Save me from Autocad

[alanmac]

Hi

I need help from any listers or from people known to you with knowledge of Autocad, especially those who made the switch to Vectorworks, or still use both.

I apologies in advance for the length of this email but I need to get all the information across so as to maximize the help given. If it gets to be a problem for people I'll gladly deal on a personal email basis rather than the list.

I have worked as a Studio Manager for two years in a small exhibition design and construction company in the UK. We mainly design and build stands at trade shows. Previous to this I worked for 11 years, including this company, as a freelance exhibition stand and display designer.

Several years ago I took many months to search out the ideal CAD program to use for this type of work realizing my board based days were numbered and I needed to convert my hand drawn marker pen visuals into computer rendered images as this was the way presentation was going.

I was introduced to Vectorworks, or Minicad as it was known then and realized this was the ideal program for me. Relatively easy to learn, could create 3D designs as well as draughtings and was reasonably priced. Why pay in excess of ?3000 for a program when Vectorworks did as much and if not more in my opinion at not much more than the price of Autocad LT !!! I started with VW 8.5.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Vectorworks to be an industry standard amongst companies in our line of work. I know Autocad, Microstation has a presence but because of it's Mac based early background Vectorworks, I believe, became the favorite CAD program of creative designers.

When I worked for myself the program I used was never an issue, clients only got plans, elevations and visuals from me, never files. I was rarely asked to supply working (constructional) drawings although I can. I use Artlantis for the visuals, soon to change to Cinema 4D.

This was also true when I started employment again, and my original employer took me on with a view to introducing CAD etc. into their studio. As a graphic design as well as exhibition design company they had a Mac based studio. I, on the other hand had used Vectorworks in Windows. I now work with both platforms, Mac at work, Windows at home with no problem. We merged with a local competitor last year.

We sometimes, very occasionally get files from companies using Autocad and I've managed to open these without too many problems. We rarely send files to sub contractors for fabrication work but recently we did and a new member of staff in production created these in Autocad because the company doing the work for us uses Autocad and he had used it in his last position in a shop fitting company.

This unfortunately has created a chain of events were my MD is being persuaded by others within the company that we should be using Autocad, it's better, everybody else uses it, why are we doing two lots of drawings etc, etc.

A meeting is scheduled next week to discuss the company infrastructure and I want to go to this meeting with the reasons why we should continue to use Vectorworks as opposed to Autocad.

Why can't I learn Autocad was one comment. Quite frankly I'd rather choose another career or employer than work with that program.

The annoying thing is up until now we have only done and been asked to do drawings for the purposes of presentation, the production department wanting to do their own hand drawn 1:10 scale drawings/setting out themselves.

What I need is strong reasons why Vectorworks should be our program of choice. I don't know that much about Autocad and I don't really want to know much about it, it's interface looks dated, confusing and cumbersome compared to Vectorworks. It seems to me these programs come from the following train of thought - you draught in Autocad, you "design" in Vectorworks.

I know the obvious price, the VW Viewer advantages and the fact we have studio Macs. Also am I right in thinking that you cannot create reports, spreadsheets of parts etc as you can in VW so to create estimates quotes etc. This would help greatly with our modular display system of which I have created many symbols but not created and linked these to description, records yet.

What I don't need is a meaningless rant about Autocad. Practical and valid reasons to put to my total technology inept MD please. Sites and links if you feel these will help. The ease and compatibility of dwg/dxf export and import to cover any requirement for Autocad files.

Once again I apologies for this emails length and thank you all for your tolerance and postings in advance. Lets make sure any new licenses purchased are VW ones!

[prosado]

Reasons to stick with VectorWorks:

1) Price: VectorWorks is half the price of AutoCAD

2) VectorWorks can produce Spreadsheets, cutsheets, material estimates, material lists, integrated 3D rendering (w/ RenderWords), scriptable, and superior Import/Export options

3) AutoCAD is NOT Mac compatible!

4) If your company did decide to switch to Autocad they can expect to pay for each new Windows based machine in addition to each AutoCAD program or site license in the office. (that pretty much kills your bottom line as a company... profit)

5) In addition to the new computers, your company may as well hire a new IT division to handle all the problems that are associated with Windows based machines. Apple computers are more stable... particularly the new G4 and G5's.

6) AutoCAD isn't terribly stable.

I hope that helps a little.

[prosado]

P.S. Don't forget the training everyone will have to go through to become acclimated to the new program!... more production time lost.

[etweed]

I can attest to prosado's points. When we switched from mostly macs to mostly pc's, we had to hire an IT Person full-time (not cheap). And as pointed out in his item 4), we pay thousands per year for liscensing. Our company size is <100 people with less than half having autocad or microstation

Futhermore, I cringe at having to learn commands.

I have not had any problems dealing with autocad files. They import properly almost all the time, and the few times I have problems, I have been able to fix them.

I am not sure if it still applies, as it has been a while for me, but I would rather have classes named Contours or Woodsline than 54 or 32. Especially for someone new to my drawing.

et