Topic: CAD options

[alterego]

I am looking for some guidance with options for CAD. The company I work for sometimes struggles to have enough licenses for users.  We have a mixture of Revit, full ACAD and LT.  The AutoCAD only ever gets used for 2D work.  A few years before I started working here they tried ProgeCAD but apparently that caused issues with fabricators and other contractors so they are wary of anything other than Autodesk! 

Have any users here successfully used Autodesk and other CAD software seamlessly without issue?

I would like to go back to my boss with options as it looks like we will be needing more licenses going forward.

Thank you.

[dgorsman]

Have you done the math with the desktop/rental-model licenses?

[ChrisCarlson]

A few options

1) Network licensing, this is incredibly beneficial if users are not constantly using a seat.
2) If you occasionally need an extra license you can rent a license for a monthly fee.
3) Another (albeit last resort) option is that you can "theoretically" install each seat on two computers. Legally one must be a work and the other a home, it's not the most ethical but it's an available option.

[rkmcswain]

The company I work for sometimes struggles to have enough licenses for users.  We have a mixture of Revit, full ACAD and LT. 

Is this with standalone licenses or network licenses?

[alterego]

Thanks for your replies everyone.

Sorry I should have mentioned.
The Full licenses are network licenses, and I believe the LT licenses are standalone.

The management are looking into renting licenses for a month-by-month basis for the larger jobs, but on smaller jobs, that is going to potentially eat up the potential profit

[Krushert]

With network licenses, you can have less licenses than you have employees with cad.   

For me, I use to cad everyday but now I may open a cad application once every other week.   So I only check out a license when I need to.   The theory is that not every employee who needs cad, will be cadding at the same time.    And for 40,000 person company that saves money. 

Figure out what how much cad you are using at any one time and get that number of license plus a tiny bit more for contingency.   

[alterego]

With network licenses, you can have less licenses than you have employees with cad.   

For me, I use to cad everyday but now I may open a cad application once every other week.   So I only check out a license when I need to.   The theory is that not every employee who needs cad, will be cadding at the same time.    And for 40,000 person company that saves money. 

Figure out what how much cad you are using at any one time and get that number of license plus a tiny bit more for contingency.

Thank you for your reply.
In comparison, we are a very small company. There are about 150 people here, a large percentage of those are not in the design dept so don't need any form of CAD (apart from viewers). But as we are a small company it is harder to afford/justify a full CAD license... there are times when we its all hands on deck and we need 4 or 5 more licenses than we have, but other days we have just about enough.

[CAB]

Have you looked at Bricsys CAD for some of your seats?
https://www.bricsys.com/estore/?site=en_US/

[alterego]

Have you looked at Bricsys CAD for some of your seats?
https://www.bricsys.com/estore/?site=en_US/

They haven't. Mainly because they had issues with ProgeCAD a few years ago. Apparently drawings created on ProgeCAD didn't translate properly into some fabrication software of our suppliers.

Is it possible to tell a bricsys drawing from an AutoCAD drawing?

Thank you

[Willie]

Maybe Draftsight can be an option?  It's free.

http://draftsight2017.com/

[rkmcswain]

Is it possible to tell a bricsys drawing from an AutoCAD drawing?

On some level, yes. Because Autodesk does something to them to make them a TrustedDWG™

[alterego]

Maybe Draftsight can be an option?  It's free.

http://draftsight2017.com/

Thank you for that option. I will raise this and Bricscad at the next team meeting. Maybe we can talk to our fabricators to ask them if they have had any issues working with these cad systems.

[alterego]

Is it possible to tell a bricsys drawing from an AutoCAD drawing?

On some level, yes. Because Autodesk does something to them to make them a TrustedDWG™

Thank you for your response. I'll try to find out more on this.

[CAB]

I was told you may get a Warning message but then proceed with no further problems.
Let us know if you find out anything else about this issue.
Thanks

[alterego]

Hi CAB

I will do, thank you.