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AutoCAD
2D & 3D design & drafting platform
(71)
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Reviews by rating
Recommended
John D.
Structural Engineer
Civil Engineering, 10,001+ employees
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Speaker 1: Hi there. My name is John. I'm a structural engineer. I give AutoCAD a five out of five. And...
Paul L.
Principal
Information Technology and Services, self-employed
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Paul: Hi, I'm Paul and I am a computer specialist and I give AutoCAD a four out of five. For more reviews,...
Mohammad M.
Civil Engineering, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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For a while now, AutoCAD has been my go-to CAD utility thanks to its rich features & undisputed performance. The software has a neat interface for easily navigating through the variety of plotting tools & organized tabs for all drafting purposes. it's hard not to recommend this software to anyone who's looking for a flawless CAD experience.
Since college, I've been regularly using AutoCAD to design 2D schematics in various course projects & till this day, the software has never failed me in fulfilling my work. The user interface is sleek & the plethora of features & compatibility to complement the fantastic user experience. More specifically, whenever I'm working a schematic that contains multiple layers (civil, electrical, HVAC, etc.), I'm easily able to lock or freeze other layers while working on a specific layer. This has countlessly averted me unintentional alterations of layers that I weren't supposed to modify.
Since updating to version 2023.1, I've noticed an increase in CPU usage on my Athlon 200GE desktop which occasionally led to audible inconvenience from the desktop fans revving at full speed. I hope a future update could resolve this minor annoyance. A great piece of software nonetheless.
Javauny A.
Education Management, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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A smooth, fun and continuous learning curve. The capabilities are only limited by your own imagination.
AutoCAD is widely used and easy to learn. It offers a wide range of functions and extensive options for customization for personal and indiviual use. The tools are easily accesible through a search bar and are given basic names in most cases.
The license can be costly for low end businesses and it may take some creativity and innovation to accomplish a certain end desire when 3D modelling.
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Telecommunications, 1-10 employees
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AutoCAD allows a lot of integration, plugin, and tools to facilitate the design process
AutoCAD is a super, mega-heavy tool, its installation requires a huge disk size, and high hardware resources for proper execution,
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Oil & Energy, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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He helped me a lot in preparing a project to design a fire station for an administrative building in the company in which I work
One of the best design programs that I use and helps me well in designing engineering projects and gives impressive results
One of the drawbacks of the program is the large storage space for the project
Hlengiwe M.
Civil Engineering, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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Very satisfied with AutoCAD. Love the automation features it offers.
It enables employees and friends to work on the same project concurrently, which in return enhances teamwork and communication. It is practically a limitless digital TD software. It is comparatively simple to keep everything tidy after you get a handle on the most fundamental equipment.
Very high CPU usage. First time users do need some training, need at least some tutorials.
Manuela B.
Medical Devices, 1-10 employees
Used weekly for 6-12 months
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You have the possibility to adapt the program to every single needs
It's very complete with a lots of possibility and different kind of option
It's a bit difficult to learn how to use it
Chirag J.
Hospitality, 10,001+ employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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AutoCAD creates 3D and 2D drawings with ease. These drawings are useful for lot of purposes.
There is nothing that I dislike about AutoCAD
Dharani S.
Retail, 51-200 employees
Used monthly for 2+ years
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2D and 3DSimulationPrecision and AccuracyDatabasesHandy tool
Limited file formatsLinesFill color and textureTrimmingBasic tools
Manuel N.
Industrial Automation, 1-10 employees
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Being a software very widely used in the industry, it has facilitated the development of all my clients' projects.
All my clients in the project area use this program so it is easy to exchange file for the implementation of my teams in their projects.
In order to be user of this utility, you must have full knowledge of how to use it since it is a dedicated software.
Alfonso D.
Internet, self-employed
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I had to use it for a project, nothing too complicated. It did great.
Very very very very steep learning curve. Unfortunately.
Lyle H.
Utilities, 51-200 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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We are an engineering firm and have used AutoCAD as our main drafting and design program for almost 30 years. Even though we have moved on to Revit, we still use AutoCAD for certain projects where 3D parametric design may not be needed or practical.
I've used it for 30+ years so I know it inside and out. It's heavily customizable and AutoCAD is a great tool for just about anything you need to design. It's THE industry standard for CAD. If you work with lots of other companies and are sharing drawings frequently, AutoCAD is the way to go. AutoCAD LT may be an option as well at a fraction of the cost.
While AutoCAD does offer some parametric and 3D features, it's not the best thing out there if you are wanting to do parametric 3D design. Also, after using Revit, the disconnection between drawings (other than xrefs) is rather annoying. But, if you're a skilled drafter, you can do great things with AutoCAD.
JOSE D.
Civil Engineering, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Good for the most part. Software can be buggy and therefore we like to be 6-months to 1-year behind the most current version.
It is the main tool that we use for our industry (Civil Engineering) and it is essential. Helps us be efficient with drawing setup/creation as well as calculations.
Pressure Networks are still a work in progress. I wish it was as easy to use as Pipe Networks. Also, every couple of years the way files are saved changes, forcing people to have the most current version.
Kamran Y.
Events Services, 1-10 employees
Used other for 2+ years
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Once I tried to draw my own home's plan but could not manage software requires a lot of time and patience.
It manages extremely large projects with exact measures and details. It gives availability to work in 3D Space. Cloud function helps to get advantage to work as a team.
It needs strong computer resources. Without qualified tutorials, it is like impossible to work on this program. Besides the price is so expensive.
Verified reviewer
Architecture & Planning, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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I briefly used AutoCAD before using Revit for all of my time at university. I then switched to AutoCAD when I started my internship, as they did not have Revit. It really just takes a lot more time to do the same things. For example, I was tasked with drawing up some interior elevations, which I could do in Revit by simply making a section.
Without AutoCAD, many essential industries in today's world would crumble. It has become such a useful and essential tool in pretty much all design fields. Even when it is not the preferred tool, it works well and can be used effectively.
Too many people learned this software, and are afraid to switch to much better tools that would save time and money in the longrun. The construction and architecture industry, for example, have Autodesk Revit, which does pretty much everything AutoCAD does and more. AutoCAD is fine, but Revit is just better for this industry.
George F.
Civil Engineering, 201-500 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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AutoCAD is tough to pick up and learn, however, this can be said for any modeling software with such immense capabilities. This being said, AutoCAD is my favorite modeling software to use as I have been able to play around with it during college and throughout my internship. I have modeled small buildings to planes, and will continue to use AutoCAD as I believe it is the best modeling software.
With AutoCAD, your mind is the limit for what you can draw, simulate, and model! As an engineering student I used AutoCAD in a couple of my classes to create anything ranging from simple pieces of equipment to an entire Iron Man helmet (I would like to note that making the Iron Man Helmet took a very long time). The precision with AutoCAD always memorizes me, as you can make models that look real within the program. I have used AutoCAD for a few years now (throughout college and through my engineering internships) and still feel as if I have scratched the surface on the immense capabilities of AutoCAD. I highly recommend AutoCAD for any creative person that is looking to get into modeling or any company that is looking to improve their equipment drawings.
I would definitely have to say that AutoCAD has been one of the more difficult software to pick up and learn (take this with a grain of salt though as all modeling software are typically very difficult to learn). AutoCAD provides many tutorials to help you get started, however, these can only take you so far. To become proficient with AutoCAD you need many hours dedicated to playing around with AutoCAD and watching other tutorials. Once you have gotten good at using AutoCAD, you will be able to create almost anything with ease. One last thing to note is that it can be tough to find what exact button you are looking for with the current interface. Other than that, I highly recommend AutoCAD.
elleuch s.
Civil Engineering, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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Overall, I find AutoCAD to be an excellent tool for my work. Its ease of use, precision, and many functionalities make it an essential program for any designer or engineer. I look forward to continuing to work with it and discovering all the new ways I can use it to create innovative designs.Overall, while I appreciate the many benefits of AutoCAD, there are a few things about the software that I think could be improved. However, I believe that the benefits of the software outweigh the drawbacks, and I will continue to use it as a valuable tool in my work.
I really enjoy working with AutoCAD. It is a fantastic software that is very easy to manipulate, and it offers a high level of precision. I love that I can use it to create detailed and complex designs with ease. One of the things that I appreciate about AutoCAD is its user-friendly interface. It is incredibly intuitive, and the tools are logically organized, making it very easy to find what I need...
While I enjoy working with AutoCAD, there are a few things about the software that I don't like. For one, I find that it can be quite resource-intensive, especially when working with larger files. This can make the program slow down and become less responsive, which can be frustrating when I'm trying to get work done quickly.Another issue I've encountered with AutoCAD is that some of the tools can be a bit difficult to use. While the software is generally user-friendly, there are some functions that require a bit of trial and error to get right. For example, I've had trouble with the hatch tool, which can be a bit finicky to work with.
Abdallah F.
Civil Engineering, self-employed
Used weekly for 2+ years
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Since I started my career as an engineer, I have always or almost always used Autocad as a work tool. I must say that in the engineering environment that I lived, we only spoke the AutoCAD language.
You can do almost everything with Autocad, from the simple sketch of a room to the plan of a project without making a distinction if it is electricity, building or civil engineering. If we master the integration of georeferenced images we can even speak of GIS. I said "if we master" because in autocad we have everything we need to make our project emerge, but we need the appropriate users. It is absolutely...
Autocad is a tool that adapts to all situations but which requires a continuous investment in self-training. You have to learn good habits and ask the right questions knowing that it always offers the right answers. This requires either hard-working designers or knowledgeable supervision.
Mirza Č.
Construction, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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First time I got introduced to AutoCAD it was in high school, second grade. Since I went to high school which is specialized for training construction workers I have used many software's for drawing and one of them was AutoCAD, which I found very easy to use. I used it for 2 years in that period of life and it was very amusing for me to find something like that to ease my handwriting , drawing and...
Accuracy and precision with really ease of use, that is exactly what AutoCAD is. With just computer mouse function and a little bit of keyboard usage the things you can draw without holding a pencil and without any need for all that drawing and drafting equipment on your table. Any kind of 2D drawings or 3D modeling drawings you can draw with AutoCAD, which helps you to visualize the objects better...
Some add-ons might be hard to install, but not necessarily. File transferring sometimes can be a little difficult especially if files sizes are bigger and because of that sometimes you won't be able to load some of the received documents, so you will have to find a fix for that, but still I did not have many problems of that kind or any other. One more information that could be useful is that AutoCad's files only can be opened with its own extension which is DWG ( I don't know is that a problem for some users or not, but there it is, truth is out there).
Hicham S.
Computer Software, self-employed
Used daily for 1-2 years
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I had a hard time getting started with AutoCAD. The interface is not very user-friendly and the learning curve is steep. Once I got the hang of it, I found that it was very buggy and would often crash. Overall, I was not impressed with AutoCAD and would not recommend it to anyone. It has limited features, crashes frequently, and can be difficult to learn. On the other hand, I think it could be useful...
AutoCAD is the industry standard in CAD (computer-aided design) software. It has been around for over 30 years and has changed significantly during that time. With each version, new features are added, existing ones are improved, and the interface changes to accommodate those changes. I've been using AutoCAD for about a year now, and I have to say that I'm really impressed with it. It's very user-friendly,...
Overall, I was really disappointed with AutoCAD. I found the interface to be confusing and difficult to use. The software crashed a lot and was really slow. Plus, the learning curve was really steep. I wouldn't recommend this software to anyone. It's just not worth it. There are so many other programs out there that are better than this one. The price is outrageous for what you get. If you're looking...
Mitchell C.
Motion Pictures and Film, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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For all its foibles and annoyances Autocad still offers a comprehensive design and drafting solutions for an amazing array of applications. I have had a love/hate with Autocad over the years dealing with its growing pains and Autodesks struggle to meet the many and varied needs of its users. For large scale projects there is still very few products that have the extensibility of Autocad to integrate into modern company quality, workflow and project management systems.
Autocad was the first CAD program I ever used. To give you an idea of the time period, it was before MS Windows existed and we did not have mice! Thus, using Autocad under DOS was all about command line input and scripts. This aspect of Autocad remains unchanged today. There is a huge array of scripts, tools and add-ons for almost every niche application you could imagine. Autocad is essentially the...
Autocad suffers from the same issues as does Microsoft Windows. When you have a large long term user base it's hard to innovate without upsetting users who have settled on a certain workflow or script integration. This has left Autocad lagging behind its competition in terms of modelling capability and performance. I find myself using other packages to create 3D models, then exporting the 2D drawings back into Autocad for final drafting and client distribution. Part of the issue is also crossover with products like Inventor and Fusion360. Autocad cannot become too parametrically driven or it will undermine Autodesks other offerings.
Piotr P.
Computer Software, 51-200 employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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I was working with AutoCAD during my two internships, my first job, and in my private projects. To tell the truth, at the beginning it was a quite confusing piece of software. The number of functionalities can overwhelm. However, after some time I started to use it smoothly. AutoCAD allows the creation of drawings efficiently with relatively low effort (especially compared to some other tools that...
Amount of functionalities. Help Centre -> Explanations and examples. Ease of usage and intuitiveness (if a user is somehow proficient). Ease of big projects management.
Occasional problems with sub-file imports after file/folder location change. Installed with a huge amount of side programs that aren't necessarily needed -> May be confusing for the beginners. Fairly high price.
Fabiana T.
Research, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used weekly for 2+ years
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As someone who has used AutoCAD for over a decade, I can say that my experience with the software has been very positive overall. I first used AutoCAD as a student in architecture college and found it to be a valuable tool for creating precise drawings and 3D models. As I continued to use the software in my professional work, I discovered new features and tools that helped streamline my workflow and...
- AutoCAD is a versatile software that can be used for a variety of design tasks, including 2D drafting, 3D modeling, and rendering.- The software offers a wide range of tools and features that can help streamline the design process and increase productivity.- AutoCAD allows for easy collaboration with others through its ability to import and export files in a variety of formats.- The software has a large user community and plenty of online resources available for learning and troubleshooting.
The learning curve for AutoCAD can be steep, especially for those who are new to the software or have limited experience with CAD programs.
Verified reviewer
Consumer Electronics, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Overall, for normal sketching and drafting it is more than enough to work on. It is one of the best in the market to create designs in drawing sheets. Still, in many firms, Auto CAD is widely used in major fields such as city planning, Architecture, 2D drafting, electrical and electronic designs, etc. It is the basic software that every engineer working in the field should self-teach themselves with the tutorials provided. It is always the necessary tool to implement and create drawings as an engineer.
AutoCAD is the easiest 2D drafting software for the mechanical field of enterprises. It is easy to install and deploy from individual PCs to the communication servers. All the tools are readily available to create drawings to final prints. The commands and shortcuts are used widely to perform quick functions and they can also be customized according to the user's needs.
It cannot be used in place of larger machine structures or complex designs. There are other competitors with advanced CAD tools for 3D modeling with the surface, solid, sheet metal, welding, Plastic injection molding, and die-casting design segments for easier access. Also, too much manual intervention is required during operation. The software is more expensive than competitors in the market. Larger files are crashed during the operations which had to be recovered and there will be huge data losses without auto save.
Stefan Z.
Architecture & Planning, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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Since my undergraduate studies and throughout the previous years, AutoCAD has been the program on which I have spent hours each day working on architectural designs and assessing the numerous prject drawings of the projects that I oversee. The clarity of the engineering standards that are presented on it increases your confidence in the capacity of technicians and construction workers to apply this.
I really enjoy using AutoCAD's commands because they're simple yet not overly difficult. I like that each function's additional options are clearly stated in the command bar, as well. I believe that general usability is fairly decent. CAD won't be difficult if you're comfortable with using computer programs in general. However, the project's return on investment is exponential, which is staggering. Even more than just completing straightforward linework in Adobe products, I utilize this software on a daily basis. My workflow just can't function without CAD that it has become so instilled in it.
Even though AutoCAD does have certain parametric and 3D features, it is not the greatest option available for parametric 3D design. Additionally, the disconnect between drawings (other than xrefs) is somewhat unpleasant after using Revit. However, if you're a talented drafter, AutoCAD can be quite useful.
Verified reviewer
Architecture & Planning, 10,001+ employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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My overall experience with AutoCAD is positive. I've been using it for years now and highly recommend it.
AutoCAD is AutoCAD users best kept secret, people assume this is a difficult piece of software to use but this isn't the case. AutoCAD is a fantastically versatile and easy to use package with great online support out there. I love how easily other pieces of software can integrate with it and how you can produce quality looking technical drawings within a relatively short time-span. For first time users I would recommend getting your head around commands and keyboard shortcuts as early as possible because in a short space of time you will find your speed of production is greatly improved by this.
I do feel that AutoDesk release too many new versions of the software and seem to have got into the Adobe thinking of a yearly release just for the sake of it. Also in more recent years, watching the design of the workspace alter from a command led system to a button led one feels like a step back to those of us who still speedily type in our commands rather than gazing at a sea of grey buttons. That said, at least Autodesk have left in an option to switch the workspace to the old layout for fossils like me.