Why my CADD is better than AuoCAD

Two words: Workspace Configuration.

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Bingo! I just thought about this issue. This week, I was swamped with production work. But our AutoCAD license server kept turning itself off, and then, one of the guys from one of our other offices was platooned to our office for an AutoCAD project. So on three different days, he was on three different PC's. So on day 1, I had to run my special programs to configure Civil 3D to see our customizations. Had he been working in MicroStation, he would have simply launched from the standard icon.

Day 2 he gets moved to a new PC. Repeat process. Day 3 new PC - but deadlines were at this point at critical mass - so he was forced to work with OTB software.

AutoCAD is an absolute beast. The "slowness" is an absolute production killer (I cringe when people use the word Production in this business, as we're not exactly standing at work stations in a factory pumping out X number of units per hour, but that's another topic). I can't count how many times I sat there 'til 9:00 PM watching that blue circle spinning. It can easily take 3 or 4 times as long to do something in AutoCAD as it does Microstation. Heck, even worse sometimes. And don't even get me started on the Crashing...

Can't beat AutoCAD's key-ins though, huh?

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Just to note that many AutoCad keyin commands can be used in the MicroStation keyin dialog just by typing in DWG before the command.

eg. DWG CIRCLE starts up the Place Circle tool in MicroStation

docs.bentley.com/.../ustnhelp1075.html

Mstn also has keyins both new and old ones ..and the old ones still work especially the ones on page 3 place xxx

to make them work in v8i you need to keyin p, then the command eg place a 50 mu  circle by radius 

the keyin is P,PCIRR;50

the first P is for primative (I think)  the , p for place, cir for circle , r for by radius , and ;50 is what value radius

take a look at the pdf page for more place  commands these also work very well in F keys or waiting for values  by using the unterminated  commands 

see action strings in help file

There are also more keyins in the latest version see help but they are very long  you can add custom short keys to accudraw too...

But I dont bother much nowdays as the icons are so quick  where as in old days graphics slowed the pc down alot...

also  look inside mstn for search  ?menu*.dgn  with explorer  there is the old ver 5  one which has the keyins for the old digitiser tablet and a lot of these still work like place circle tangent to 3 points  if pasted into Fkeys menu

Years ago, when I was in production,  and our bonus pay was calculated on then number of error-free drawings we got out.  So, yes, there is such a thing a production when it comes to CAD.  Especially in the services industry.  :-)

Years ago, when I was in production,  and our bonus pay was calculated on then number of error-free drawings we got out.  So, yes, there is such a thing a production when it comes to CAD.  Especially in the services industry.  :-)

OK, here comes the inverse...

I really like the labeling tools of Civil 3D. It is similar to the Custom Codes portion of InRoads Survey, except it is 100% dynamic. And I like the Profile and Cross Section View objects. After they are placed, you can change the settings (think preferences) and they update. And if the alignment changes, they update to reflect the changes.

For a downside, you must be in the product to edit these either in a live project or a DWT template. Making changes to XIN files saves me many hours and keeps licenses free for production. I pray they do not change this anytime soon. Plus I use XML reports with the results saved to Excel to help analyze many settings in the XML files. I could only dream of having that capability for Civil 3D.

doesn't matter what drawing board you use. what matters is how you use it ...

We support both platforms. There are pros and cons for each in their functionality (or lack thereof). But, when it comes to CAD management it's not even close, MicroStation wins by a landslide. Two of the biggest reasons are dgnlibs and workspaces.

Have you ever had to tweak the color or line style of one of your standard levels? MicroStation is no problem, just update the dgnlib, and put it on the server. In AutoCAD you update the template file, but there is no automatic sync option. when you do apply updates from a template, any layer being used in the dwg file does not get updated. Same goes for Civil 3D styles.

What about changing/adding a workspace variable? In MicroStation you push out the updated config file. AutoCAD has profiles which you can update but the profile includes the MicroStation site,project,user, and interface settings in one package. Pushing out a new profile blows away any individual user preference type settings.

Plus, even if you have a shortcut that tries to load a full path profile, it will do nothing unless the profile within the program with the same name has been deleted.

IMHO, AutoCAD seems to be setup to run as a one man band. And when you post on the various forums out there, many of the responses seem to suggest someone who does not work in large workgroups. MicroStation's roots in IGDS have supported networks and large workgroups from day 1 and that pedigree is apparent to this day.  

Unknown said:

IMHO, AutoCAD seems to be setup to run as a one man band. And when you post on the various forums out there, many of the responses seem to suggest someone who does not work in large workgroups. MicroStation's roots in IGDS have supported networks and large workgroups from day 1 and that pedigree is apparent to this day.  

I agree completely.