Autodesk AEC Collection vs. DraftSight vs. Hubdoc

If you are a commercial contractor or subcontractor, Autodesk AEC Collection, along with other Autodesk software is a must. There is no other way to design estimate and plan large construction. For residential construction, It may not be as necessary but it could still be useful if your primary construction projects are new builds rather than renovations.

Incentivized

2D design work

3D design work

Large area (500m²+) analysis and assessment

From product design, including production drawings to lay out of large (10m x 1m footprint) layouts DraftSight is a cost effective solution providing all appropriate interfaces for BIM.

The level of detail during rendering (while it can be slow) is good for visualization and for use in installation and training materials

Incentivized

When I am out purchasing items for my business I can quickly take photos of receipts and upload via the app and not have to worry if I lose or damage a receipt. This is very handy for me. Hubdoc also allows me to get all my invoices, payments and statements to my bookkeeper very easily which saves me money and time. I only use Hubdoc for business purposes which is where I feel it is most suitable. I probably wouldn't use it for personal stuff as I don't track personal that strictly.

Incentivized

• Collaboration with multiple users and
• Software for Computer Assisted Design
• Saving and Documentation of Plans and Blueprints

Incentivized

• You can easily bring in a dwg format drawing into the programme and it will display the information just as well as AutoCAD.
• The programme supports shortcut features or one-click buttons for the most commonly used operations.
• Script files can be used which is a bonus.

Incentivized

• Extracts data from documents both from a feed and a scan really quick.
• Availability of automated feeds directly from the supplier.
• Integration with accounting software e.g. Xero (now owned by them) and QBO.
• Ability to auto-archive to many different cloud storage locations such as Google Drive and ShareFile.

Incentivized

• Revit is limited in its use for civil engineering and landscape architecture.
• There are bugs due to the complex nature of the software.
• Use of software requires the latest high-tech computers.

Incentivized

• The text search and replace is very crude and barely works. Needs a major revamping.
• The layout tabs are very clunky and hard to use. Needs to be fixed.
• DraftSight will fix a problem in one version, mess it up in another version, then fix it again later on. And so forth, and so forth, and so forth. Very poor software update control.

Incentivized

• Although it is great that they can automatically get bank statements and transactions once linked, these links have been very unreliable historically.
• Figuring out how to set up the automatic feed is cumbersome. You can land up being inundated with useless transaction data.
• you have to upload each document separately. The program cannot differentiate/split PDFs.

Incentivized

I gave a rating of 10 because, thus far, Autodesk AEC Collection Seems to be on the leading edge for what is required for the construction planning, implementation, and continued of real-world assets. Autodesk has been a great benefit for our organization and has allowed us to continue to improve not only ourselves but the people we work with. We have been using Autodesk AEC Collection for a number of years and hope to continue for a long time coming.

Incentivized

It has given us, a small startup, the ability to compete effectively with far larger competitors by evening the playing field at a low cost.

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The software has a significant learning curve. You also must know and understand construction standards and codes. Each member of our BIM team has spent 10+ years in construction and has had years of software training. The software also requires powerful computers to render the models. Without a BIM focused gpu and processor, the software will seem less usable when in reality, the computer is not capable of running the software properly

Incentivized

Easy if you know how to use CAD software. But is not very difficult to learn using DraftSight if this is your first CAD software. As soon as you get in to it the work flow will save you a lot of time and its simple interface is very nice.

Incentivized

I think this is one of the easiest apps to use on both mobile and desktop. Once it was all set up by my bookkeeper all I needed to do was upload things. I recall the set up being quite simple and we've only made a few small changes over the years.

Incentivized

Other than a bug created by a VAR tech support that didn't get resolved until I installed the next version, DraftSight has worked fine.

In general it's very quick to load drawings...now it depends a lot on the file we're opening or working on.

Incentivized

Technical support seems to be overseas with broken English and difficulty to read English. I asked for a trial license to try the fix but it was declined. Ask pratiksha.dahotre and gayatri.keskar for details. In summary, they released a broken version, I helped to fix by providing feedback and error logs. They claimed it is fixed but I can't test it.

At the time we implemented Hubdoc (more than 2 years ago) it was quite cutting edge and did have strong advances from the competition plus its pricing was definitely more competitive (flat rate vs price per data extraction model). However, currently the competition has caught up and now many of Hubdoc's core features are being built into online accounting software natively.

Incentivized

Based on some knowledge of AutoCad, using Draftsight took a short time before I felt comfortable using it.

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Take time to get used to where commands are and how the interface can be customized to suit your needs and work style. The keyboard commands are very helpful and can make work more efficient if time is taken to learn them.

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Other products that have been used include Civil Designer and Model Maker for civil services. Other products for structural designs include aq product called "SEDA" These products are not included in the listings.

Incentivized

While SketchUp is free, DraftSights cost is minimal and its abilities are much greater. It is so much easier to layout and modifies a system design. Since DraftSight is compatible with all versions of CAD, it makes it easy to collaborate with customers on their specific system design. We spend less time and see greater sales on our projects.

We did not get far into evaluating other solutions we were looking at because Hubdoc came highly recommended from peers, coupled with Xero and Gusto. The cost for Thompson-Reuters is high. We quickly honed in on Hubdoc due to cost and recommendation and are very glad that we did.

Incentivized

It's a typical contract for cad software. It was inexpensive at the time I started. But now the more useful features are on the more premium (priced) version.

As a startup, we really appreciate scalable software or tools, and because we use it for diverse types of projects, flexibility is key.

Incentivized

Quite responsive when I have an issue, and with little to no delay in responding. They are professional and know the software so have been able to solve all of the issues that I have had with both using the software and also with making revisions as required. Non-technical issues like invoices have also been resolved quickly.

Incentivized

• Positive impact on collaboration between disciplines.
• Products are the industry standard, which allows for collaboration with other firms.

Incentivized

• Draftsight has been very cost effective, it was free a few years ago then £79 a year, which it still is if you have the standard version. Now the minium level is Profession edition at £159+ VAT per year. Which is still very good value for money, just more that what we currently pay with the standard licences we have.

Incentivized

• We are processing much faster than expected
• Clients are getting receipts in faster and allowing us not to stalk them to process their banking
• It is a file for us besides attaching to the invoice we also have the history of bills/receipts in Hubdoc

Incentivized