Where is Autocad going? 3

[Amacdes]

Is Autocad doomed? Autodesk seem to be
concentrating on Inventor which is a parasolids
prog. Are the ACIS progs finished?

 

[CadAndy]

There are to many AutoCAD users to be finished
Small Architectural and Civil Engineering firms
are still using AutoCAD. For the Larger and more
knowledgeable companies. Autocad is being phased
out. I been at three companies within the last four
years that have not upgraded and started looking
at Solidworks or an alternative to AutoDesk
software.

 

[sc]

Autocad is being phased out, I beg to differ slightly on this. Autocad is being priced out by offering marginal improvements for the basic cad user (not power users) of which there are still a hell of lot out there (myself included).

I cannot for the life of me justify spending $1500-$2000 AU every couple of years for these marginal improvements. I have used 2I since it came out and find that it fills my needs more than adequately. I have kept an eye on the changes made since and found that nothing really improves my productivity as I do not share my files or allow others access over the net (sole practitioner).

So as far as I am concerened for the small strucutral practice that I run Autocad has reached its peak.

Regards
sc

 

[brite750]

Solidworks is no substitude for Acad, it is strictly 3D contraint/parametric driven mechanical parts/assembly software. You don't switch over to Solidworks from Acad, there is quite alot of training/learning curve issues, you with probably need a least one person in your office that is very familiar with it also. Acad for 2D is still the industry standard around the world. If your talking 3D for doing just about anything other than product design, Acad with Autosolids is a very good software combination, with almost no learning curve. Parmetric 3D without contraints all in native Acad 3D solids, dwg format. Check it out, the demo is very limited, the full version is Great!!!. If you have this and Acad together, you won't need Solidworks for most Cad disciplines.

 

[murugansubham]

hi,
nearly 3.5 years, i used autocad and last 1 year i'm using solidworks only.as per my experience,it is very user friendly software compare to other cad parametric softwares.it is very easy to study .
solidworks is powerful for 3d environment .
it is advisable that which software ,u r going to use is fully ur current company needs (i.e ur dependecy on 2d models or 3d models.)
and if u want to survive in ur feild, u have to learn new technologies also.

thanks ,

regards,
murugan.S
Design Engineer,
GlobalSoft Pvt Ltd,
INDIA
murugan_subham@yahoo.com

 

[patdaly]

LOL, well I still have not seen the gain, for 2D at least, to switch from my beloved Generic Cadd 6.1......May Autodesk go rot!

Actually, at least from my perspective, why would I want a product that this generation drawings cannot be opened with my last generation saftware?

 

[smcadman]

According to a recent CAD Manager survey done by Cadalyst magazine, AutoCAD is the most frequently used CAD package used by 54% of CAD Managers who took the survey. Autodesk products made up a combined 85% of all primary CAD systems. It was noted that "customers are hesitant to get too far away from the core AutoCAD file format (DWG)"

Here were the top 10 CAD Systems

AutoCAD = 54.3%
Architectual Desktop = 14.1%
Land Developement Desktop = 9.1%
Microstation = 4.2%
Solidworks = 3.3%
Inventor = 2.1%
Mechanical Desktop = 2.1%
AutoCAD LT = 1.8%
Autocad Map = 1.2%
Solid Edge = 1.2%

Other CAD Systems included CATIA, Revit, IronCAD, Pro/Engineer, I-deas, Autodesk Building Systems, Medusa, and Eagle Point.
"More offices run a 2D primary system (such as AutoCAD) with a 3D-enabled secondary CAD system." They called this multi-system a "hybrid-office environment".

2D/3D Hybrid mixture = 36.4%
Totally 2D = 30.4%
Mainly 2D, but evaluating 3D = 26.4%
Totaly 3D = 6.8%

Many companies refuse to, or do not have the money to, upgrade to a fully-3D enabled CAD system. I started 3D with Mechanical Desktop 2 at a previous employer, and since we were on the subscription program, we were upgraded with each new release and whenever I left that company, we were using MDT 6 with Power Pack. Where I am currently employed, the newest release we have is ACAD 2002, and they do not plan to upgrade. We have many vendors who are still using ACAD r14 and we have to have the drawing compatability with them.
Many users on several CAD-based forums bash AutoCAD, but it seems they will be #1 at least for a couple of more years.
This survey was in the printed Dec. 2003 magazine, but it isn't on the website:

http://www.cadalyst.com

I will add that I was surprised that Solidworks didn't have a higher percentile of users.

Flores

 

[Qshake]

I find it hard to beleive that AutoCad is doing so well. Not more than 10 years ago, many State Departments of Transportation switched to Microstation. Naturally, we consultants have been forced to adapt or fail.

I was a staunch supporter of AutoCad and really still like the product very much. However, I use less and less of it since I have to work in Microstation for client reasons.

As a structural engineer though I admit I don't earn my salary on any CAD software so I'm not the hardcore type. And as with PatDaly I actually got started using GenericCAD!

Best Regards,
Qshake

 

[Adrian2]

Dear Folks;

I think it will take quite a few years before AutoCad usage is phased out due to it's huge user base. I work with small to medium size manufacturers and all still demand autocad 2000 drawings.

But solidworks is definitely being tweaked to appeal to the 2D masses. In my 2004 version I see 2D move, copy, insert and rotate commands that are vitually the same as their autocad counterparts. More and more I use solidworks to do things that I previously did with autocad.

I still use autocad for plant layout and schematic diagrams and the like. Many companies will use their old versions of autocad as long as it fulfills their needs. It is often unnecessary to always have the latest version. I still have a client that makes me use their old version 13.

But there will come a time when the 3D packages, driven by customer demand, will offer everything the 2D packages did and more. I would guess this will happen within the next 5 years.

Best Regards

Adrian Dunevein
aaadrafting.com

 

[dpa]

I really doubt that Autocad users will completely disappear even if Autodesk goes out of business. After all there are still a lot of Generic Cadd users out there. I notice the survey did not even mention Generic Cadd. Typical, even when it was the number two cadd program world wide (at one time it outsold all other cad software combined except for Autocad which was number one) it was almost never mentioned in any cadd magazines. I use ACAD 2004. It does have some marginal 2D improvements like improved MTEXT which I like but it did not go far enough. I doubt if I will ever upgrade beyond that. I also use Generic Cadd 6.1.2 from time to time. It works very well and is infinitely easier to customize than any AutoDesk product. My best client insists that all drawings be delivered in Generic Cadd.

 

[smcadman]

"Already doing well with the high value, low-volume AutoCAD, Autodesk was also keen to dominate the high volume-end market. This led to the purchase of a budget CAD solution called

Generic CADD.

Unfortunately

Generic CADD

 didn’t really integrate particularly well with AutoCAD and its file format, so eventually Autodesk shelved it and developed a cut down version of AutoCAD, called LT."

http://www.tenlinks.com/CAD/reference/exclusive/052101adesk_1.htm

I searched on the web, but found no indication that Generic CADD was a "number two cadd program world wide"

Flores

 

[patdaly]

It is awfully funny AutoDesk killed Generic as soon as they possibly could after they bought it though?
Funny, I never have had problems porting my Generic files back and forth with versions of LT thru 97, and AutoCad thru version 12, I wonder what I am doing differently than the makers did?

 

[CadAndy]

I like how smcadman posted the ratio of CAD
programs.

If AutoCAD has approximately 400,00 users and
has gone down in the last two years from 480,000
and Solidworks just went over 230,000 users with
their 2003 version how does that add up to
3.3% and AutoCAD 54%.

Must of been an AutoCAD magazine trying to sell
inventor or boost sales.

Because 230,000 users is more than 58% of AutoCAD
base. I won't deny AutoCAD's 2D program but to
update my program every year for a fee when I get
free upgrades with Solidworks sounds like a no
brainer to me.

 

[Geomar]

Hello All,
As CadAndy say's the numbers don't add up, but please clarify. Solidworks sells a life time drawing package? I just dropped 1800 bucks for AutoCad upgrade R2000 to R2004 and you say Solidworks does this for FREE?

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Peace Love and good will of the season to everyone

 

[smcadman]

I didn't write the survey, but it is now online:

http://www.cadalyst.com/solutions/mc/1203cm/index.htm

Flores

 

[Geomar]

The numbers are interesting, but CadAndy's numbers are even more interesting, this is personal money.
Please clarify, see my previous post

 

[Geomar]

CadAndy you said:
"I won't deny AutoCAD's 2D program but to
update my program every year for a fee when I get
free upgrades with Solidworks sounds like a no
brainer to me."

Solidworks sells a life time drawing package? I just dropped 1800 bucks for AutoCad upgrade R2000 to R2004 and you say Solidworks does this for FREE?

Please clarify!

 

[Amacdes]

Generic cad was discontinued many years ago so would
not appear in any survey. It was a far bigger prog than
LT and much more expensive at around $700AD when LT was
$150 when released.
Solidworks has a yearly fee ranging from $1400
to $2100 depending on package. This must be paid EVERY
YEAR. If you fail to pay for a year you must pay any
back fees to get a later upgrade or become totally
unsupported. All major cad packages are going down this
path.

 

[Geomar]

Thanks Amacdes for the clarification. Solidworks giving it away free, I don't think so.
Autocad like all the others want big bucks and give peanuts in return ie "TOOL PALETTES" what a waste of time. Large numbers of standard blocks are a lot easier to handle with a pull down menu.

 

[namdac]

Being an avid cad user for a great many years (AutoCad 2.6) I have seen the industry grow by leaps and bounds. But as in life evolution does take over at one point or another.

Microstation V8 now reads all versions of CAD programs. Yes even dwg format and can save to all formats out on the market. Even to 2.6.

Also one must look at the current usage of the program. A vast majority of municipalities, city, county, state all use Microstation. They even required all of their consultants to provide deliverables in dgn format.

Where Microstation has incorporated all formats in their product and in this cadders opinion (they made more accomidating to the AutoCad user) AutoCad will support some. This is where Autodesk needs to get off the dime and get with the program.

We can all agree on one fact we all need a user friendly software package that does what we require it to do without having to call Tech Service everytime a hidden file decides to crash.

Regrads To All,
Namdac
P.S. Merry Xmas!!!!