Does it pay to get the newest acad 2004? 1

[roberttx]

Hi,

I am an old, rusty acad 14 & 2000 user. I have been looking reviews for newest acad 2004, but I believe it won't pay its price to update. What do you, new cad 2004 buyers, have found about it that can get me finally convinced? I even want to consider acad light 2004.

I appreciate your response,

Roberttx.

 

[brez]

I have not got 2004, but I have from other Acad 2002 users that there is not much point. If you are determined to upgrade then go for the most up to date package. But if I was you I would stick to 2000

 

[CADSTUDENT]

My school is in the process of getting VS 2004 in Chattanooga, TN. I am not impressed about new icons but the big advantage if you do a lot of vector to raster conversions to use in other applications (like MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint). Instead of going through this involved conversion process, VS 2004 has the ability of bringing your Autocad drawing as a linked object and in other applications that support this feature. BIG IMPROVEMENT!!! The bad thing is VS 14 is no longer supported. Otherwise, VS 2004 is not a big improvement over previous versions that I have used. Happy with VS 2002 on my system at home. John

 

[cfee]

I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH 2 PREVIOUS POSTINGS.

I make extensive use of ACAD-3D. A-Desk has stated categorically that there are NO CHANGES to 3D. I read this as stating that there is no further interest in updating and improving 3D functions. I make extensive use of embedding components into assemblies with data embedded too. No major advances there. Finally, I make extensive use of converting 3D parts to 2D drawings for shop production, including extensive dimensioning & B.O.M.'s, and linked and ebedded documents. Minor improvements there. I make very LITTLE use of releasing my PROPRIETARY drawings across the internet, no matter how "secure" the site (Industrial espionage, anyone?). Extensive relatively useless improvements there.
I agree- new icons don't justify an upgrade.

Good Luck.

 

[roberttx]

Hi,

Thanks everybody for your responses.

Roberttx.

 

[IFRs]

I upgraded to 2004 at work.
I use it every day and, I like it.
File sizes are MUCH smaller, especially for 3D drawings - load and email much faster.
The new look is fine, it is modern and comfortable.
The full screen ctrl-0 is really nice - no menus etc.
The transparency of the command line is nice.
The standard menus include most of the Express tools and a few more, that is nice.
The dockable properties window and easily extendable block menu is nice.
It is faster.
No new 3D stuff - that is unfortunate.
Dimensioning in paper space to entities in model space works flawlessly, maybe it did before, but I never could get it to work in 2000.
I was able to migrate all our menus and lisp without effort.
It handles raster images much better.
Printing is nicer or I'm getting used to it.
Ctrl-PgUP and Ctrl-PgDn move between model and paper space(s) - VERY nice.
That's all I can think of right now.

In summary, it was worth the upgrade for the combination of little things that make my daily life easier.

 

[gentlebigguy]

I'm an Autocad user from way back to version 8 and found that in all these upgrades, the most significant one was version 12 because of windows 95. However, if you freelance as I do and have difficulty in get the next job due to recessions and whatnot, then you may find the whole upgrading process a little too fast to fit back into. I mean that the employer demands experence with the latest but your latest was 2000 because the previous company didn't go to 2002. Now there's 2004. The changes are incremental and minor improvements are made. Usually there's another way of working with Autocad which makes it a dozen ways or so. Truthfully, I do not see the need to upgrade so quickly. I've seen employers hold back for reasons of economics and customer compatibility. I personally see a need for stability.

 

[invisigoth]

Hi, Just a note -- for an inexpensive CAD that keeps up with AutoCAD 2002, check out

http://www.intellicadms.com.

I use AutoCAD R14 and the IntelliCAD allows me to work with dwgs from newer versions.

 

[architech]

I heard that 2004 allows you to lock/ password protect DWGs ... BUT you're able to break it by inserting the sealed DWG into a blank one????

Any truth to this?
Rich

 

[StevenHess]

If you want to upgrade I would recommend making the leap to Inventor if you are a loyal AutoDesk type person or possibly SolidWorks...

 

[IFRs]

I keep seeing questions in this and other forums that have built-in solutions in R2004. The latest is "How to change to upper case" when the text is not MText. R2004 has built in pull-downs for both of these problems.

R2004 seems to have many small features that find their way to your drawing sessions and make drafting faster and easier.

 

[alliedcp]

Along the lines of the thread, when will Autodesk stop supporting ver. 2000. I had heard starting January 2004, they would stop selling upgrades from 2000? (which are cheaper)
That might be a point to determine when to upgrade. If I were to do it I would want to use the lower priced upgrade versus purchasing a full version at higher cost.

Just my 2 cents.

Does anyone out there have a definitive date that Autodesk will stop support of 2000?