Breaking Free of Sky High CAD Pricing
For all you lot fed up paying increasingly high prices and annual top up fees for AutoCAD why not give another package a chance?
The professional version of TurboCAD supports 29 different file formats, including four DWG and DXF so you can still save your drawing as a DWG in any flavor and send it to your client or colleague in whatever version of AutoCAD they are running. I can’t see one advantage that LT has over it, unless you count all your mates paying their fees to run a piece of software that takes twice as long to draw simple 2D plans and can not deal with 3D realizations. For many surveyors working on simple 2D planning applications and the like, they can even use the Deluxe version that can be picked up from the likes of PC World for about £80.
Some companies are now selecting to cherry pick software applications to maximize tool applications. Years ago when I was in publishing I used Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro for images and both Illustrator and Freehand when drawing. The ‘sister’ packages all had advantages and disadvantages over each other and it was easy to jump between the two while working on the same image. While it’s not quite so simple with CAD, there is certainly no need to use expensive packages to perform operations where a far less expensive one will do perfectly well and often faster. As long as there are no compatibility issues, using a range of packages can only benefit the designer.
Ongoing hidden expenses such as subscription fees often add little value and are simply intended to keep you locked in and paying up. There really is no need for the vast majority of designers to keep shelling out for a pricy annual upgrade. Thousands of designers in all fields are out there using ten year old TurboCAD systems for their work – and they still get support when they need it.
So, all you AutoCAD users, broaden your horizons and see what is out there, you just might save yourself a lot of time and money.
Paul The CAD
I agree with you my dear friend, I am a user of UG and trying to learn CATIa right now. I can tell you that Turbocad is an excellent CAD software to do from small projects to more serious ones as well as a perfect foundations for further CAD designa nd graphics. The best of all, it is affordable, for its price you can only get lower grade versions of other software such as Alibre or some others. Really best features for the buck. I am planning to use Turbocad pro now to get anew hobby as well as doing some inventions.
Thanks Luis
Glad that you understand the role of TurboCAD. I do as many shows as I do so that I’m able to demonstrate to CAD users just how powerful TurboCAD is. I’m afraid that many think that just because it’s cheap, it can’t be that good. Yet I sell TurboCAD into lots of high end companies and Local Authorities, because they have seen and understand its’ quality.
Two True Stories:
A few weeks ago I was talking to a man at a show who told me that he was just about to buy AutoCAD LT for about £800. All he wanted to do was design an extension in 2D for his house. I showed him TurboCAD Designer for £30 and guaranteed him that it was all that he needed, but he didn’t believe me. Despite explaining the file compatibility and how he would so much more easily achieve his task and save a good few hundred pounds, he still when off apparently to buy LT. The shear stupidity of that man and others thinking that AutoCAD is still the industry leader and the only one to use amazes me. By the time he has bought LT and paid for training, he would have spent perhaps as much as £1,800 more than he needed to. No wonder Autodesk is so rich.
Last year I was contacted by a company that puts labels onto bottles. Each job is a little different so each one needs some customising of their basic machines. The company needed to upgrade their AutoCAD Inventor, four users on one computer at work, but each needing it on their laptops. Because they had not upgraded for several years, AutoCAD treated them as new users and wanted them to buy four new licenses at a cost of many thousands. They called me and asked for a demo at their factory which I did. Within forty minutes I had shown them that TurboCAD did everything that they needed to do and sold them all the licenses that they needed and gave them all a free training day in Winchester. They saved about £10,000.
I have dozens of stories like those above, some relate to AutoCAD, some SolidWorks. I even have customers that draw parts with TurboCAD and import them into Catia. It’s all a matter of getting the right tool for the job and that is not necessarily the expensive one.
Paul