Forty years spent making drawings render anywhere.
Rasterex was founded in Oslo in 1985. We have shipped graphic accelerators, raster editors, OEM viewers, ActiveX controls, thin clients and a zero-footprint web canvas. The names changed. The job did not.
Viewsoft, plus the canvas era.
The last two years reset the company. We consolidated with Viewsoft, and we changed how we talk about the product. We do not sell a viewer that hides drawings behind a toolbar. We sell the canvas that other companies build active workspaces on top of.
Two veteran teams under one roof. More engineering depth, broader format coverage, one roadmap. The OEM partners gain a single technology partner with the scale to back long horizons.
A viewer opens a file and closes it. A canvas stays open. It holds the drawing, the markup, the measurements and the comparison side by side, and it lets the host application reach in. That is what we ship now.
Construction, facility, plan review and BIM teams stop juggling tools. The drawing becomes the place where work happens, inside the system they already use.
A long line of changes.
The market changed shape every few years. The engine kept going.
- 1985Founded in Oslo
Nineteen developers spun out of Tandberg Data with one bet: merge the PC into the monitor. The first PC-terminal on the market.
- 1989–1993Graphic cards for CAD
CAD pushed PCs past their limits. Rasterex shipped high-end graphic cards and accelerators that made it possible to draw on screen.
- 1993–1996From hardware to software
Graphics became commodity. We turned the deep CAD knowledge into raster imaging, vectorization and CAD viewing software.
- 1997RxView and RxHighlight
Version 1.0 of the flagship products. Native multi-format viewing and markup for architects, engineers and constructors. The OEM story starts here.
- 2000Embedded inside other software
Viewing and annotation shipped as ActiveX controls inside EDMS, CMS and ERP systems. The first time the canvas lived inside someone else's product.
- 20033D CAD formats
Mechanical, transportation and manufacturing moved to 3D. We added the leading 3D formats so the engine handled the full spectrum.
- 2004Thin client viewer
Server-side processing with a thin client. The preferred built-in viewer for enterprise document systems.
- 2015RxView360 — zero-footprint web
HTML5, JavaScript, CSS. Open any drawing in the browser, on any device. Built to integrate with ERP, PDM, EDMS and FM systems running in the cloud.
- 2016Rasterex goes BIM
IFC and the BIM lifecycle. The graphical engine reaches into model data for design review, takeoff, on-site work and facility management.
Two offices, one engine.
Headquarters and engineering. Sørengkaia 175, 0194 Oslo. The team has been in the building since the hardware days.
North American office. Twenty-five years representing Rasterex products on the ground, close to the construction and energy customers.