How Much Autocad do you use

[mandrews]

How much of the base Autocad does each user use. I would like to see a basic Autocad starter (like LT) which you could plug-in certain modules e.g if you didn't do 3D or lisp but wanted to use VBA you could add that module thus people could buy only what they wanted at a cheaper rate.

[Wanderer]

Be nice if it could work that way for people who have only one specific use.

Do you think the cable companies have a wishlist. I only one the SciFi Channel, the Cooking Channel and American Movie Classics. <bg> Should be about $0.75 a month.

[mandrews]

Hi Wanderer,

I was thinking more along the lines Basic Pack + sports or Basic Pack + movies.

:wink:

[mjfarrell]

Perhaps AutoDESK would simply sell
ONE product with ALL funtionality in it
and then make you Log In each day like
the AUGI site and the only CHARGE you
for the commands and or features you
actually used?

[michael.12445]

I've been posting this request for what seems like years now in all the various wish lists that AUGI has hosted. Autodesk has chosen to disregard it. You can either buy AutoCAD LT and get no LISP or ARX capability, or pay for the full AutoCAD product to get these features, plus a lot of stuff you won't ever use.

If I may go a bit off topic here, I'd like to see, in addition to this modular purchase structure, a real effort to make AutoCAD "bulletproof," and I'd be willing to trade a lot of the bells, whistles, and tailfins tacked on to new releases in exchange for reliability. I know that to developers this may sound mundane and lacking in gee-whiz appeal, but Autodesk needs to take this issue seriously. Our "upgrade" to 2002 brought with it so many crashes, mysterious file corruptions, etc., that the time wasted on recovering or reconstructing damaged data easily negated any of the productivity gains claimed for the new features. Consequently, the bosses here will not spend any more money on AutoCAD upgrades, period.

The only thing that might bring the bosses around would be an AutoCAD that is demonstrably reliable in real-world use and costs less, including only the features we use.

Michael Evans

[jcronburg]

Michael:

You are absolutely right. But I know AutoDesk won't change, although they continue to claim they are solving problems. The bells and whistles are what sell the product to the large firms with lots of stations. Some of the young people particularly love them, have learned to put up with the faults, and the management does not know what it's about so they go along with it. Glad to see your management sees the light (i.e. how bad the software is in many ways).

Jim Cronburg

[mjfarrell]

Jim, and Michael,

If only the reseller, or an AutoDesk representative
would have been present in a class I taught for the reseller
this February. A gentleman actually got mad and left the
class; no doubt later requesting a refund, when I confirmed that
all of the things that were broken in Land Desktop since
it's inception were still broken, and that as he noticed only
the interface had changed.
If only AutoDesk would truly listen, I would happily provide
years of user input as to usability of this product to them.
Of course I would charge them as none of the 'experience'
was free. It came at the expense of lost or corrupt data files,
or simply problems inherent in the manner the software works.
Then they could offer the changes to the public as a FREE
patch to fix the things that have been broken since it was DCA.