What's with ARCOM?

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Author Message Robert E. Woodburn, AIA, CSI, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: bob_woodburn Post Number: 158 Registered: 11-2010 Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 - 11:32 am:    This morning I get an email--"ARCOM Launches Improved Website." OK, that gets my attention. Any improvement at Arcom is worth looking into. So I open it up. Click the link. Seems Arcom has consolidated its web addresses and reorganized its content... Then I notice a reference to "SpecBuilder (formerly Altarix)." What? Wasn't it just introduced a year or two ago, as Arcom's latest attempt at a database, something like SpecLink? Then I see a statement that appears to say SpecBuilder is available to all, subscriber or not. What?? Then I see a link to "ARCOM One," Whatever that is. I click, and all it says is "Coming Soon." What??? So I try its online chat. I ask what's up with all this. No answer. No one available (though it's after 9am in Utah). What's going on? Does anyone know? W. Dean Walker, AIA, CSI, CCS, SCIP Senior Member Username: wdwalkerspecs Post Number: 53 Registered: 08-2006 Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 - 12:51 pm:    Robert, it was all explained to me by various ARCOM people last week when I had to re-download ALTARIX. Its the same program, they just want the word "Spec" in their products. I didn't see the note that it was available to all. I paid for ALTARIX last fall. I think the new website is a huge improvement, but know that not all the links are operational. I get right through when I call. I don't deal with online chats. Robert E. Woodburn, AIA, CSI, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: bob_woodburn Post Number: 159 Registered: 11-2010 Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 - 01:19 pm:    Thanks, Dean. I went back to see if I could find the reference to free specs. Apparently those were manufacturer-sponsored proprietary specs, similar to those already available without charge from Arcat, SpexPlus, SpecLink, and perhaps other sources. I'm not surprised they ditched the name Altarix, one of those counterproductive made-up trade names cleverly designed to conceal what business a company is really in, or what its product really is--Thermochromex (limestone plaster) comes to mind; it seems intentionally misleading. With competition like SpecLink and E-Specs, the word "spec" needs to be in there somewhere. Still wondering about ARCOM One. As a teaser, it's good. Maybe it's the name of their new company plane. At least it's sufficiently vague...