AutoCAD - A master at what it's good at
November 28, 2018
AutoCAD - A master at what it's good at
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with AutoCAD
AutoCAD is used by all trades in my office (mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection) for the design of tenant renovation projects, new construction, and other construction jobs. It allows us to show diagrammatically how we want all of our piping, ductwork, sprinklers, electrical panels, etc. to be constructed in each space.
- It has a great tool pallet so each project can use the same symbols to create a consistent product.
- It has good options when it comes to styling different layers with different colors, linetypes, thicknesses, etc.
- The ability to insert and reference other AutoCAD drawings for coordination works well.
- When it comes to plumbing design, creating riser diagrams or any sort of 3D diagram can be extremely tedious and time consuming.
- There aren't many "smart" aspects to AutoCAD so if something changes, it's all manual from there.
- Some architects can put too many different objects on the same layers. If you have objects that are distinctly different on the same layers, it can get very time consuming to figure out what should go where and separate everything.
- It allows us to create permit level construction drawings for all of our projects.
- Because all trades are drawn in separate files, if something isn't coordinated correctly it can be easy to miss a conflict which can cause change orders and/or RFIs
AutoCAD is one of the original go-to programs for construction documents. It is great when you're using it in the right application. Our company does a lot of smaller tenant renovations in our city so using AutoCAD allows us to produce a high volume of quality drawings to be submitted and reviewed for construction permits.