What is my best Licensing Option?

[cLenkeit]

First off let me say that I'm new to managing the drafters we have at our company.  I've always headed up the field dept but after some consolidation and restructuring I'm now in charge of our drafters as well.  I only mention this because I'm a complete noob regarding different versions of AutoCad and licensing - so please be gentle 🙂

We currently have some hodge-podge of licenses and versions and at some point we had a subscription too.  I can't seem to find records for what we have and I'm hoping to pretty much start fresh with all new versions of CAD on all stations.  Our company does as-built drawings in which we create site and floor plans for various properties.  All the drawings we do are 2D so generally we only need a very basic version of AutoCAD.  The only hangup there is that we also provide clients with topographical information in the form of spot elevations.  In the past these have been easier to deal with in AutoCAD versions made for civil engineers or people dealing with topography.  The version we were using (Land Desktop) is no longer available or supported by Autodesk, so I'm not sure what our next best option is.  Any suggestions?

But I digress, back to the other issue, licensing.  We have multiple employees and multiple stations and I'm not sure what the most affordable licensing arrangement is.  We have 3 full time drafters, 3 part time drafters, and one person who needs to be able to view and print dwg files.  Any suggestions on what I should do?

Again, sorry for my lack of knowledge, but this is not my background and I'm barely treading water...  Thanks for your help.

[OMCUSNR]

Not real sure how to answer you on the licenses, but...

Based on your comments, I'd say you need at least 3 full ACAD seats, one seat (+) for the three temps, and one seat of C3d & get them all on subscription.

Are you going to be getting data from others or a survey crew?  Civil 3d is your only real (adsk) alternative to the old LDD.  Although it is based on the acad base, it is a completly different animal, and does not play well with different versions of acad.  You will most likely need to get on subscriptions and stay on them, and KEEP EVERYONE ON THE SAME RELEASE!  Jumping back & forth between years is no longer easy at all (especially if you have C3d in the mix).  C3d is very powerful and full featured, and as a result, needs trained operators who understand the program (they need to forget anything they did with LDD and learn C3d like LDD never existed).

I would contact your local reseller and talk to them about your needs.  I would not recommend combining Acad & LT and then expect to do much with C3d (I wouldn't put LT in the mix at all).  The one who needs to "view & print dwg files" - give them a PDF & let it go at that.  Keep them away from the base dwg's.  Are the 3 P/T's there at the same time?  Can their shifts be made not to overlap?  You might be able to use one license for all 3 if they are not using the program at the same time.

HTH, and good luck!

Reid

[DMFACER]

I agree with Reid’s response, but wanted to add a few more thoughts.

First, if you don't have an Autodesk Reseller to consult and purchase the software from, you need to find one that works in your area.  It wasn't clear from your post if you are working with a reseller, and with a "hodge-podge" of licenses, you will need help to see if things can be upgraded, or if they are no longer eligible.  An Autodesk Reseller can also provide installation and technical support for the software. 

For the licenses, if you need the three part-time drafters to use CAD at their own PCs, or if you need everyone to have access to one seat of Civil 3D at their own PCs, you will need to ask your reseller about network licensing. It's a little more expensive, but adds a lot of flexibility, and can reduce the total number of licenses you may need.

For the person that only needs to view and print, you could also create DWF files and have them use Autodesk Design Review (free) to view and print, as well as markup drawings if they need to. You can also use Autodesk DWG TrueView (free) which will allow them to open/print the CAD files directly, without having to create PDF or DWF first.

Good luck with your new endeavors.

[jggerth]

Based on the limted need you appear to have for topographic info, I would NOT take any suggestion that involves civil3d.  That is a hugely complex application, very powerful, with a steep learning curve.  There are other civil design and drafting alternatives that (A) are much easier to get into, especially at a limited level, and (B) do NOT create AEC Objects that are incompatible with every other version of CAD.    If you are dealing with clients at a mixed level of software version, that is ugely important, and the civil3D folk at autodesk have not seen fit to enable any level of backwards compatability -- that is civil3d 2012 cannot create a Civil3d 2011 drawings -- any 'smart' objects in the resulting drawing are not usable by civil3d 2011 or lower.  (That may be great for Autodesk's revenue stream, but it's IMHO horrible customer service)

You can look at Carslon Software for Civil.  although it also quite powerful, the entry learning curve to do basic stuff is much easier to navigate than civil 3d, and the drawings created in Carlson consist of basic autoCAD entities that _any_one_ with a DWG based CAD package can use.

You might also want to look at BricsCAD as a more affordable alternative.  Adesk pricing, subscription, and licensing  structure is apparently based on their being the 800 lb gorilla in the business.