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COMPARISON CHART BWTWN ACAD 2007 & VEC WORKS 12.5


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1. Welcome to the VectorWorks forum.

2. Use lower case, DON'T SHOUT!

3. It is useful to other forum users to add a note of what computer and software you are using.

4. This is a forum for VectorWorks users, not for comparisons between CAD programs, which is going to be like comparing apples with oranges anyway.

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Edited by D Wood
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it might be useful for you to look at the pros/cons yourself by creating a list of items that can be compared. for example, you can start by price, computer platform, visual appearance, ease of use, ease of learning, plot/print quality, BIM availability, graphic ability, etc. if you do much 3d modelling, i beleive VW would be more advantageous. if you only do 2d graphics (plans), it might be a wash. take a look at what you want, what you need, and what you want to do and give it a go. and please post- we all would like to see what you find!

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I honestly believe it really depends on how you plan to use them. Knowing your overall intent with the applications will help you realize which one is probalby a better fit. I have used both extensively and I personally find Vectorworks to be more versatile than Acad 2k7. That is, of course based on primarily needing 2d residential drawings.

And don't forget, if your only tool is a hammer, everything will seem like a nail. You will probably be most limited by the willigness of your users to actually learn the software and what it's capable of.

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It will also depend on your design discipline and how often you will interface with AC and how willing you are to setup standards to use for the exchanging files. (VW - it would be nice to have a list of do's and do not's for file exchange.

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If you are doing 2D line drawings, without a lot of colorful fills, and don't care whether the drawings look attractive, then AutoCAD is a world beater. This would apply to most structural and civil drawings.

As an industry standard, with AutoCAD there'll be fewer translation problems if you exchange files with other offices. Everyone will understand what you're talking about when you communicate about a project.

For architectural drawing or similar work, where you want to make the drawings attractive and still have lots of versatility (including 3D), then I'd go for VectorWorks. It's nice to be able to plop in an attractive symbol when you need it. The blocks in AutoCAD tend to be functional but unattractive. I've got a whole bunch of them and wonder how I could have stood them.

Remember that AutoCAD is horrifically expensive, especially if you buy add-ons to make the work in a particular discipline faster. List price for AutoCAD 2008, including Architectural Desktop, is around $5,590.

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If you are doing 2D line drawings, without a lot of colorful fills, and don't care whether the drawings look attractive, then AutoCAD is a world beater.
Note that David is referring to working in VectorWorks with only one hand. I use two, and find VW faster at 2D drawings, even though I have a lot more experience with Autocad.
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In my book it is simple .... VW is less expensive, and just plain better, except for one big factor..... too many other people use ACAD. Although VW can import dwg files, it is not as smooth as using ACAD for all these websites that have furniture symbols, const details, plants, plug in software, etc.

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.... too many other people use ACAD.
Yes, that's the rub. And they're all so stubborn. There's something about using Autocad that alters the brain and makes it stubborn. All those variables with names like ACADLSPASDOC, ATTDIA, and AUDITCTL, and whether to make the text 6" high or 6 3/4" high, and the dimension ticks 3" or 3 1/2" to print correctly at the current scale. It drives you crazy.

And learning to do all that is such an ordeal, like learning the NY city sewer system by walking through the whole thing. It makes you think that learning another CAD package is going to be the same kind of ordeal, and you don't ever want to do that again.

So that's something to consider. Therapy for all your CAD operators.

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Note that David is referring to working in VectorWorks with only one hand.
I do use two hands, one to move the mouse and the other to scratch my head. I suspect that most of us are not as multi-dexterous as jan15.

And I liked those crazy variables. There's a subtle but noticeable difference between .110" and .125" text.

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See what I mean? All that craziness becomes a habit that people can't kick.

If using Autocad required hitting yourself in the head with a rubber mallet every 10 seconds, people would be complaining that VectorWorks doesn't have a mallet. They'd want to put it on the Wish List.

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Different paradigms. Different strengths and weaknesses. Almost impossible to compare rationally because different users will use different features and therefore have different opinions. Its all about fitness for purpose or what works best for what you want to do.

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Different paradigms. Different strengths and weaknesses. Almost impossible to compare rationally because different users will use different features and therefore have different opinions. Its all about fitness for purpose or what works best for what you want to do.

Mike, you're being too generous. AutoCAD has a couple of features, such as move and copy by vector, that VW lacks, but one simple fact puts VW way ahead in terms of productivity: it is not necessary to hit after every command. Add the 3d/2d interface that VW has mastered from very early on, and I find that my productivity in VW surpasses ACAD, which I used for 3 years, by a significant margin. Fortunately, I learned MiniCAD first and didn't have to deal with reconfiguring mental pathways. I find that most ACAD users have trouble at the conceptual level when learning VW.

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I find that most ACAD users have trouble at the conceptual level when learning VW.
A good point. AutoCAD is fairly simple to grasp: throw down a bunch of lines, then trim and fillet them, and you're done. I'm still having trouble learning Vectorworks' "add, clip, intersect, combine surfaces" or "compose" and "decompose." I have to stop and think about what they mean and which one I want to use.
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That's what I mean by a different paradigm. You have to adjust to the different ways of working. Once you are familiar with it and doing things without thinking about how to do them your speed will increase.

David there are a couple of third party options for Point to Point if you want it:

- VectorMove from Vectorbits: http://www.vectorbits.com/

- Pt2Pt Move and Pt2Pt Copy from the old section of VectorDepot: http://www.vectordepot.com/Plugins1.shtml

- Move and Duplicate/Multiple from the old section of VectorDepot: http://www.vectordepot.com/Plugins1.shtml

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Thanks Mike. I already have those point to point plug-ins, and don't need them as much as I expected. It's that paradigm thing, I guess.

As an aside, the rel. 12 User's Guide is such a vast improvement over that of rel. 11 that I actually enjoy using it. The index is complete; each command is clearly explained with excellent illustrations. It leaves no doubt as to how to use each command.

With the rel. 11 version of the guide, I was never sure if I understood what they were trying to say. Consequently, I had to do a lot of experimentation.

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  • 1 month later...

the 'faster' debate is probably un-solvable.

having come from autocad and microstation i'd say that if you want something that feels very solid and accurate and prefer to draw in lines, use acad, if you want to do new-build residential type plans with pretty fills and repetative symbols (and don't mind putting up with the near-constant resetting of inches to millimetres) use vectorworks.

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There are some things I could mention, but no chart - it also depends on what you do with the program. I'm a landscape architect, so my needs are different.

For example, I need to quickly and automatically extract data linked to symbols (blocks in ACAD), sort it, do some simple computations, and display it on the drawing. It's a fairly simple process in VectorWorks. Unless AutoCAD has drastically changed since I used it, there's no comparison.

I also find that the user interface in VectorWorks is easier than ACAD and requires less keystrokes/user input, resulting in less time spent telling the program what to do.

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