SW05 DWGEditor

[MadMango]

My company is deciding if we should keep several seats of AutoCAD 2002 around, or if the DWGEditor in SW05 will free us from AutoCAD. I'm looking for input from users (beta and release) to determine if this will be possible.

Currently we only use AutoCAD for creating new wiring diagrams and harness drawings, and for editing legacy AutoCAD files.

Can new DWGs be created from scratch in the DWGEditor?

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
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[ctopher]

I created a new drawing in DWGEditor and saved it as a AutoCad file. Everything worked fine. My plan is to remove the one seat of ACAD we have and use the Editor from now on.

 

[macPT]

I am also testing it. It works like ACAD. I openned some files from a client, with one of the latest version of Acad and everything is OK. In fact, some things are easier to use with DWGEditor, but it's maybe because we are using an old version of Acad.

Our Acad it's also just for legacy porpuses, schematics and data exchange with clients and supplyers.

I am also considering to terminate Acad and use only DWGEditor.

Regards

 

[MadMango]

I would be interested in hearing updated feedback from people that were planning on dumping AutoCAD and going strictly with DWGeditor. It's been over 6 months, so you should all have a good/bad feeling about the system.

What I am hearing from the heavy AutoCAD junkies is that DWGeditor is a useless collection of electrons and icons. What I am hearing from the part-time AutoCAD users is that DWGeditor is a pain in the rear, but can work in a pinch.... though everyone still prefers AutoCAD.

I dropped AutoCAD "cold turkey" with my first seat of SW96+, and I haven't touched it since, so I am a bad judge of these things.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
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[SBaugh]

The DWG editor is just intelliCAD... maybe that will help you decide.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
faq559-716 - SW Fora Users

 

[J-C]

I've used it at home to make small acad changes to some label drawings, nothing major. It worked fine for that. We use Swx for everything else so ACAD doesn't get much use. Just legacy stuff and those changes are minor.

Jason Capriotti
Smith & Nephew, Inc.

 

[MadMango]

Has anyone experienced this issue? We had a user "double-tap" the Undo command and it "undid" about 16-20 steps in a drawing. He lost a majority of his work (creating harness drawings).

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[ctopher]

Have not seen that. We always save as we go.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP2.0 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[cadcoke5]

Yes, you can create drawings from scratch using DWG Editor. As a long-time Acad user, I was able to use it without any effort because I am used to using the command line. Another user, who primarily used Acad's graphic interface, had much more trouble.

I ran into some bugs a year or so when I tested IntelliCAD (the actual source for dwgeditor). However, as it is with solidworks, if you don't happen to run into the bugs, the program works wonderfully. But, if you happend to use a particular entity or sequence of commands which tend to activate bugs, the program can be very frustrating.

Joe Dunfee

 

[smcadman]

If you have a valid seat of ACAD, I would recommend leaving it installed. The DWG Editor in 2005 is overstated and unstable. There are times that it is easier to create a sketch in ACAD, and then open it in SW. I use ACAD, and avoid the DWG Ed like the plague.

Also, I will save a sheet as a DXF for laser cutting and open it up in the DWG Ed; even the DXF created from SW crashes too much.

Flores

 

[macPT]

Ive been using DWGEditor (not an intensive use) and I didn't detected instability (althouth zoom window sometimes behave stragely). But I've found that Acad fail to open some DWG files from DWGEditor. The problem is solved saving as Acade V14.

But the thing that's really preventing the full use of DWGEDitor is that I wasn't able to replicated some Acad VB macros. No much information about DWGEditor API.

Regards

 

[MadMango]

Yes, there isn't much info at all. There are a ton of resources for IntelliCAD, but I don't know if DWGeditor is "exactly" the same as IntelliCAD.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[SBaugh]

Found this at Tenlinks - Not sure if will help you out, but it's is related to IntelliCAD.

My feeling is that the DWG Editor is intelliCAD, but with a revamped help and start up screen.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
faq559-716 - SW Fora Users

 

[SBaugh]

The link would help I guess -

http://www.caddigest.com/subjects/intellicad/index.htm

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
faq559-716 - SW Fora Users

 

[cadcoke5]

Regarding LISP and other plug-ins for AutoCAD; I've had a hit-and-miss relationship in a short stint of working with IntelliCAD (from BricsCAD).

Some programs worked flawlessly, and others not at all. My own LISP routines would not work. I've read that the main issue is when you use the LISP feature to directly use the command line. The Intellicad versions of the commands are structured differently, but I was unsuccessful in figuring out how to adapt them to work in IntelliCAD. (but, I didn't put much effort into it either)

Their web site talks about how easy it is to adapt a AutoCAD routine to a IntelliCAD, but if it is so easy, why don't they make IntelliCAD fully compatable or perhaps a utility to automatically convert the routines to IntelliCAD's format.

Joe Dunfee

 

[HairyDave]

I have found the plot/print function to be very clunky in DWGEditor. IE if you do a preview you lose all your settings.

 

[SolidsMaster]

same here, can't seem to figure out what they did with print/plot area? It's a mess.

John