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Why is AutoCAD so expensive?

Old Feb 5, 2014 | 01:37 PM
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Default Why is AutoCAD so expensive?

http://www.amazon.com/AutoCAD-LT-201...ywords=autocad



Almost $900! I wanted to get it and start teaching myself how to do CAD and 2D renderings. But I'm not paying that much for a piece of software.
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Old Feb 5, 2014 | 01:44 PM
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Dunno, but http://www.sketchup.com/ is free and awesome
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Old Feb 5, 2014 | 02:33 PM
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AutoCAD LT is pretty hamstrung. It's $4,195 for the real thing. I was using Autodesk Civil 3D which is $6,825.



It's so expensive because most companies purchase it for an Engineer or technician to do design work worth 50+ times that in a year.
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Old Feb 5, 2014 | 03:39 PM
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^ left out the other part



50 times a year on $$$$$$$$ projects. It's in the noise as far as expenses go for a company that really uses it.



I use sketchup for furniture design, and it works. I'd hate to have to use it to design a sewer system or whatever.
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Old Feb 5, 2014 | 03:41 PM
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Originally Posted by Stocker
I'd hate to have to use it to design a sewer system or whatever.
LOL
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Old Feb 5, 2014 | 04:03 PM
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I use Autocad MEP for my BIM work which is Autocad with MEP addons for modeling. I do electrical engineering and design, and work on $200-700m projects. Each contractor normally has several licenses and uses it on multiple projects, then gets on subscription to make it slightly cheaper. It's still overpriced IMO because of all the bugs it typically has, but Autodesk can charge whatever they want because of the monopoly they have here in the states. Europe uses Autodesk, but also uses Archicad just as much and is cheaper. Autodesk is just like Microsoft. Buggy, sells more, poor customer service, yet everyone buys from them. They advertise like crazy, and if something better comes along, they buy it immediately! Less competition the better.



You don't do rendering with Autocad. You do it with 3ds Max. But first, you can easily draw/model it in Autocad and fly around it in Navisworks.
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Old Feb 5, 2014 | 08:46 PM
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No more expensive than music production software.
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