autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
(OP)
autocad14 served/serves us adequate. but winXP will be dropped from the support list. it is time to upgrade autocad14. any suggestion which is the best choice for a basically 2D house?
thanks.
thanks.





RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
However once you have gone through the learning curve with a 3D parametric program, you will not go back.
My progression over the years was AutoCAD 14, AutoCAD 2002 to 2006, then Inventor 4, then Solidworks 2003 to 2009,then Alibre ,now Geomagic.
B.E.
You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
$1000 to upgrade a 4+ year old machine vs who knows how much for Autodesk License.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
You ask a question but give exactly zero information needed to answer the question (at least with the choices presented in your question). In fact, going ONLY on the information you have given, the best answer would be neither, stick with AutoCAD.
You might want to supply more information if your intention is to take that "basically 2D house" into the 21 century of 2D from 3D.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
1) we make simple part, simple assembly drawings.
2) our vendors use 2D drawings.
3) so, 14 is good enough.
4) winXP is not longer supported by microsoft in coming year.
5) as heard, 14 is not 100% compatible with win7.
6) so, we have to upgrade autocad14.
7) autocad+inventor, ~$5,000 a seat.
8) but solidW has a big user base.
9) should we go solidworks?
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
Are you ready to move into the 3D world?
If you only do 2D, maybe all you need is AutoCAD LT (much cheaper).
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
Not sure how good they are as I have not worked in 2D for a while but probably worth a look.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
Solidworks is a wonderful tool for solid modeling, but I find its drawing editor counter-intuitive and irritating. It would be less irritating if you could turn off most of the automatic behaviors that try to anticipate your next move. It's like having an industrious but incompetent personal assistant who keeps running interference for you, and tripping you while doing it.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
also, for simple drawings (not a couple mb ones) Draftsight is also sufficient. it will hurt you though that it doesn't have any mechanical features, which come in handy. and it won't tolerate extremely big drawings, blocks etc (measured in megabytes).
but it's free.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
as said we do simple detail parts and assembly. 2D served/serves us adequate. but people tell me, even so, we need to move to 3D. it will save time even we need to produce all 2D for QA, vendors....
any comment?
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
There is a learning curve you will need to buy new software and almost certainly new hardware and there is always the question of existing drawings.
Getting a VAR in to do a demo is a good idea and while you are at it time them doing a typical product against one of your guys doing it in 2D. That would give a good starting point to compare the two and then factor in cost and training.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
They both do the job and great for 2 d work.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
A while back someone figured out the world is not flat.
3D is the single source of truth.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
I don't know if that is a "smoking deal" or not.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
If you are happy and productive with R14, you may be greatly annoyed by the way newer (2000-up) versions of AutoCAD get in your way. This is partly due to the way Windows does things, and partly due to a series of questionable UI improvements within the Windows series of AutoCADs.
In your circumstance, I'd try real hard to get R14 running in whatever compatibility box you can find under recent versions of Windows. Even with a layer or two of indirection, DOS programs should run like the wind on modern hardware.
Only if that doesn't work out would I buy something like AutoCAD LT.
($600 is a pretty good price for it.)
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
Law is the common force organized to act as an obstacle of injustice Frédéric Bastiat
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
Progecad is another alternative that will run and function with near 100% compatibility. It will seem much smoother than Bricscad for daily use, and will do FINE for normal 2-D piece parts AND assemblies. Advantage to PROGECAD is that its VERY smooth, looks identical to the current "classic" ACAD interface, including toolbars, Icons AND internal dialog boxes like the PLOT dialog and the Properties dialog, and the OPTIONS dialog. It will run your autolisp routines, VB routines, etc, with the same caveat as the Bricscad one, above, and really for all practical purposes where you're concerned, may meet all your needs. You might find it a smoother transitional program to use while figuring out your final solutions over the next couple of years though, than either Bricscad or MODERN Autocad. Main weakness of PROGECAD is that its 3D isn't as robust as AutoCAD's or even Bricscad's, but its good, and may be sufficient for you to begin to experiment with early 3D while you're successfully producing 2D content. PROGECAD does true ACAD-Like 3D (including Booleans), and its 3D ACIS components go in and out of ACAD 3D with no noticeable problems.
Bricscad's 3D is more robust than PROGECAD's, and you might like its results better, but this may not be enough to tilt the question in favor of Bricscad over PROGECAD.
BOTH are good alternatives to AutoCAD, and FULL COMMERCIAL LICENSES can be had for either, in the $500 price range, with $1000 - $1500 for top-tier "Platinum" versions of either. I think PROGECAD doesn't go as high as $1500, but your research will tell you more than I can in this post.
Both offer excellent user support.
Both read and write DWG with full 100% compatibility, as far as I've been able to determine, ESPECIALLY in 2D parts and assemblies.
Both run JUST FINE in Windows-7, 32 or 64 bit.
AutoCAD is far more expensive, and actually may not meet YOUR need, especially for the price. However, that may not necessarily disqualify it as an alternative to consider as you plan your near, mid and long - term strategies. For instance, native ACAD 3D is very strong, and doesn't carry the burdens of parametric 3D as in Solid Works and Inventor. Alternatively, Pramatric 3D (Iv & S-W, etc) offers great potential return in automation of 3D production, drawing output and future changes and edits. If you decide to move into a SERIOUS use of 3D you may want to consider that avenue.
For now, 2D can be WELL achieved by ACAD, Bricscad and PROGECAD as outlined above, with the advantages and limitations as mentioned. Basic robust 3D can be achieved using ACAD. Basic strong 3D can be achieved with Bricscad, and Basic good very useable 3D with PROGECAD. The 3D-to-2D tools for converting the 3D component into 2D views work similarly in all 3, with some minor limitations, but all 3 are good.
Finally, there may be other AutoCAD workalikes that are even closer to AutoCAD than these two. These are the two I'm familiar with, and thus are the two I suggest starting your searches with. Any of them will give you a free trial period, and both are worthy inexpensive alternatives to AutoCAD.
BTW- Anyone truly familiar with ACAD r-14 AND Win-XP and ACAD 2D Production, would have known EXACTLY what your working goals and limitations are, and would have been able to answer your initial question as posted.
Good luck in your search, and Please post back with progress and lessons learned along the way ?
As always - proceed with caution !
-C.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
but it doesn't have all the specifics that acad mech has (part library
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
That's a very good point, and may make the tilt toward AutoCAD important to consider. If my budget would allow it that would probably be MY first choice.
Both Bricscad & Progecad have libraries that may help fill the need. Any libraries you've constructed in your ACAD-14 will work with most any mature ACAD workalike, including the two I've mentioned. Others to consider might be IRONCAD, GSTARCAD, DOUBLECAD, and others. There are varying levels of sophistication, depending on the product, and some research will be in order. Draftsight may be just the ticket. Compare its strengths and weaknesses with the others. Be careful, tho- ACAD-LT workalikes may be limited in similar ways as ACAD-LT itself, and may look promising, but may not fit your mid to long term plans. It might be reasonable to settle on one package for general production (especially with cost savings "per seat") and another more robust package for experimenting with 3D.
THEN if you decide to, a budget might allow deeper exploration of 3D. Alibre is a capable smaller brother to AutoDESK Inventor, or Solid Works. Both are strong upper-mid tier products, but carry a "Proud" price tag + subscription ... Most users I've had contact with who are strong with both, prefer the capabilities of Inventor and its approach to component and assemblly modeling and drawing production, but Either of the two are worth considering. Alibre might be a place to start if your 3D exploration leads you toward parametric. If not, AutoCAD is capable of some STRONG 3D, and some of the workalikes, while not AS robust as AutoCAD, offer some real 3D capabilities worth considering.
All of that having been said, since for the foreseeable future your efforts are going to continue in 2D, those considerations will take precedence.
Good luck and let us know how it goes ?
And of course, as always, proceed with caution !
- C.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
You should be aware that Alibre/ Geomagic whilst currently priced lower than AutoCAD and Solidworks, has been increasing in price as the program gets more popular.
B.E.
You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.
RE: autocad14 upgrading to inventor or solidworks
Due to a job that just came up, I had to re-install AutoCAD 2002 back onto my computer, It is running just fine on a WIN 7 32bit system.
B.E.
You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.