I have been through AutoCAD 2.17 through Release 12 (or was it 13?) and
suggest for an interesting 2D package look at QuickCAD 8 for a mere $69 from
Autodesk. I also went through the other competitors CAD products at the
low-end. One of the bugaboos is the degree of decimal precision, which the
premier product has always had the competition beat, able to plot the solar
system in real units in its database from nearly the start. I have QuickCAD
6 and it's pretty good, and reads all the other drawings made by AutoCAD in
2D, pretty much a standard format in the various drawing industries, though
at last check, a movement was afoot to make it non-proprietary. Apparently a
new XML standard is being developed for drawings and other land based
information also for online. One drawback is QuickCAD is only available in
English.

I once participated in an evening session for cheaper CAD conducted by the
industry I suspect Autodesk, and hence the AutoCAD LT which is about $500.
There are now, however, a free Map viewer and with Volo View one can view
zoom and pan maps and "mark them up" (for changes)without having any CAD
package, also available from Autodesk.

There is also another "high end" product that directly reads Trimble GIS
data and other "tripod-based" storage devices into drawings, AutoCAD Survey
3, if you need something more automatic and for higher volume.

Alas, the Schreiber Instruments reference was wrong, they only produce the
surface modeling software, what a shame, the "Spatial Explorer" demo I used
was such a wonder, almost like a virtual archaeology from field data. I
suspect much of it became redundant as AutoCAD added capabilities like it as
it has with other "competitors" add-ons.

George Myers



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