Topic: AutoCAD flavor poll

[Greg B]

Don't you have to own all three properties before you can add a house using DataCAD?

Dude...it's old already!

[Greg B]

That's fine, Greg, but will the price of DataCAD be going up to accomodate these new features? If not, how are they making a profit? If so, what about those users that don't need, or want, the new features.....why should they pay more for those?

It was exactly those questions (and others like them) that got AutoCAD to where it is today, IMHO.

Nothing more then standard inflation pricing from what I understand.

[Jeff_M]

Nothing more then standard inflation pricing from what I understand.

If that works for their business model, More power to them. I didn't see anything on the horizon for Civil folks, though.....

[MickD]

...
I guess this goes for my Boss also. He has never seen how the Full version would benefit us, so why spend the money on it?

craigr

heh, that reminds me, I worked at an office where the boss believed AutoCAD was simply an electronic drawing board, he had a few lisp routines etc but that was it and we did some very complicated work there. He was more interested in the printed output than anything else. He believed the drafter and content was important, not the tools. He is still one of the best mech/steel detailers I've ever known!

The funny thing was, all the seats he had were mech desktop (because the sales rep talked him into it) and he never used a single feature, he could have been using Intellicad or a similar native .dwg package.

[craigr]

'the boss believed AutoCAD was simply an electronic drawing board'

This goes for my bossess also. - I honestly believe this is the case with most people. Especially old 'paper' drafters that have never used it.

By bosses have no idea how much customizations I have built into our CAD! If our guys had to draw without them, they would be totally lost for quite awhile & time usage would skyrocket! - And remember, we use just LT! I would LOVE to play with  LISPs, etc...

They have talked about going with a non-Autodesk product in the future due to the high prices, but again, they look at it as an 'electronic drawing board'. They don't see the power of it!

craigr

craigr

[Draftek]

I feel for you, I have left companies for that very reason.

I remember when I first used AutoCAD - v2.52. I hired in from about 8 years experience manual drafting. The only other designer had been using it for about a year. After about 5 days of my questions regarding commands (I was curious about 'explode') he finally told me: "To tell you the truth, I only use about 20 commands and I think that's all I'll ever use..."

Now I write automation routines to assist companies in design. I just finished one that will save a company tons of money annually, over 10 times my salary.

[craigr]

I kinda wish the bossess DID know about how much I have modified CAD how much time / money it saves.

I wonder if it would help the salary a little.

Hey, every bit helps,

craigr

[Draftek]

It can be VERY lucritive. I love this kind of work. As a designer, I always felt like the necessary evil for companies (except consulting engineers). They need you but don't really want to.

It's different now, most companies are actually glad to pay me.

If you like this kind of work, you might try some work on the side or volunteer at your local user group to do a demonstration / talk about customizations. Make some connections and you will most likely start getting a lot of job offers for more money.

[CADaver]

My questions more lies like this...

Can you buy Civil 3D, install it on a brand new computer with just an operating system and no other cad software on it, and start using the program?

No add-on's, no customization programs.

Just install the program, open it up and start drawing civil stuff?

Sure, but without training there would be a substantial learning curve(somewhat even with training).  Civil 3D is a specific version of AutoCAD aimed at automating many of the civil-specific functions civil designers execute on a regular basis.  It's not so much an "add-on" as it is an overhead that uses basic AutoCAD as an engine.