AutoCAD installation

[MZerby]

Hello,

I'm a new member that signed up at AU Las Vegas. This is my first time in the forums.
Our company is thinking of going to the AutoCAD subscription. Currently we have 30 seats of AutoCAD 2004 installed as stand alone installs. Out of those we have 22 full time users and 4 who open AutoCAD every once and awhile to view a drawing. We have 4 outsourcing users that have it installed on systems that we provided. We also have a lot of customization loaded that we load from the network.

What I'm looking for is advice on the best way to install AutoCAD for our use.

[stilesj]

I'm not sure exactly how this would work since you already have 30 licenses, but I like the network licensing. With that, we have 27 licenses, all on subscription, but we can install on as many computers as we want in the office. Each machine looks to the server when AutoCAD is started to make sure a license is available, so only 27 people can be on AutoCAD at any one time. But this works well to accomodate those "sometime" users. You could potentially have just 22 network licenses in your office and maintain 4 standalones for remote users (although these could be network licenses, too, if they can use VPN or other remote access to check out a license when they need CAD).

I like subscription mostly for budgeting. I'm able to keep a pretty consistent number in the budget every year and always stay up-to-date on the product.

HTH

[arcadia_x27]

Personally I'd stay away from doing a network install. But thats me :) I've got a smaller company than Jenna, only having to take care of about 15 ADT users, but because we're a division of a much larger company , we have to depend on the corporate IT department to manager the server and network install and all that other fun stuff. They wouldnt let us have control of it and since their response time for problems is less than stellar, and they dont have the expertise to manage CAD software I go the stand alone route.

For your 4 users that are only occasionaly using Autocad to look at files save yourself a bit of money and get DWF composer. They can view .dwg files, save them as .DWF files and redline, mark them up and take dimensions off them. Its a lot cheaper than a full Autocad liscense. If they need to do any .DWG manipulation even AutoCAD LT would be cheaper than a full seat of AutoCAD. Of course if youve already bought the seats thats a different story but you may want to only subscribe to 26 seats instead of the full 30.

[waynes03]

I would suggest network licensing and subscriptions for your 22 full time users. Evaluate your other users, do they really need CAD? or are they just viewing? Sounds like .DWF is a viable option for the other 8. You might even get by with the free .DWF viewer.

[jmorgan]

I do it a little differently. We have about 100 seats in 15 offices. Each of my full-time users has a stand-alone version and the part-time users have network licenses available to them on the rate of about 2.5 to 1. This means that there is no messing around with access permissions or dividing licenses for full-time users. If the part-time users become more proficient, it is easy to add another license to the network version. I also have every seat on subscription, mainly for the ease of budgeting.

John Morgan
Greeley and Hansen LLC

[MZerby]

Thank you all for the responses. We installed Composer but, we don't seem to be able to open .DWG files. Will we have to print every drawing out of AutoCAD as a .dwf file to allow it to be viewed in Composer.

[waynes03]

As long as server space isn't a problem... automate the process. Create a button that saves as a .dwg and a .dwf in one click.

If you do the math and multiply 8 times the $$$$ for a full seat of AutoCAD... It would seem this would be a better option for your company.

[Mike.Perry]

We installed Composer but, we don't seem to be able to open .DWG files.Hi

With DWF Composer (full paid version) (not DWF Viewer which is freeware) you should definitely be able to Open and View and Plot DWG files.... does the following Technical Document help -

ID: TS100129 - "Error regenerating graphics" when opening drawing in Volo View 3 with DWG Viewer installed (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=4630664&linkID=4083874)

Have a good one, Mike

[rkmcswain]

Evaluate your other users, do they really need CAD? or are they just viewing? Sounds like .DWF is a viable option for the other 8. You might even get by with the free .DWF viewer.
.DWF viewer is not an option for us. We are not going to create a .DWF file for our thousands of existing drawings. We require a product to view .DWG files, period.

We are evaluating and most likely will stick with Bentley View. This FREE product allows users to open and view .DWG and .DGN files, which works out great since we have several seats of Microstation also.

URL: http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/Bentley+View/Overview.htm

[Wanderer]

DWF viewer is not an option for us. We are not going to create a .DWF file for our thousands of existing drawings. We require a product to view .DWG files, period.

We are evaluating and most likely will stick with Bentley View. This FREE product allows users to open and view .DWG and .DGN files, which works out great since we have several seats of Microstation also.

URL: http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Products/Bentley+View/Overview.htm

seems to be a popular consensus on the adesk discussion boards also... I know I tend to recommend it.

[luc.van.der.jeugt]

Don't look for a DWG Viewer anymore!!! (Bentley View sucks and Free DWG Viewer is even worse - I tried them all)
Autodesk has it's own FREE DWG Viewer: DWG TrueView
You can find it here : http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=5921930

[rkmcswain]

Don't look for a DWG Viewer anymore!!! (Bentley View sucks and Free DWG Viewer is even worse - I tried them all)

What "Free DWG Viewer"? There are a lot out there.



Autodesk has it's own FREE DWG Viewer: DWG TrueView


Yes, it's been out for a while now.
Among it's shortcomings, no measurement ability.