AutoCAD Review
April 02, 2019
AutoCAD Review
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with AutoCAD
AutoCAD is used extensively by our firm in all departments. We are a consulting engineering firm, and many of our clients require 2D drawings to be done in AutoCAD. This allows for the easy integration of various disciplines and, a lot of the time, different firms, to easily combine/overlay their respective models without having to use BIM.
- Easy to use.
- Used by virtually every consulting firm.
- Offers a lot of the same functionality as Microsoft products.
- Easily able to have different viewport scales on the same sheet.
- It is a memory hog. You need a decent amount of RAM for AutoCAD to function smoothly. This is especially the case when multiple instances are open.
- Referencing other models needs work. It should be more like MicroStation's referencing.
- It is required by many clients, so we have no choice.
I use both regularly, and AutoCAD has its pros and its cons versus MicroStation. Its pros are: that it functions like Microsoft (tables, auto-format text for lists, running spell check, etc.), is used by a lot more people, and more people know how to use it (it is typically taught in college).
Its cons are: it consumes a ton of memory, is not used for most government jobs, and the way reference files are used. MicroStation takes up very little memory, so you can have multiple instances open at once, most government agencies (DOT, FAA, etc.) require MicroStation to be used, and the references in MicroStation are much easier to manipulate.
Its cons are: it consumes a ton of memory, is not used for most government jobs, and the way reference files are used. MicroStation takes up very little memory, so you can have multiple instances open at once, most government agencies (DOT, FAA, etc.) require MicroStation to be used, and the references in MicroStation are much easier to manipulate.