Cad, Cam ... COM

Cadmover, Kandu's flagship product—which sells for less than $350—even allows non-CAD users to work with CAD data. For example, let's say a graphics design studio creates a pressure sensitive label for a new gourmet vinegar. The label outline follows the intricate shape of a cascade of raspberries. Cadmover can translate the Illustrator file into a CAD file that can be used by a job shop to create the die. Believing that big packages should come in small things, the company has developed a smoothing tool that converts Illustrator's bothersome splines and vector line segments into CAD arcs at a compression rate of up to 8:1. According to users like Andrew Lyon of T J Finishing, this functionality can cut the time die shops typically spend repairing Illustrator files from several hours down to several minutes.