The Search for an AutoCAD Alternative Ends
Four months ago an architect, who has 5 licenses of AutoCAD LT 2006 and 2 licenses of AutoCAD 2006, posted a question on the IntelliCAD.net forum wondering whether it was worth switching to an AutoCAD clone. Autodesk was due to retire AutoCAD 2006 and he was not too happy with the fact that he was being forced to upgrade, especially since AutoCAD 2006 was more than enough for his work. In his words, "This force upgradation after every three releases by Autodesk is really sucking my hard earned money."
What followed was a lively discussion with other members offering advice and sharing their experiences with various AutoCAD clones. Today the architect arrived at some sort of conclusion. He wrote, "IMHO there is no AutoCAD Clone at present which is as fast as AutoCAD. ...[snip]... I have come to a point where I am willing to pay the price of AutoCAD for its stability and speed. It is really unfortunate that no clone can do this (speed as well as stability). Since recently I am also fed up trying out every other AutoCAD Clone. I am now once for all settled for AutoCAD!"
They say quality comes at a price. The question is whether you can afford it. An equally important question is whether you have a viable option.
As far as this reluctant Autodesk customer is concerned, the search for an AutoCAD alternative has come to an end, not in the way he hoped it would.
What followed was a lively discussion with other members offering advice and sharing their experiences with various AutoCAD clones. Today the architect arrived at some sort of conclusion. He wrote, "IMHO there is no AutoCAD Clone at present which is as fast as AutoCAD. ...[snip]... I have come to a point where I am willing to pay the price of AutoCAD for its stability and speed. It is really unfortunate that no clone can do this (speed as well as stability). Since recently I am also fed up trying out every other AutoCAD Clone. I am now once for all settled for AutoCAD!"
They say quality comes at a price. The question is whether you can afford it. An equally important question is whether you have a viable option.
As far as this reluctant Autodesk customer is concerned, the search for an AutoCAD alternative has come to an end, not in the way he hoped it would.
posted by Deelip Menezes at
6:12 PM
3 Comments:
I can fully understand what this architect went through. There is no doubt that all the earlier to current versions of AutoCAD are very stable, i.e it will not crash often out of the blue.
The anti-Autodesk feeling prevalent does not come from stability of the product but from a whole lot of other issues.
The clones are trying to put up a very credible and real alternative to AutoCAD and that is indeed good. I appreciate the efforts put in by Bricsys, ZwCAD etc.
They have their current share of problems, some of which are common to them and some unique. They also have their share of strengths which are nice to see. Each has their own growth strategy and vision and I am sure that there will space for all of them to thrive depending on what the end-user is looking for and if the CAD in question delivers it.
Having said that, I have seen eval/users who are perfectly happy or perfectly unhappy or somewhere in between when it comes to alternative CAD. So, go ahead and give it a try and make your choice yourself.
I can say for sure that the path taken by this architect is not the only way to go.
By
Rakesh Rao, At
2:31 PM, July 16, 2009
If you are looking for free alternatives to AutoCAD this is a good place to start -
http://ninjarabbits.blogspot.com/2010/03/free-alternatives-to-autocad.html
By
Anonymous, At
11:56 PM, June 05, 2010
I appreciate the efforts put in by Bricsys...
By
labatterie, At
5:35 PM, December 02, 2010
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