I am proud owner (for many years) of Civil 3D and its ancestors, and Carlson Civil/Survey. I have both installed on my machine.
Differences in what people like are what makes the world go around. My opinion is certainly just my own opinion, but here it is...
1. I can produce good civil and survey work on Carlson MUCH, MUCH faster than I can on Civil 3D.
2. Carlson has a logical pattern of operation that is simply loaded with common sense and practicality.
3. If I have a tech support issue, at Carlson I get someone on the phone every single time, and they absolutely know how to support the product.
Prior to selling my firm to a national firm in 2004, I personally did not do a ton hands-on use of CAD. But now that I am mainly doing my own work, mostly forensic engineering/surveying, I do most of my own CAD work and surveying. The bottom line on Carlson is that it is remarkably great and easy to learn.
In the world of technology where firmware and software often come out in what I'd consider a beta condition, Carlson stands way out in front by being a truly professional product on every release. It is good to pay for something and it actually works. Highly recommended.
My own opinion, naturally.
Could not possibly agree with you more!!
I think more and more people are coming to this same conclusion. You get a product that works easier, costs less and customer support that cannot be beat.
Just my opinion too (and I used to be a dyed in the wool LDD user!).
> Could not possibly agree with you more!!
> I think more and more people are coming to this same conclusion. You get a product that works easier, costs less and customer support that cannot be beat.
> Just my opinion too (and I used to be a dyed in the wool LDD user!).
I am just waiting for your personal blessing for me to DROP acad in favor of Intellicad.
Currently running C2011 with A2007 embedded. Love it!
I concur, also. Carlson is the leader both in the field and in the office in my opinion, but I've used it more than anything else, too, so I suppose my opinion is biased.
NO ARGUMENT THERE
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NO ARGUMENT THERE
Now, if they could just lock the toolbar on icad
Here it comes. I just loaded a copy of Survey 2014 w/embedded AutoCAD. HATE the ribbon crap!! Why have 2 menus that do basically the same thing? The Carlson menu has ALL of the commands on the pull downs, the ribbon has MOST, but not all. Why? What a waste of screen space!!
And I won't go into it asking me to select a work space and when I select the "?" option for the list, nothing shows up.
Intellicad does not do the ribbon thing yet. To me, that is a grand reason to select that option on the next install. Terry says it's great, so I am now inclined to believe him.
The embedded 2014 has a LOT of problems. I am hearing that Intellicad is finally stable. Now all I have to do is learn Intellicad's little tricks!
Until that time, my Carlson Survey 2010 w/embedded AutoCAD is the BOMB!!!!
> Here it comes. I just loaded a copy of Survey 2014 w/embedded AutoCAD. HATE the ribbon crap!! Why have 2 menus that do basically the same thing? The Carlson menu has ALL of the commands on the pull downs, the ribbon has MOST, but not all. Why? What a waste of screen space!!
> And I won't go into it asking me to select a work space and when I select the "?" option for the list, nothing shows up.
Okay WORD to my brother. Sounds like my brief 6 months with C3D in 2012..
> Intellicad does not do the ribbon thing yet. To me, that is a grand reason to select that option on the next install. Terry says it's great, so I am now inclined to believe him.
> The embedded 2014 has a LOT of problems. I am hearing that Intellicad is finally stable. Now all I have to do is learn Intellicad's little tricks!
> Until that time, my Carlson Survey 2010 w/embedded AutoCAD is the BOMB!!!!
Right on. So I am going to wait until YOU have had a solid year of nearly 100% production usage of IntelliCAD with nearly zero reliance on AutoCAD before I jump into ICAD...
NO ARGUMENT THERE
JB,
Saw you ask about this a few days/weeks ago. I have just started using Carlson-14 with ICAD-7. Just guessing but maybe a bug in the version you have. After reading your post, I have edited, moved and created Tool Bars. They always save with my changes and they are the same on any drawing I open after that. Sorry this is not a answer, but I could not get my software to have the same issue as yours :-S .
Maybe download a free trial of the latest install and see what it does?
Good Luck.
Scott
NO ARGUMENT THERE
Another idea, look where the program is installed and make sure that the files are not write protected.
The interface could be more consistent across the modules. Some of the calls in some of the modules have old feels. This makes it tougher to sell to a crowd that values esthetic before performance. It is getting better with the more recent versions. Take a look for instance at Trimble Business Center. The interface is up to date. Look up Eagle point stakeout (Now a member of Civil 3D) and Carlson point stakeout. The Carlson product provides more useful information, but the interface is not as fresh. Some of the fonts date back to Windows 98, that's a while back. Come on guys, throw some money into this.
Carlson software is a great product to use. When I began in the civil world, I used LDD. I came to road blocks that I couldn't cross, I read the help menu, tried to figure it out and I could not. It put a lot of stress on my person, as the clients were waiting for information that I could not readily offer. The option provided by the company was to schedule some training down the road but no money was made available, so limping through some of the tasks and getting something half decent done through other time consuming routes were the only viable options. Got to get it done.
About the same time, I started using Carlson (they had a great deal with AutoCAD back then) and when I came to road blocks, I could figure out a way to solve them. I think that's what I like best about the software. If you can read, and willing to visit the help menu when need be, you can figure things out. "Work simply, simply works" resumes very well the software. In the last 10 years, I dealt with a lot of engineers and engineering request. "Can't do that" was never an answer to the requests. It was more like: "let's see, I need to do this task, how can I go about it, okay I could do this, etc. there we go".
I am very satisfied with this product and can live past the cosmetic shortfalls of the interfaces; reason being the actual product delivered (digital or print) is up to today's standards.
Carlson :good:
I concur. Carlson is wonderful.
Huzzah!
I have a standing order at the office. Don't ask anyone for help until you have read Carlson's help menu. I would rather they learn to do it right and not tie up two people's time.