Best/most affordable cad software

Bricscad

I agree that BricsCAD is the best deal around if all you need is CAD software.?ÿ However, the OP indicated that what he really wants is surveying software that includes drafting capability, which is a very different matter.

or just be a luddite and go back to paper and pencil!?ÿ?ÿ

I always wanted to make my cad drawings look like they were hand drawn, but never really did.?ÿ I did look into getting a font made from my lettering.

Posted by: Andy J

...I always wanted to make my cad drawings look like they were hand drawn, but never really did.?ÿ I did look into getting a font made from my lettering.

I've had the very same pipe dream from time to time over the years.?ÿ I have seen some architectural styled files that made an attempt but seemed a little "cheesy" to me.?ÿ

I guess the demand for such isn't enough to warrant the trouble.

Character styles available are the same ones that are on your operating system and show up in the directory.

I remember having software that was capable of creating special characters and assigning that to a key on the keyboard and even the assignment of them to a special character keyboard.

Most cadd environments allow for the choice of keyboards like most word processing programs.

It would take a lot of time creating each letter and symbol and coming up with your own unique style that may be worth your efforts.

I have always used a character length of 1.125 for most basic lettering with an oblique angle of 0° for calls, Headrights and identifying monuments, 12° for deed references and 15° for roads and other labeled routes and double wide and triple wide letters for roads and waterways.

It is absolutely doable if you want to invest the time and effort, much like the time and effort involved in setting up Field to Field and the overall cadd environment you want to experience when you download your raw data into the program.

It would take a lot of time creating each letter and symbol

Sometime around 1990 I built a CAD shadow font from scratch, as AutoCAD didn't come with one (or if it did I never found it).?ÿ It was, indeed, a lot of work -- I laid out each character on grid paper and wrote the code for each by following along the layout, one line segment at a time.?ÿ I still use that font.

I have to agree about Carlson. After having used Eagle Point, Trav PC,  Civil Soft, Retriever (a name from the past) and Microstation, I'd have to say Carlson is the easiest for me. I've never sat at a computer all day, so I'd have to say Carlson is the most intuitive for field guy to use.

I have a copy of Lot Plot, that I use in the field every now and then, on my Yuma2.  I use it to COGO out deeds or lots in a subdivision and for line work rotation at times. It opens and writes .dwg and .dxf formats. It is really easy to use, but going from using Civil3D everyday to that, takes some thought.

Highly recommend Carlson Survey with Intellicad. We have 2 licenses for our small office and it has worked out great. Price is reasonable and the support staff has always been awesome about troubleshooting the few bugs we ran into.?ÿ

We bought 2 licenses in 2014 and just upgraded to 2019 last fall. I have a 2015 Carlson Survey license with AutoCad embedded at my home office and still prefer to use Intellicad.

?ÿ

So it was YOU who beat me?! ???? 

I haven’t gotten past second best yet

Were I going to software that required full up Surveying and Engineering design capabilities, I'd go with Carlson Civil Suite without question. You can Civil Suite for less than one seat of Civil 3D and, as of the 2007 version, the last we tried using, it is just as capable and easier to use. Plus, the CADD engine, Intellicad, comes included in the package.

Intellicad is also quite stable as compared to AutoCAD.

Yeah, I can second that.  This year I upgraded to two seats of Carlson survey/intellicad.  My Autocad 2014 needed upgrading and I just went with the intellicad.  Works fine.  And when I bring in an old Autocad drawing it comes in like it was an intellicad drawing.  No difference.  Nice.

Since you use Microstation at work, look at Bentley Power Survey. It about the same price as Carlson

Steve, 

Curious for processing strictly survey data...does Power Survey do everything that you really need? Does is create DTM, line chains, plots, etc? 

If you want the most surveyor-user unfriendly piece of topo/dtm processing software out there I would choose a Bentley product as well.  Flat out, worst piece of software for topographic editing ever.  You cannot add any additional data to your dtm once its finished.  You must reprocess the entire surface. When add new data all edits are lost, they are not retained. 

Real Surveyors do it by hand. None of this fancy schmancy stuff that only encourages laziness and sloppy work.

Just in case some thinks this is serious, it ain't!

Autodesk?ÿ Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) Collection - which includes Civil 3D, straight AutoCAD, Vehicle Tracking and lots more. For less than $10 per day.

I'd probably do Carlson as well.