Why does it seem that there are some CAD programs that are
very intuitive and inexpensive yet nobody uses them and at the same time there
are other programs that are very
difficult to use and very expensive however these program seem to be among the
most popular?
Before anyone makes any assumptions or jumps to conclusions
that I may be out to criticize the software manufacturers, like Autodesk, Bentley, Dassault,
or Siemens,
"I am not out to bash the software manufacturers".
I just want to point out, with the programs
that I have used, that some were easier to learn than others, some were great
for getting a product ready to use and some are just plain old time consuming
memory hogs.
By the way, the most extensive experience I have is with
Autodesk software (20 years+), and the main software of choice has been
AutoCAD. Out of all of the Autodesk
products that I use, the easiest to learn and use has been the Autodesk Homestyler®
for basic home design. Anyone can create
a basic 2D floor plan layout print it as a 2D, or convert it to 3D, and save it
to either a DWG (AutoCAD), or Revit (*.rvt).
The one of the most difficult Autodesk products to use, (and
expensive too) is Revit. I have found it easier to just start and create my
projects from Homestyler® and then convert to Revit. Setting up a standard to
use, and maintaining visual styles was and continues to be very challenging,
since it seems every project has a different procedure. Perhaps if I was the
project captain or chief it would be different, however, as a consultant you
are subject to using the customers’ standard, and unfortunately since Revit is
fairly new, there doesn't seem to be any real standards out there.
The best bargain for my $$$ has been using the Punch CAD
software. Again, as a consultant I've been able to use this software to create
2D and 3D floor plan layouts. The only drawback has been, "not being able
to convert to anything other than AutoCAD". Hopefully the newer versions
of this software will also convert to Revit, so that any BIM items will be
readable in Navisworks (yet another Autodesk® software product). To me this is
on par with another Autodesk software product that I use, "Freestyler"
which was an inexpensive 2D drawing program (it was only in use, or for sale
for 2 years and then discontinued by Autodesk).
Other CAD systems that I have used include ProEngineer
(Pro-E). I actually have a few drawing examples shown on the Grab CAD site of
my work. I have also used Personal Designer, (does anyone remember Personal Designer?
) which was a good product developed by Computervision, and now owned by PTC (ProEngineer).
From what I have read (refer to hyperlink), due to the high cost, which was over
$3k back in the 1990's, not including the computer, and also due to poor
marketing, the product has been discontinued. I have also used Google Sketch,
Bentley's MicroStation, Microsoft Visio, for basic graphics risers and flow
charts and finally Micrografx Designer. Micrografx Designer is actually a Corel
product and my main use for the product is to create graphics. Just like Punch
CAD, and Autodesk Homestyler®, I found Micrografx Designer fairly easy to work
with and converting the files back and forth to be used with other software
also fairly easy to do with minimal amount of glitches.
test2
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