AutoCAD 360 - A Strong Software Finding New Ways to Become Relevant
March 29, 2017
AutoCAD 360 - A Strong Software Finding New Ways to Become Relevant
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with AutoCAD 360
AutoCAD 360 is used primarily in our Metal Framing Corporate Business Unit and Metal Framing Construction Units. Our team of Engineers use this product to interface with customers who haven't adopted BIM software, creating template files for application uses, creating construction drawings which can be viewed on-site with the use of a tablet, and it may also be used to import/export select files.
Pros
- When working with files, implemented shortcuts greatly improve engineering efficiency.
- Processing Speed - Historically AutoCAD hasn't been processing models as quickly but in recent years you can see a dramatic improvement.
- Interfacing with Mobile Devices - Great mobile application which makes 3D drawings available to contractors. 2D doesn't tell the full story as would a sophisticated model.
Cons
- While the processing speed has dramatically increased, the 3D capability of the program is a bit difficult to use. It still lacks the true speed of some native 3D software.
- Relating to the above, cutting sections and elevations could provide a better output for drawings.
- Many clients still use AutoCAD - one of these projects we work on would give us our return on our investment.
- On the product engineering side however, it is more a necessity to have though we cannot accurately track our return on investment. We need to stay compliant with AutoCAD to create files that you not only can export into Revit but also Solidworks, Inventor, and many other tools.
The best thing about AutoCAD is that it can create a Universal Output for any related software, irrelevant if it was created by Autodesk. Just about any software can interface with dwg or dxf file types to name a few. AutoCAD doesn't have a direct 1:1 that's comparable in my view. It is brilliant for linework but there are better tools for product engineering (Inventor/Solidworks), 3D modeling (SketchUp, 3DS Max), rendering (3DS Max, Maxwell) and linework manipulation for presentation (Illustrator) because they have the related toolbelts. AutoCAD is not a master of any of this but you can certainly create solid output. The mobile capabilities have elevated AutoCAD in the last couple years.
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