Item: AutoCAD
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with AutoCAD

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

AutoCAD is a must-have tool for any engineer and more so if that engineer is a civil engineer or is involved in construction/project management. At my company, this tool is used across a very wide range of departments. It is used to create/edit and use drawings for different projects.

Pros and Cons

Pros

AutoCAD has so many add-ins which take care of most of your design needs and what you need to show.
It has different variances for different range of users and is very customizable.

Cons

AutoCAD is a very useful tool but it can be very complicated to use, the help menus can improve.
Maybe having different modes for different range of experience, experienced, beginner, novice, etc. would be great for efficiency and learning experience.

Return on Investment

It is very big ROI as without it, it's near impossible to get such a detailed view of each feature in the minutest detail which needs to be represented at a construction site.

Alternatives Considered

Navisworks

I can't really think of any tool which even comes near to what AutoCAD and its related products provide. Any product which I might think of is provided by AutoDesk anyway (the maker of AutoCAD). Navisworks probably comes a bit near but is not exactly used for the same purpose. If visualizations could happen in AutoCAD in 3D, it would make the tool like a one-stop-shop and remove the need for Navisworks.

Support Rating

I give this rating to truly reflect the utility of this tool as a weapon in the armory of every engineer who is out there to create something for generations to wow at. Being a civil engineer by education, I can appreciate the tool's complexity and utility which cannot be provided by any other tool in the market.

Key Insights

Do you think AutoCAD delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with AutoCAD's feature set?

Yes

Did AutoCAD live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of AutoCAD go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy AutoCAD again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

AutoCAD is suited for making any civil, mechanical, instrumental drawing or P&ID and is indispensable for construction projects. It is probably less suitable for relatively simpler projects. for the bigger projects, you usually need a person drafter fully dedicated to working through the tool, creating and editing drawings. It is a skill and an art to use AutoCAD.

Comments

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