Install AutoCAD and AutoCAD Architecture side-by-side or run ACAD as ACA?

[francis..co]

From what I've read, AutoCAD vertical products are basically AutoCAD with some discipline-specific modules and customization on top of it. (Or are they? For example, I read this and still feel a bit confused, especially due to @pendean's mention that the acad.exe files for each vertical aren't exactly the same. Also, I don't know if that discussion still applies to current versions of AutoCAD, since it's a bit old. By the way, I checked my ACA desktop shortcuts and they target acad.exe in a folder called "AutoCAD 2019", not "AutoCAD Architecture 2019", which seems to suggest that nowadays all flavors of AutoCAD installed on the same computer will call the same acad.exe file, albeit with different arguments.)

Supposedly, running AutoCAD Architecture with the "AutoCAD" profile would make it behave just like vanilla AutoCAD. Despite having been doing just that, I still notice some annoying minor things happening that wouldn't happen in plain ACAD, such as text styles being automatically added to the drawing (because they're tied to AEC dimension styles or something - I couldn't really figure it out) and which are a pain to get rid of.

Thus, my actual question is this: is there any way to get a vertical product like AutoCAD Architecture to run *exactly* like plain AutoCAD? Or is the solution necessarily to install plain AutoCAD?

Thanks.

[David_W_Koch]

If memory serves, back at the time of those posts (mid-2007), the 2008 and earlier versions of AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP installed in separate folders, each with its own acad.exe.  I do not recall exactly when that changed, but from at least 2014 and newer, that is not the case; there is a "core" AutoCAD installation and the additional modules required for AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP install in subfolders under the AutoCAD 20xx folder, and all use the same acad.exe file.

If you have the licensing, you can install AutoCAD side-by-side with AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP.  If you install AutoCAD first, the other two installations go faster, as they do not need to install the core AutoCAD content.  I have never taken the time to verify if an AutoCAD Architecture "as AutoCAD" session was 100% identical to an AutoCAD session for the same release, as I rarely run plain AutoCAD.  But from what I have seen, other than still having the initial Splash Screen and the program name at the top of the window still say AutoCAD Architecture when running the "as AutoCAD" profile, it seems the same as running plain AutoCAD.

I have very little experience with the other vertical products, and cannot say if the same holds true for them.

[pendean]

Are you stuck with an ARCH product license that is not "AutoCAD ONE" full subscription where you can grab plain AutoCAD and most of the verticals whenever you need them?
Or do you have a very small HD or are you just running out of diskspace and wish to avoid installing a second large software package?

I did not install the "as autocad" option with ARCH2019 here so I am not able to replicate your observations here: I have plain AutoCAD installed that I use for client projects with no AEC content (client/team wish) and never pull up with ARCH to avoid adding anything no one wants.

HTH