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Good Autocad Alternative program?

jkulpa
Participant

Good Autocad Alternative program?

jkulpa
Participant
Participant

Anybody know of a good alternative program than AutoCAD for doing engineering/drafting work, not related to the autodesk family? I'm tired of all their non-updates every year. My program shouldn't be crashing 5 times in a day, when I have a single file open that is less than 3 MB in size! This $hit is ridiculous. Crashes during autosaves, crashes when rendering, crashes when trying to edit materials in the material library. I WANT A PROGRAM THAT WORKS!!!!!

 

I have a brand new computer that exceeds all of their recommended specs for this program and yet every day I have to send multiple error reports, regardless of what year or service pack I have run.

 

-Corei7, 3.4 Ghz, overclocking to 3.9 Ghz

-16GB of RAM

-SSD

-Quaddro videocard (BTW most of my drawings are in 2D, so this shouldn't even be a factor)

 

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Respuestas (34)

ennujozlagam
Mentor
Mentor

@jkulpa hello, this is a Autodesk website Public Forum, people might not suggest alternative program to suit your needs. Its better to check your software resseller around your area for suggestion or check other public forum. hope you understand. thanks





Remember : without the difficult times in your LIFE, you wouldn't be who you are today. Be grateful for the good and the bad. ANGER doesn't solve anything. It builds nothing, but it can destroy everything...
Please mark this response as "Accept as Solution" if it answers your question. Kudos gladly accepted.
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Anonymous
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Solución aceptada

BricsCAD

 

 

Edited by
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Pointdump
Mentor
Mentor

J,

 

"My program shouldn't be crashing 5 times in a day..."

 

Agreed. But if everyone's experience with AutoCAD was the same as yours, no one would buy it, so obviously it works "good enough" for Autodesk to remain in business.

 

If you'd like find out what is causing the crashes, please post a problem drawing. You'll get plenty of help.


Dave

Dave Stoll
Las Vegas, Nevada

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NVIDIA Quadro P5000 16GB
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pendean
Community Legend
Community Legend
Google Search: just check with everyone you exchange files with first if you do swap, some out there will likely drop you like a hot potato if they are married to AutoCAD and "dwg".

If you'd like to try and fix your problem, let us know what WIndows OS you are using, which exact AutoCAD version you use, and what things have you actually tried to resolve the problem.

TheCADnoob
Mentor
Mentor

Its odd that you reach out to the support community for this sort of information. I also find it odd that you are tired of the updates but seem to be boasting about your newly updated hardware. The updates Autodesk makes are some times intended to make use of bells and whistles in your new hardware. So im not sure you are giving a fair shake when you seem excited about updates in one arena and not in the other.

 

You shouldn't be crashing, but are you sure the reason you are crashing is due to AutoCAD or perhaps an improper optimization?

 

I totally feel your frustration about crashing. My program crashes about three times a day. This sounds bad, but this is not the fault of Autodesk. There are third party apps that are causing some of these crashes and there other issues i face are network related. The reason i know this is because i spent time chasing the problems down. 

 

What step have to you taken to ensure you are not having 'external' issues? It might help to talk to your re-seller as mentioned. 

CADnoob

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jkulpa
Participant
Participant

Pointdump wrote:

 

 

Agreed. But if everyone's experience with AutoCAD was the same as yours, no one would buy it, so obviously it works "good enough" for Autodesk to remain in business.

 

If you'd like find out what is causing the crashes, please post a problem drawing. You'll get plenty of help.


Dave


In my personal experience,  most people's experience with AutoCAD IS the same as mine, there has just been no great alternative and Autodesk has gotten its claws in the corporate systems. And "good enough" should never be a goal, instead of releasing a new version every year just to get one out, maybe they should wait every two years.

 

Ha, how many should I post? Its only almost every drawing I open.

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jkulpa
Participant
Participant

@TheCADnoob wrote:

also find it odd that you are tired of the updates but seem to be boasting about your newly updated hardware. The updates Autodesk makes are some times intended to make use of bells and whistles in your new hardware. So im not sure you are giving a fair shake when you seem excited about updates in one arena and not in the other.

 

You shouldn't be crashing, but are you sure the reason you are crashing is due to AutoCAD or perhaps an improper optimization?

 

I totally feel your frustration about crashing. My program crashes about three times a day. This sounds bad, but this is not the fault of Autodesk. There are third party apps that are causing some of these crashes and there other issues i face are network related. The reason i know this is because i spent time chasing the problems down. 

 

What step have to you taken to ensure you are not having 'external' issues? It might help to talk to your re-seller as mentioned. 


 

I needed the new hardware because of all the updates CAD installs, my other computer couldn't even zoom in and out in paper space without glitching, and that computer wasn't a huge slouch either, really just missing the video card.

 

I let AutoCAD perform its own optimization when it was installed, so if it is improper, it's its own fault.

 

My computer isn't crashing, its just the program. We have had an IT professional setup the computer image specifically to run CAD.

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jkulpa
Participant
Participant

@pendean wrote:
Google Search: just check with everyone you exchange files with first if you do swap, some out there will likely drop you like a hot potato if they are married to AutoCAD and "dwg".

If you'd like to try and fix your problem, let us know what WIndows OS you are using, which exact AutoCAD version you use, and what things have you actually tried to resolve the problem.

Want all of them?

 

Windows XP 32&64 - AutoCAD 2006, 2008, 2010LT

Windows 7 64- 2010LT, 2011LT, 2012LT, 2014LT

Windows 8.1 64 - 2011LT, 2013LT, 2014LT, 2015, 2016LT, 2016

Windows 10 64 - 2016LT, 2016, 2017

 

 

I have had it crash for so many different reason throughout the years I couldn't even being to name them all. The biggest ones would be it crashes when it publishes, autosaves, orbits in realistic, and sometimes just for no reason, just decides to gray out and quit working.

 

 

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jkulpa
Participant
Participant

@ennujozlagam wrote:

@jkulpa hello, this is a Autodesk website Public Forum, people might not suggest alternative program to suit your needs. Its better to check your software resseller around your area for suggestion or check other public forum. hope you understand. thanks


I'm reaching out specifically on this forum because I want Autodesk to know that they are finally wearing me down to the point I want to leave them for another software provider. Over the years they have taken away more and more capabilities from LT, just to  push people over to Full CAD and get that premium price.

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Alfred.NESWADBA
Consultant
Consultant

Hi,

 

>> I let AutoCAD perform its own optimization when it was installed, so if it is improper, it's its own fault.

That's sounds like "dear AutoCAD, do the magic things to get my hardware and my operating system I have setup up and my other applications (which I installed with there other dll's) working ..."

That's not the way you'll get AutoCAD working better (or any other software). Compare it to buy a car ... and now it's the car's problem/job to get fuel :cara_guiñando_un_ojo:

 

As others stated it's never good to crash, so if you crash multiple times a day than I can feel your disappointment.

But nothing to do against that crashes (thinking AutoCAD should heal itself and your complete system) is not the way I can agree to.

 

And I'm quite sure that you can get your AutoCAD working, but following some rules about "how to use AutoCAD", "how to learn to avoid errors out of experience when the crashes happen" and "how to setup your system and handle additional program installations as well as updating(or not) your drivers". (e.g. how often do you restart AutoCAD during the working day?)

I'm also quite sure that not all users out there crash multiple times a day ... otherweise this forum here would have >50 mio forum users, all sending messages about crashes.

 

Try to isolate when the problem(s) appear, if they are drawing dependend, or happens with some specific commands, objects, materials, network files, ... if you tell us such info's we might be able to help.

If you say you don't have time to investigate in error-catching you have to live with erros (like no time to take fuel for the car).

 

Hope to hear from you ... - alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2025
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(not an Autodesk consultant)

rkmcswain
Mentor
Mentor

If I were Autodesk....... I would welcome this question and not censor the answers.

I would want to prove to my customers that AutoCAD is the best, and that other substitutes are inferior.

If I didn't do this, what does that say about me?

R.K. McSwain     | CADpanacea | on twitter

jkulpa
Participant
Participant

@Alfred.NESWADBA wrote:

Hi,

 

>> I let AutoCAD perform its own optimization when it was installed, so if it is improper, it's its own fault.

That's sounds like "dear AutoCAD, do the magic things to get my hardware and my operating system I have setup up and my other applications (which I installed with there other dll's) working ..."

That's not the way you'll get AutoCAD working better (or any other software). Compare it to buy a car ... and now it's the car's problem/job to get fuel :cara_guiñando_un_ojo:

 

As others stated it's never good to crash, so if you crash multiple times a day than I can feel your disappointment.

But nothing to do against that crashes (thinking AutoCAD should heal itself and your complete system) is not the way I can agree to.

 

And I'm quite sure that you can get your AutoCAD working, but following some rules about "how to use AutoCAD", "how to learn to avoid errors out of experience when the crashes happen" and "how to setup your system and handle additional program installations as well as updating(or not) your drivers". (e.g. how often do you restart AutoCAD during the working day?)

I'm also quite sure that not all users out there crash multiple times a day ... otherweise this forum here would have >50 mio forum users, all sending messages about crashes.

 

Try to isolate when the problem(s) appear, if they are drawing dependend, or happens with some specific commands, objects, materials, network files, ... if you tell us such info's we might be able to help.

If you say you don't have time to investigate in error-catching you have to live with erros (like no time to take fuel for the car).

 

Hope to hear from you ... - alfred -


Having a car get its own fuel is a little different than this, I think a closer analogy would the car doesn't know when to fire what cylinder and its my job now to go in and get everything re-timed. I don't quite understand how so many people defend autocad religiously when it performs like this. You say I should have to run all these optimization routes, but I don't have a degree in computer science, and CAD has been around for almost 35 years, I think they should have those bugs worked out. Other programs I install, I don't need to "optimize" them; MS Office just works, my video editor just works, Bluebeam, Adobe, Scaffold Designer, Mozilla, Internet Explorer, etc. etc. etc, all just work fine without me having to dig into all the different settings. If all those software manufacturers can create a program that can work for a regular old user like me, why can't Autodesk?

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Alfred.NESWADBA
Consultant
Consultant

Hi,

 

>> closer analogy would the car doesn't know when to fire what cylinder and its my

>> job now to go in and get everything re-timed

What would you do in that case ... bring the car to a service center (to organise this is up to you, it's not the car's job) and let specialists do the steps that are necessary to get the engine running.

What have you done to get your AutoCAD working? Did you work with technicians knowing operating system (and environment), network and AutoCAD well?

 

>> I don't quite understand how so many people defend autocad religiously when it performs like this

No, I don't defend crashes as ok, not from AutoCAD or any other software. I just say it's not AutoCAD which repairs itself, it's you who has to organize the steps to get it running.

 

>> You say I should have to run all these optimization routes, but I don't have a degree in computer science

No, I have not said you do have to run the optimizations, but you have to take care/you have to organize that a person who knows computers is invoved to do that (in the same way as you do it with your car, why not for your workstation?

 

>> MS Office just works, my video editor just works, Bluebeam, Adobe, Scaffold Designer, Mozilla, Internet Explorer, etc. etc. etc, all just work fine

How many hours do you have AutoCAD open and in working progress, how many hours do you have Office open and working (in the same manner as CAD, so up to 20 mouse clicks a minute in the graphic area, starting dialogs, closing dialogs, starting multiple (maybe 100 commands within a hour) ...

In most cases the truth for CAD workstations is: not any other software has a higher rate of module loading, mouse events, adding/modifying/removing entities as a CAD system ... and so it is hard to compare.

E.g. Outlook ... it's open and active all the day and at the end of the day you might see in the taskmanager that it used maybe 10minutes of your processor (kernel) time ... in AutoCAD you can get that done in 11minutes (instead of the whole day).

 

Again, noone here is stating that AutoCAD is a bug-free software (if you like I get Adobe Photoshop crashing in 3 seconds, just about "all other work fine"). But it's up to you to start to solve things, you can give us details, we give you suggestions what to try to get it working (or you ask someone with more computer experience to do that job's for you). If you just tell us that AutoCAD is not usable and you don't want to spend time, let it be, get another product and make the experience that other software also have there up's and down's, it just depends on how deep you use them :cara_guiñando_un_ojo:

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2025
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(not an Autodesk consultant)
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jggerth
Advisor
Advisor

@rkmcswain wrote:

If I were Autodesk....... I would welcome this question and not censor the answers.

I would want to prove to my customers that AutoCAD is the best, and that other substitutes are inferior.

If I didn't do this, what does that say about me?


Absolutely!  this, 1000 times this.

 

Instead of rental, and rent-seeking, producing products that customers trust and feel confident relying on is, or ought to be, Job 1.  When customers are unhappy, shareholder dissatifaction is not far behind.

 

@TheCADnoob -- Who better to ask than a community full of CAD users?  Many with decades of experience with Autodesk products.  Some of us also run other CAD applications, or have run others, and may have some reasonable suggestions.  Heck, I started with CadKey and VersaCAD back in the dawn of time, and got into AutoCAD when my then-employer bought it.  And I've got a grand total of thee different CAD vendors and engines installed on my home box.

 

Pointdump
Mentor
Mentor

J,

 

I have NEVER had one of my drawings crash. (This is going back to R14 in the 1990's.) Even diagnosing problem drawings from others produces crashes so rarely as to be negligible.

 

"...how many should I post? Its only almost every drawing I open."

 

I think you're exaggerating. Post your worst drawing, one guaranteed to crash. Let's see what you've got.

 

Dave

Dave Stoll
Las Vegas, Nevada

EESignature

64GB DDR4 2400MHz ECC SoDIMM / 1TB SSD
NVIDIA Quadro P5000 16GB
Windows 10 Pro 64 / Civil 3D 2024

jkulpa
Participant
Participant

@Pointdump wrote:

J,

 

I have NEVER had one of my drawings crash. (This is going back to R14 in the 1990's.) Even diagnosing problem drawings from others produces crashes so rarely as to be negligible.

 

"...how many should I post? Its only almost every drawing I open."

 

I think you're exaggerating. Post your worst drawing, one guaranteed to crash. Let's see what you've got.

 

Dave


Only a little, but it happens often enough that it feels like it. This drawing specifically is one that crashed on me 3 times yesterday. Twice during autosave, and once during a stretch command.

 

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Alfred.NESWADBA
Consultant
Consultant

Hi,

 

the uploaded drawing contains a lot of referenced PDF's (different pages to different pdf-files) (which I would avoid, one or two PDF(s) ok, but PDF is a performance and memory killer when you use them in that way).

As we don't have them it might not happen on our side to see any crashes.

 

Personal opinion: instead of "Adobe PDF" use "DWG to PDF.pc3", that might solve your _PUBLISH issues.

 

- alfred -

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2025
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(not an Autodesk consultant)

qnologi
Advisor
Advisor

In the "Left Hand" AutoCad, for which took years upon years to get it where it is today, (Granted it still needs work), in the "Right Hand" the OS of which it is installed on, for which took years upon years as well to get it where it is today (And we all know the hard-ache of having to upgrade a system when there is no need). Not to mention the hardware that allows all this to function as a whole...

 

But, until there comes a day when Autodesk can write its own "OS" with AutoCAD installed and running smoothly (No Bugs) on its own PC/MAC, I believe these sort of conversations will continue.

 

 

So, to answer your question, yes there are "alternatives" to AutoCad, but I don't think you'll find as much dedication to assisting it's users.

 

Notice I didn't say "Good Alternative" Guiño

qnologi
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TheCADnoob
Mentor
Mentor

@jggerth wrote:

@rkmcswain wrote:

If I were Autodesk....... I would welcome this question and not censor the answers.

I would want to prove to my customers that AutoCAD is the best, and that other substitutes are inferior.

If I didn't do this, what does that say about me?


Absolutely!  this, 1000 times this.

 

Instead of rental, and rent-seeking, producing products that customers trust and feel confident relying on is, or ought to be, Job 1.  When customers are unhappy, shareholder dissatifaction is not far behind.

 

@TheCADnoob -- Who better to ask than a community full of CAD users?  Many with decades of experience with Autodesk products.  Some of us also run other CAD applications, or have run others, and may have some reasonable suggestions.  Heck, I started with CadKey and VersaCAD back in the dawn of time, and got into AutoCAD when my then-employer bought it.  And I've got a grand total of thee different CAD vendors and engines installed on my home box.

 


I just pegged the OP as a very young member as being overtly hyperbolic and negative and one not really seeking answers but looking for a pound of flesh. I agree there is a breadth of knowledge here,  I've got 4 different CADs on my machine and i didn't have to be nasty to get that information. 


CADnoob

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