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The future of AutoCAD

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Re: The future of AutoCAD

#61

Post by vetinari »

21 wrote: post #52
specialist wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The road to Sausalito is littered with the corpses of AutoCAD challengers. Generic CADD was pretty good. Bought and shut down. I also remember Visual CAD (which I don't think is the same Visual CAD a quick google search is turning up). I forget who bought them. There's a zillion others I no longer remember. Unbelievably, as bad as AutoCAD is/was, Bentley Systems' MicroStation was a hellspawn of turrible. I've never r…

> I've never really understood how AutoCAD and Office maintained their dominance. Joel Spolsky explained it: most users use only 20% of the app. But each user uses a DIFFERENT 20%. Thus you won't go nowhere until you are almost at feature parity, because everybody will have one little thing you didn't implement, but which is critical for them.

Often it doesn't help even if you are way beyond feature parity. More often than not, it is a simple inertia, not some rational thought enumerating features.

Re: The future of AutoCAD

#62

Post by 7952 »

specialist wrote: post #14
Jamerson wrote: post #2

AutoCAD is vast, recursive, and bloated. I really hope someone comes out with a lightweight version that does less, better.

The road to Sausalito is littered with the corpses of AutoCAD challengers. Generic CADD was pretty good. Bought and shut down. I also remember Visual CAD (which I don't think is the same Visual CAD a quick google search is turning up). I forget who bought them. There's a zillion others I no longer remember. Unbelievably, as bad as AutoCAD is/was, Bentley Systems' MicroStation was a hellspawn of turrible. I've never r…

I think people get into the habit of presenting their software as uniquely capable. And wrapping up their own skills in that particular software. It is similar to a young programmer assuming that Perl (for example) is uniquely capable. In truth talent tends to transcend packages and other factors like ecosystem come in to play.

A talented CAD technician would be useful using pen and a drawing board. We are just not very good at selling those more inate qualities. It is just easier to just sell yourself as an AutoCAD driver.

Of course these sort of packages take a long time to learn, and you are much more productive using something you know. And people adapt their mental model to a particular package. So there is often little obvious point in changing software.

Re: The future of AutoCAD

#63

Post by godzillabrennus »

zmix wrote: post #39

I hate webapps. What will happen to scripting, application automation? Just have a look, how dumbed down most webapps are when compared to their desktop parts or similare programs as desktop version.

I hate desktop applications. They take a long time to install, they have local file storage that requires me to spend time backing the data up, they eat up disk space on my computer system, they aren't accessible to me if I need to use another computer system, they need to be manually patched and updated, and if I am dependent on them they could restrict my choice of operating system on my desktop.

Web apps aren't perfect either but they have a lot of value to offer users.

Re: The future of AutoCAD

#64

Post by mathnode »

Something similar existed years ago with ME10 running on HPUX. Many similar things existed. Workflows centrally hosted, on site, with terminals or workstation clients. Literally many engineers could work on a single drawing or design and individually created or updated. And of course the updates would synchronise between clients.

Nix hosted, colloborative workflows. What is old is new again.

Personal Computer software like Solidworks or Maya might seem "cool" or cheaper; I once made money as a contractor recreating what companies lost from older solutions and refused to pay for from platforms like Catia. These frustrating paradigms are not excuslive to CAD or DCC.

So many designers and architects I know still use pen and paper more than software, I am not sure if the tooling advancements in PC hosted software has outweighed what was lost in centralised, transaction backed, collaborative workflows.

Re: The future of AutoCAD

#65

Post by LifeLiverTransp »

takk309 wrote: post #57
fsloth wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"MicroStation was a hellspawn" I think you mean is a hellspawn. I think they still have a solid foothold in some sectors.

Sadly I have to work in one of the sectors. It is very common for geometric design of roadways. I think it is a result of State Departments of Transportation buying into the system and never wanting to change.

The only way to change that- is to actually pretend alternatives are not used- meaning they have to mimick the output exactly- even the flaws. Then after 5 years or so- the department anounces- oh- and by the way, we completely replaced xyz.

Re: The future of AutoCAD

#66

Post by [deleted] »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #63
zmix wrote: post #39

I hate webapps. What will happen to scripting, application automation? Just have a look, how dumbed down most webapps are when compared to their desktop parts or similare programs as desktop version.

I hate desktop applications. They take a long time to install, they have local file storage that requires me to spend time backing the data up, they eat up disk space on my computer system, they aren't accessible to me if I need to use another computer system, they need to be manually patched and updated, and if I am dependent on them they could restrict my choice of operating system on my desktop. Web apps aren't pe…

[deleted]

Re: The future of AutoCAD

#67

Post by specialist »

gosubpl wrote: post #24
specialist wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The road to Sausalito is littered with the corpses of AutoCAD challengers. Generic CADD was pretty good. Bought and shut down. I also remember Visual CAD (which I don't think is the same Visual CAD a quick google search is turning up). I forget who bought them. There's a zillion others I no longer remember. Unbelievably, as bad as AutoCAD is/was, Bentley Systems' MicroStation was a hellspawn of turrible. I've never r…

What about Intellicad ( https://www.intellicad.org/ )? It seems to be pretty popular among engineers. It reads DWG/DXF (AutoCad format) pretty well. The software itself goes by various names, because Intellicad itself is a consortium. For a nominal fee, you get access to the codebase and can release your own version with your own brand. The thing is shared source, so as a consortium member you need to contribute your…

Thanks. That looks bitchin. Will check it out.

Looking at its stock UI, I'm reminded of one of my basic grievances with CADD of the AutoCAD model:

I hate layers.

When doing architectural plans, which layer does the electric water heater go onto? 'ELECT', 'PLUMB', or a special case 'ELECT-PLUMB'?

Much better would be something set based. (Today we'd probably call them tags.) Instead of toggling visibility, views should be queries.

Re: The future of AutoCAD

#68

Post by bluedino »

fsloth wrote: post #48
bluedino wrote: post #38

You would think, if you wrote a hosted CAD program that ran on large compute instances in AWS, you'd really lock the market down. No more buying expensive CAD workstations, way less graphics drivers, just fire it up. Need more power? Just pay more each month/day/hour. Plus you could host all your giant CAD files in the cloud, no more buying storage and easier to share across remote teams.

The hardware is cheap nowadays compared to the software. Any sub-1k dollar/euro PC will handle most things one would use Autocad for. It's the software that is expensive.

Not if you’re doing 3D. ISV certified laptop with GPU and enough RAM is going to be $2,000

Re: The future of AutoCAD

#70

Post by arbie »

kalleboo wrote: post #69
cpeterso wrote: post #17

AutoCAD "Web" is Chrome-only: "Unsupported Browser. The AutoCAD web app is currently only supported by an up-to-date version of 64-bit Google Chrome on Windows or Mac." https://web.autocad.com/

Chrome is the new IE

If IE received monthly updates and had one of the fastest JavaScript engines around, it would still be the dominant browser.
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