Home » Technology » AutoCAD Design » The Price of an Icon

The Price of an Icon

© Jonathan Jonas

So, last time we talked about the new version of AutoCAD, ADT, how it's setup and configured, and the beginning of using it in an office. Since then our office has learned 1 main important thing about ADT - it's very impractical. After just one month of usage we've all but given it up for a lost cause. We wish it weren't the case since it had so much potential. Too many crashes, too many video conflicts, too much RAM per session, too many steps to go from 3D to 2D, etc.

I was going to review this week the new Actrix program from Autodesk, which is basically their version of Visio. It is supposed to be great for space planning, HVAC design, etc. It uses smart objects that connect themselves together, and it can import a DWG file for the background to work in. However, I couldn't get the installation to work on any computer that we tried it on. If anyone out there is using it, let us know what you think of it.

In other news, I've heard that many civil engineers that bought the Autodesk Land Development Desktop have been so disappointed in it that they sent it back. Anyone using it out there that hasn't?

Now, Autodesk is telling us that the final beta of ACAD2000 is out. It has over 400 new or modified commands and more than 100 of those are from the AUGI wish list.

Let's stop and think here for a moment. During about a 6 month time period Autodesk either already has, or will soon start to ship the following software:

AutoCAD 2000 (March)

WHIP (out)

Actrix (out)

ACAD ADT r1 (out)

ACAD LDT r1 (out)

ACAD ADT r2 (June?)

ACAD LDT r2 (June?)

MapGuide (out)

ACAD LT 98 (out)

Volo Viewer (March)

Volo Explorer (March)

Genius (3 different versions) (out)

and World. (out)

That's 14 different programs, most of which should require at least a year of programming and debugging time. Autodesk lost quite a few customers with r13's problems and multitude of bug fixes. I can see that happening again with them trying to do too many cool things in too little of a time frame. When 14 came out over a year ago, they spent almost a year in Beta testing. They produced a product that really didn't need any major bug fixes with one of the largest Beta tests in the software history. They had to do that in order to re-install confidence in their products. What has happened at Autodesk HQ to make them change from a business plan that pleased customers to one that annoys them with products that don't work?

The copyright of the article The Price of an Icon in AutoCAD Design is owned by . Permission to republish The Price of an Icon in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.