Why my CADD is better than AuoCAD

This started in a thread in the annotation forum and someone suggested this topic, so as one who likes trowing rocks at bee hives, I took up the baton and am going to kick this off.

  • Can you reference the paperspace into another paperspace or a model?
  • Can you reference a file to itself?
  • Can you create multiple models in a single file?
  • Can you display linetypes on 3D polylines?
  • Can you create linetypes that represent real world objects and do not scale with Annotation scale?

Later, after others have added to this list, I will post AutoCAD features that I like that MicroStation does not offer...

Who's next?

Parents
  • 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.


    Charles (Chuck) Rheault
    CADD Manager

    MDOT State Highway Administration

    • MicroStation user since IGDS, InRoads user since TDP.
    • AutoCAD, Land Desktop and Civil 3D, off and on since 1996
  • The old Element selector would deselect if you clicked in space. To get the same behavior from Power Selector, set your mode, on the second row in the tool settings dialog box to New (Esc - H). All of the top row icons will work like that.

    If you leave the Power Selector set to using Individual + New and use of the Ctrl key to add or remove to the selection set, it is very similar to a selection process in many graphics programs


    Charles (Chuck) Rheault
    CADD Manager

    MDOT State Highway Administration

    • MicroStation user since IGDS, InRoads user since TDP.
    • AutoCAD, Land Desktop and Civil 3D, off and on since 1996
  • WOW! after 1.5yrs! is all that documented? Radical - thanks!

  • I know how to deselect.  What I am saying is that while ESC key works one way in about 98% of all other Microsoft Window OS Software, Bently has set up Microstation so that it does NOT work in that manner.  That is not meeting customer satisfaction nor expectation.  Perhaps each time I hit only the "T" key, it should type a "P" instead? Hmm.  But wait, in Microstation, if you hit your right mouse button + CTRL + T then left click twice in open drawing space, it will type a "T" - well sheesh...why don't we do that then?  It is simple, all you need is training to learn it - duh.

  • I learned MicroStation long before I really used AutoCAD. But now, I use both regularly, often Alt+Tab'ing between the two as I put out one fire while working on another task.

    When I return from an AutoCAD session, I sometimes find myself trying to key in commands - which I do sometimes do in MicroStation, but then I get to the end on my key-in and press the space bar and get frustrated when nothing happens.

    Alternatively, I get into AutoCAD after a long run of MicroStation and I keep wanting my commands to remain active and get frustrated when  I have to press the extra enter or space bar just to get a command to repeat.

    This also reminds me of my transition from years of Word Perfect to Microsoft Word and how I still miss the Reveal Codes feature. Or the first time I tried to use PowerPoint after using the DOS based Harvard Graphics. I still crack a smile when I think about how my assistant at the time, Greg, was as fumbled fingered as I was. We jokingly referred to it as the "Chuck & Greg" show. But in no time at all, we had developed a workflow and made a pretty reasonable presentation. But then they applied a template to it after we submitted it and the template screwed up a bunch of slides anyway!

    For many of us long time MicroStation users, changing some of these behaviors would be maddening.

    But don't try to tell me that AutoCAD's Grips tools are just like most other software selection handles.

    Bottom line, every program has its idiosyncrasies and if you need to work in a program, the more you learn, the more productive and valuable you will be.

    I knew this thread would be fun!  


    Charles (Chuck) Rheault
    CADD Manager

    MDOT State Highway Administration

    • MicroStation user since IGDS, InRoads user since TDP.
    • AutoCAD, Land Desktop and Civil 3D, off and on since 1996
  • Great - BeCommunities beginning to get almost like CadTutor! Like, people writing as if they want to be understood.

Reply Children
  • Going from Microstation to AutoCAD, I find myself right-clicking all the time to finish the command, lol.

  • Hi all,

    I dunno about all you guys, but to me, there is no comparison. Microstation rocks, even compared to rhino and Sketchup, let alone Autodesk. Here's why, and it's the same as I tell my whole team:

    - I work as a designer creating conceptual 3d models.  I create 300m towers in a day.  Or massive shopping malls in 2-3 hours. It's china, so everything I do needs to be super quick. You can't even get this speed in rhino (I know because I have rhino gurus in the rest of my team).

    - using  autocad to do 3d modelling is a really horrifying experience.

    - autocad can't render.

    - autocad can't scale in one dimension

    - i often model and modify using nodes. Autocad has them too but not nearly as advanced.

    - in microstation u can create meshes for landscapes, and stamp/stencil.  Don't think autocad can do that.

    - autocad splines suck. Microstation bsplines are awesome and rebuilds le. Same as their surfaces.

    - grouped holes rock.

    - I can render a whole model using shapes, rather than surfaces.  Don't think autocad can do that.

    - luxology renderer is awesome in microstation.  It's easy to get a glow happening. Or reflection etc, instead of having to use colors to represent glossiness like in Max.

    - Accurdraw rocks.  Powers lector is unbeatable. Fence manipulations don't exist in any other software. Using fence to cut whole buildings and mirroring has saved me on many occasions.  In rhino u have to intersect each surface.....and wait for a crash.

    - I can layer materials, and acheive amazing effects that even my max visualisers are struggling to remake.

    - I can script my section cuts and render views and batch render remotely. (A system I configured)

    - scale or rotate by element centre is a godsend for creating or rotating fins.

    - references and self referencing is awesome. To hell with bind / insert in autocad. Whoever knows the difference?

    To be honest he list goes on.

    Anyone want to challenge me? Go ahead. But I consistently work 1.5-2 times more faster than anyone else in the office.  Often I'm the only on who can do the task and it's because of microststion.

    If only Bentley used social marketing better...

    Ken

  • Just to share other things autocad cannot do:

    - reference something, then switch off the snap or select tick.

    - add and minus from displaysets

    - select by layer (I think autocad can't)

    - add vertex to dimension is nice discovery.

    - grouping is handier than blocks.

    And to be fair, things I really wish in microstation that autocad has:

    - tables.  I hate microstation tags. Autocad tables are awesome

    - blocks are v cool in autocad too.

    - I don't love editing microstation dimensions and text, although I'm not sure autocad is any better

  • Unknown said:
    Tables.  I hate microstation tags. Autocad tables are awesome

    What's the link between AutoCAD tables and MicroStation tags?

     
    Regards, Jon Summers
    LA Solutions

  • Hi Jon,

    I know there other tools like FlexiTable to get data out of MIcrostation :).  but for out of the box features, this is what I needed to do some times:

    - i have a survey with RL text on there, but the survey is flat.  I need a 3d model from the info.  

    - so i open the survery in Autocad.  i use their tables feature to export just the text into a tabulated Excel.  The text represent Z value.  X and Y comes from their position in local CAD file.

    - import into GC and GC will read the excel and output points along XYZ

    - reimport points into Micrstation and make a mesh from points.

    so.. if i was to use Microstation.. i would somehow need to play with tags etc.. to be honest its been a number of years i tried exporting this kind of data from Microstation, and back in v8, it was laborious and limiting.  I dont think its been updated in v8i, so i havent used it.  Nevertheless Autocad tables and the way you can get data out of it is far more superior.

    Ken