Drafting software recommendation

[mikesg]

I expected to find more topics on that but it seems I did not find the correct keywords to search for, so I will ask again.

I have been asked to recommend software for preparing the drawings of a civil engineering shop. Since the plans are 2D it seems that many of the features of the complete AutoCAD will remain unused. On the other hand AutoCAD LT seems suitable with one exception - there is no LISP/or other language/ scripting.

Since the licence price is an issue too I would like to go into a deeper research before choosing a solution that will cost a lot and remain unused or cost less, but not be sufficient.

I kindly ask you to share your expertise - what drafting software do you find to be most suitable for preparing 2D drawings (and probably providing scripting).

Many thanks for your attention

Mike

 

[CJJS]

I am not 100% sure on this, but I thought there was an upgrade you can purchase for AutoCAD LT that contains LISP. Check with Autodesk and see if they do provide something like this.

 

[CJJS]

Here is an article about the ad on.

http://www.cadinfo.net/reviews/LT-Toolkit.htm

 

[jechols]

When I started out I did civil/surveying. We used software called TerraModel. It seemed a lot easier than autocadd and had more tools than basic autocadd. Here is a link.

http://www.trimble.com/terramodel.shtml

I believe you can buy only the modules you need. It sure made life easy especially importing raw data survey. If you name each survey point correctly it would draw the asbuilt survey on its own.

good luck.

 

[PMR06]

Check out LTExtender. It gives LISP and many express tools functionality back to LT. They are based out of Europe somewhere, but the program is cheap and works really well.

http://www.lt-extender.com/LT-Extender/englisch/content.htm

 

[unclesyd]

Not really my area and not knowing which are of civil you are interested I saw this system in use and to me it was very impressive for the price. I don't recall which version I saw in use at the time but we were making quite a few changes to the drawing which were very easily made in quick order.

http://www.rockware.com/catalog/pages/powercad.html#office

 

[mikesg]

Mny thanks for your answers.

It is good news that with a moderate effort one can combine AutoCad LT and an add-on (I haven't yet tried to compare the two addons mentioned) to get a system that meets the needed requirements.

Mike