already selling their libraries overseas via a simple web shop.

Sometime during 2004, Murray and I headed to LA for an ArchiCAD User Group ‘Camp’ essentially the first US version of David Nicolsoncole’s UK based ArchiCAD University.

We had toyed with the idea of having an similar sort of event so decided to do this trip as research.

During the event I showed a number of participants – including David, who was also the author of the GDL Cookbook – the various tools and developments we had undertaken. 

At the conclusion of the event there was an open floor session where any one could get up and show anything related to ArchiCAD. I was encouraged (read “told”) to present some of our Tools. Strange as it was for an event like this I received a standing ovation after my hastily prepared presentation. 

Many participants wanted to get their hands on the (now somewhat ironically called) New Zealand Tools.

By the end of 2004 we had rebranded both our Tools and the Libraries from Theometric as the Cadimage Tools and I had built and launched my first eCommerce Store to sell our Tools internationally.

I had headed home for Christmas and on Christmas Eve we received our first Online order from France (where it was still the 23rd) and Cadimage Tools had its first international customer. As with ARCHICADselect we’d put a lot of effort in to launch the Cadimage Tools and while it was one small sale, again we’d made a start.