Archimedes is a computer-aided design software focused on architecture. It is developed by a team of Computer Science students with colaboration of student and professional architects. The project was first conceived of on June 2005, but actual development only started on March 2006. At its first stage, the project aims to be a simple drawing board for architects. With this, it would be approximately equivalent to the most popular program among architects.

That program presents two main flaws from an architect's point of view. First, it is a proprietary tool developed by a multinational company with clients all around the globe. This brings a problem: one single user of the program rarely gets satistying support, specially in less developed countries. More than that, the requests and needs of a minority of clients are very unlikely to be fulfilled. The second problem is that this software is primarily focused on Mechanical Engineering, not Architecture, so the software is not fitted for architects. The first issue aggravates this, because as it was stated, there's little chance that their needs be heard.

However the first flaw brings other consequences. Because the software is proprietary, architects may not change it (by themselves or hiring others) to suit them better. They are at the hands of the company that develops the software. It is also worth mentioning the high price one must pay to buy the legal right to use the tool. None of this problems happen to Archimedes because it is a Free and Open Source Software. To learn more about this software category and why it prevents this problems from occuring, take a look at the Free Sofware section.

Apart from being free sofware, Archimedes is developed with a method that promotes constant contact with the architects, thus assuring that their requests be satisfied. If your curious about such method, please refer to the Extreme Programming section. To know what the Archimedes is capable of doing right now and so far, visit Current State, or download and test the program at Downloads.