CAD Packages

I have never had to use a package before and am confused by the bewildering number of drawing software programs that are available.
Is it the case that all these products are built around the origional
CAD program package or are they all individual companies inventions built
from scratch??

Unregistered,

Yes and No. I do not know what the "original" package was. Some say it was the early Intergraph brand CAD, that used two monitors and cost $1 million. AutoCAD has been around a long time also. All of them now have borrowed from each other. Most of them are enough different that the producers can keep selling them. Each has stengths in some areas and weaknesses in others. It all depends on what the specific needs are for your application.

Intergraph may have been the original. Caterpillar has had so many CAD programs, I couldn't begin to count them. Many were adaptations of others, or a combination of others. One drafting group I was in at Cat's HQ in downtown Peoria, had 4 people and was using 5 different programs.

Many programs are based on AutoCad, but it was far from the first. Since ACad is more then most people need, unless they are using 3D, autoCad LT (2D only) is plenty adequet.

Need software, AutoCad LT is problably a good bet. Design CAD 3000 isn't too bad, either.

Promise E and others that piggyback on AutoCAD may seem superfulous. I still like my T-Square.

Using PRO-E for schematics and harnesses has always seemed incidious to me, yet I get a lot of requests to do it. Pro-Harness is another, but if you have that kind of money to spend on a program...


regards.....casey

kc9ih said:

Promise E and others that piggyback on AutoCAD may seem superfulous. I still like my T-Square.

Click to expand...

Luddite.



{Darth Vadar voice} Come to the Dark side, kc. Use ACE in all its glory...

lol

Bob

E-Plan

We use E-plan, it has all the necessary equipment blocks and links documents using Macros, whats nice is it automatically generates your additional design documentation. Equipment lists, cable schedules, termination diagrams ect.

When you do a change on your design it fixes it universally in your project.

I use to do AutoCAD at my previous company , which doen't have the functionality of updating changes.

I have never used AutoCAD E but would think it has similar functionality to E-Plan.

Using a spesialized design program cuts down on your design time, and lets face is time and money are the biggest issue.

Rheinhardt

Free 3D CAD????

With all the CAD talk going around, I found this and I am curious what you think about this offer or have you heard about this?

http://www.x-cad.net/

Bob O.

testsubject said:

Luddite.



{Darth Vadar voice} Come to the Dark side, kc. Use ACE in all its glory...

lol

Bob

Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer Bob!

I'll call you at work in a few days and set up a time, and bring a new USB thumb drive, and you can load me up!

regards.....casey

i played around with acad eletrical today...man thats sweet!!! I think the price tag is about 800 us..just from playing i was impressed..Up till now i was using acad lite 2004 (Sorry i should say *******ising!!)..I got it to do what i wanted but hell i have a hard time drawing a square and setting borders on the thing..)

as is mentioned it all depends on what you want the software to do..If you are just doing electrical drawings then shell the mony for acad electrical..If your doing full blown 3d arch and mechanical then spend the 4 grand (Wow thats expensive!!!) on the full blown version..

BTW if anyone is good at ACAD pm me..i still have a hard time DDlimits and scaling...

D

i have just been corrected on the price...It not 800 more like 5000...
for that price shop around...

Also keep in mind though that ACE ships with a full working copy of ACAD since ACE is an addon to ACAD...

If you already have ACAD maybe you can work a deal with your VAR.