It is interesting that I came across this post this morning. I just had a conversation with the owner about our software.
I took over the drawing responsibilites here over a year ago now after we went through the dreaded layout phase. In the past, there was an Arch Manager and 3 to 4 CAD drafters going full speed ahead for like 4 to 5 years there. The software of choice for the CAD Manager at the time was ADT, 3.3 and then onto 2005. The thing is, he never used it for what it could have been used for. He went with it for the doors, windows and walls. He told the owner he getting the scheduling and so forth going, but he wasn't actually and in fact took all of the 2D non-interactive schedules off of the plans because he couldn't get them done correctly. Right before his departure, he got permission to buy a copy of the 2009 ADT software because he thought that he could work in that software and save it down to 2005 ADT and have no issues. Well it didn't work out for him, so we had only one copy of the 2009 here.
Well the owner was asking me about our software this morning and I just came out and told him that unless it is pressing, we are ok with our 2005 seats right now. I told him that the ADT software was never fully utilized for what we do and that the 2009 copy was really nice to have, but unless he wanted to pay a lot of money out for more software, then I would stay where we are at. I based this call on the fact that we have no one currently out sourcing here to companies that use an upgraded release. I also know that we only draw houses here and they never even set up the constructs or elements to work correctly and just did straight xref'ing. No one used the detail library and there were no 3D drawings done in the software. All of those factors along with the pressing issue of money for extra costs right now, I just think we are ok with what we have. I wished I had more time to work with the software and setup a lot of the features, but since I do all of the drawing right now, among other things, I just can't. I think we expand our use of 2005 ADT and be effective in what we need here.