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AutoCAD to Zwcad/BricsCad/ProgeCAD - to move or not to move?

Hello everybody!

I just joined this forum. I just stumbled upon it luckily. I started browsing the various groups and I
am very impressed.

I am an Architect and I have a 5-user license for AutoCAD LT and 2 user licenses for Full AutoCAD.
I still use 2006 version. Before the end of this month, i.e. March, I have to either upgrade (forced by Autodesk) or lose all future upgrades to Autocad. They are retiring AutoCAD 2006 products and closing all upgrades from 2006 products by the end of March 2009.

I do not find the investment of upgrading from 2006 to 2009 - as far as I am concerned 2006 itself
is quite overkill for my tasks.

I tried out Zwcad, Progecad and Bricscad. I was very impressed by Zwcad. It's speed in saving big
drawings is much closer to AutoCAD whereas in Progecad and Bricscad it was terribly slow. I am
not talking about the spped of the CAD software - please note - I am talking about how fast it
saves. This is because in our office we save after every few commands. We do not rely on the UPS
as sometimes UPS also fails during power shutdown suddenly. So the time taken for saving in Progecad and Bricscad will really kill our productivity.

I have not deeply explored other features. Our main work is 2D drafting. (For 3D I resort to SketchUP Free).

Is switching from AutoCAD to Zwcad really worth it? Is Zwcad superior to Progecad and Bricscad?

This force upgradation after every three releases by Autodesk is really sucking my hard earned money.

Any advice will be very valuable to me.

Thanks in advance
PRSS

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Deelip Menezes on March 22, 2009 at 3:51pm: I am not at all surprised that you still use AutoCAD 2006 and are happy with it. Once every while we get a query at SYCODE (www.sycode.com) from someone who wants to run our AutoCAD plug-ins with AutoCAD 14. We started developing plug-ins for AutoCAD from 2000 onwards and people still merrily purchase plug-ins for that version.

Regarding your switching to an IntelliCAD, since you have not found the need to use the new features of AutoCAD 2007, 2008 and 2009, I doubt you will need the new features of AutoCAD 2010. So I assume that probably your only need to upgrade is to be able to open and save newer versions of DWG files. The free DWG True Convert software from Autodesk can already do that for you.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by PRSS on March 22, 2009 at 4:14pm: Thank you for the immediate reply. My fear is whether Autodesk will give me continuing support
in keeping my licenses alive. i.e. if I have to format my hard disk, or change hard disks or major
equipment, whether they will give me activation code for my present 2006 product? I know thoroughly
how to temporarily transfer a license to another machine and bring it back again. Also other ways of
storing the license information if i had to format without changing any hardware. In spite of all these
if I cannot activate it, I have to obtain the activation code. Will they give this after retiring the product?

My vendor says that they may not. Here in India it seems very difficult to assert one's rights. And everything
seems to be kept at secret by the Autodesk vendors. They don't even encourage using the portable license utility.
They only encourage us to ask them every time we lose our activation, to obtain activation code for us.

It is for this reason that I put up this question. If they refuse to give me activation code, my tendency will be to
move out of AutoCAD rather than to surrender to their threats of losing further upgradation. Any way, even the
upgrading price from 2006 to 2009 is close to buying a new copy of 2009. )They force us to pay for one year
of subscription also along with the upgrade).

I put up similar questions much earlier in Autodesk Discussion Groups hoping that some one from Autodesk
would give a clean reply - but it was only in vain. No body could clearly say whether Autodesk would continue to
give activation code after the retirement of the product.

Which means that you are not really buying a license perenially. You are buying it only for a three year period.
But the license agreement does not say so. It is also very surprising that many, many people here in India are
simply not bothered about this fact.

With best regards
PRSS; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Deelip Menezes on March 22, 2009 at 4:36pm: I will try and get an answer to your question; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by PRSS on March 22, 2009 at 4:40pm: Many many thanks to you. If you could please get me an answer to this it will not
only be helpful to me but to many of my friends here too. If I can still get activation
codes to 2006 even after its retirement, I will be sticking to 2006 for a few years to
come.

Thanks again
PRSS; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Deelip Menezes on March 22, 2009 at 5:01pm: Read this: http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2004/02/product_activat...

Shaan Hurley, an "official" Autodesk blogger seems to think that Autodesk will issue activation codes for retired versions.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by PRSS on March 22, 2009 at 5:15pm: Thank you very much for the helpful information.
With best regards
PRSS; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Deelip Menezes on March 22, 2009 at 5:26pm: http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/Activation__Questions_and_Ans...

1.10 What if the company shuts down? I paid for the product and should be able to use it in perpetuity.
The Software End User License Agreement grants the user of an Autodesk product the right to use it in perpetuity. In the unlikely event of the company's shutting down, we will enable automatic approval of all activation requests or provide other technical means allowing users to continue using our products.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by PRSS on March 22, 2009 at 5:59pm: Thank you again - it is a real enlightenment!

With best regards
PRSS; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by baw on March 23, 2009 at 11:21am: Hi PRSS. If you estimate the features of AutoCAD 2006 supply you at least another 3 years you can not even think to switch from it. :) Anyway the cost of Zwcad/BricsCad/ProgeCAD is cheaper than AutoCAD's upgrade. As for ZWCAD quality sometimes sometimes it is not stable especially when you use dwg files received from your partners containing AutoCAD PROXY or splines. And some options and commands do not work as good as well. I'm not sure BricsCad/ProgeCAD but thinks a problems have a one root.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by PRSS on March 23, 2009 at 2:21pm: Thanks Baw

I have not checked that with these softwares. I shall also try the trial version of the latest Bricscad. A 30 percent discount has just been announced by Bricscad to LT-Extender users till Sep 2009. I happen to be one among them! My main concern is time consumed in saving files. Zooming, panning and saving of larger files are much faster in Zwcad. I believe Bricscad has developed its own code. So it is not the same as given by the Intellicad consortium. May be this is a faster code. I'll have to take my time to try this and check.

With best regards
PRSS; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Deelip Menezes on March 23, 2009 at 2:29pm: It would be nice if you could share your experience here. That's what this social network is for.; ▶ Reply to This