AutoCAD Freestyle

[#1]

Simple question.  Even though the marketing seems strongly geared to residential design, will this program also benefit a commercial designer.  Our company designs hotels and while the staff is heavy into cad, I simply need software that will replace my sketches which I then turn over to another designer. I'm a conceptual person that needs to step up a bit and use my pencil/pad only for rough thoughts.

Freestyle ?

Thanks, Brad

[#2]

hi Brad -

Thanks for asking this.  You have to keep in mind that I am the product manager for Freestyle so my answer is somewhat (okay, I'll admit it, very) biased, but here is my opinion from interviews that I have had with customers.

First, we have lots of people using it for commercial purposes - everyone from an architect that needed a quick "sketchpad" for his ideas to a guy who does layouts for solar panel systems to an event plannner who needed to create plans showing A/V layouts for a variety of performance types at a theater.

As far as features, we just introduced some new functionality in our trial version that may interest you.  It allows you to create a quick raster sketch with tools like pen, pencil, etc.  You can then trace over that with "precision" tools if you need to do a more "hardlined" type of drawing.  The convenient thing for you is that you can send the files to your CAD teammates, and they can open them in any DWG-based application.

So, that is my 2 cents.  I would love to hear what other users have to say about this as well.  If you haven't downloaded the trial version yet, that is a good place to start.

Lisa

[#3]

Hello again,

I have been using the trial program and I really like it.  I am a hotel designer and had little problem in creating a great dimensioned drawing.  I was also able to exactly reproduce a section of ceiling cove light of a hand-drawn sketch I just sent to a client.

So far, so good.     I only wish it had a larger symbol library or would allow the user to create and store them.   I hope this could be in a future upgrade.

Thanks,

Brad

[#4]

Thanks Brad.  Custom symbols are definitely a highly requestred feature and is under consideration for a future release.

What other types of symbols do you wish we were shipping?

Lisa

[#5]

I'll preface my thoughts by saying that I really like the program and it's a tremendous value.  I do wish that you could create your own symbols and make them part of the library and it would also be nice to have vertical images for elevations.  I would gladly pay extra for any upgrade that would address this.

Thanks,

Brad

ps/   Can you transfer drawings from the trial version to the purchased copy ?

[#6]

hi Brad -

You can open your files created in the trial version in the ful commercial version.  There is no difference in the file format.

The ability to create your own symbols is definitely a highly requested feature and we are considering it for a future release. 

Lisa