AutoCAD2004 issues... (DWG format)

[Hazdaz]

OK, well first off, let me just say that I think 2004 is the biggest piece of crap.

Now, having said that, here's an example:

 

Anyone else have issues with saving 2004 to 2000? Seems like when we do it, the 3D models get rotated like 90 degrees in ModelSpace and all the viewports in Paperspace are blank and useless.

I admittedly haven't had the chance to check out the AutoCrap website yet, but wondering if anyone else has this problem??

 

All I can say, is thank God we are planning on dropping this horrible CAD program and getting something else in the near future. This BS with the incompatibilities with the 2004DWG format and issues with saving back to the 2000DWG and its continued instability are basically the straw the broke the camels back.

 

Good job AutoDesk. Bravo.

[Tim Nelson]

When you export a 2004 model to 2000, you have to be in TOP view. Otherwise it will screw all the coordinates up.

 

hope that helps

[STRAT]

you'd better make up ur mind fast

 

autodesk will exclusively use the 2004 format before long, making downsaving impossible.

must admit i think autodesk are just a bunch of money grabbing ***************'s, but personally i still love the software.

 

we use 2004 and ADT2004. at the moment 99% of our clients dont, so either they upgrade or a down saving plugin becomes available, else file sharing will be a huge problem.

 

odd desicion with my bosses i think, but hey, ever tried to work out ur bosses logic?

[Hazdaz]

Thanks for the info there on the Top View - I acutally forgot to try it, but will tommorrow to see if it works.

 

AutoDesk's decision to force the 2004 DWG format, might help them sell a few more updated seats of software now, but I predict its gonna bite them in the ass in the future. In out little office upgrading ONE seat to 2004 caused a disruption in our workflow - I don't even wanna imagine what it would do in a much larger company. And its never about upgrading JUST the CAD software - AutoDESk never seems to remember that there are thousands of add-in/plug-ins for AutoCAD. The CAM software we have won't run on 2004 - so now that we HAVE to get new CAM software, we figure, might as well get a CAD program that is acutally GOOD at 3D.

 

STRAT, if you think that getting 2004/ADT2004 is a strange decision by your boss - thats nothing. We aren't even an architectural firm, and our boss got a seat of ADT, when the Mechanical Desktop would have been soooo much of a better fit for what we do.

[Ernest Burden III]

autodesk will exclusively use the 2004 format before long, making downsaving impossible.

...we use 2004 and ADT2004. at the moment 99% of our clients dont

Autodesk isn't so much the industry leader as the industry bully.

 

I got some ACAD files from a potential client today to quote from. I don't own ACAD, but I bought their Volo View program to review drawings. The files crashed Volo. I imported them into Datacad and am on my way. An all dwg2004 world means that NOTHING will open their files. That'll be nice.

[Hazdaz]

Yea....and I LOVE their "reason" for the file-format change - cuz their added compression to the DWG format, you can save a WHOPPING ~200K on a 1MB file.

 

Anyone out there tell them that you can buy 200GB(!!) Hd for around $100. Filesize is NOT a problem, and hasn't been one for years.

[garethace]

Now that you do mention it, the paperspace viewports being useless when saved from ACAD 2004 and opened in 2000 has happened to me too.

 

We had a big planning application on a deadline and that did happen. Basically it involved a lot of very, very worried draftspeople jumping around to different workstations, to make sure they stayed working for that project in 2004 exclusively.

 

Yeah, I agree, this file compression shit is laughable.

[garethace]

I got some ACAD files from a potential client today to quote from. I don't own ACAD, but I bought their Volo View program to review drawings. The files crashed Volo. I imported them into Datacad and am on my way. An all dwg2004 world means that NOTHING will open their files. That'll be nice.

MicroStation v.8. allowed users to work and save in DWG format instead of MicroStation DGN format - meaning that users of MicroStation, usually architectural firms in my case could work transparent with AutoCAD layering conventions used by engineering firms, we cooperate with on building projects.

 

It is just nice to be able to distinguish very easily between your own practices information, and that 'added' by the engineering firm.

 

Now, the thing is - we as architects currently do most of the actual drawing - lashing out various options very quickly, getting them onto hard copies very, very quickly.

 

I would say our hard copy printing expenses are numerous times more than that of an engineer - we have two plotters going pretty much flat out, as well as copying machines.

 

That is why we tend to stick with MicroStation - it is just faster, to work up and produce drawings, if you want to have a lot of people producing a lot of drawings.

 

AutoCAD is more like a database - it is fine if you want a stable store of all your information/work that is in pretty universal format - like MS WORD/EXCEL.

 

However, as architects we tend to be driving the design process, suggesting various options, producing visual information for many, many different meetings - doing quick edits, switching things, changing things - we could not simply keep up to this pace of outputting -as leaders in the architectural design process - using AutoCAD.

 

Engineering firms on the other hand, only have to respond to what we furnish them with. It is more a case of think twice before you draw once. Hence engineering firms, and I have drafted a lot for engineers too - move at a much more sedate pace, and AUTOCAD is fine there.

 

AutoCAD is like a database, it is very good at containing a lot of different kinds of information, and recording things on many different layers.

 

But it is not a good tool to go charging into battle with. MicroStation is more like a cavalry charge, AutoCAD is more like a huge infantry.

 

The problem is that architectural/engineering design processes tend to move at a very fast pace, and you want to be in the fast lane when that happens - that is where MicroStation just beats the living daylights out of AutoCAD IMHO.

 

It draws much faster than you can even think!

 

It is like comparing a FPS shooter game to strategy game - AutoCAD is like a Soccer Manager game, which lasts for a week. While MicroStation is more of the Unreal Tournament which starts and is over before you even know what has happened. Games are just certain kinds of complicated databases anyhow, so are CAD softwares.

[kingeldar]

but u buy many AutoCAD licences for the price of one MIcrostation

am i wrong?

[G]

I have mine set up in tools>options>saveas to save in a 2000 format, and have had no problems with saving 3d models,in any views.

 

I never use the saveas option in the save dialoge box.

 

I know this may sound dumb, but have you checked the autodesk website for the latest service patches?

 

G

[garethace]

but u buy many AutoCAD licences for the price of one MIcrostation

am i wrong?

 

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3826

 

See my point there.