Carlson Survey ACAD to IntelliCAD differences.

I'm running one copy over plain AutoCAD 2018 and my crew chief is on the latest IntelliCAD.?ÿ Though its not exactly your situation I'd bet the differences are similar.?ÿ I switch between the two with only minor aggravations.

There are minor differences in both the command line commands and how some of the commands work.?ÿ For example, MT is Mtext in both.?ÿ In AutoCAD if I want to draw an mtext parallel to a line I select the beginning point of the text box, then hit R and select the second point of the rotation (it assumes that the beginning point of the box is the first rotation point). In IntelliCAD you'd select the beginning point, hit R, then select the basepoint of the rotation then the second point.?ÿ IntelliCAD allows you to edit the command aliases so you can edit them to suit yourself.

Bringing your settings over from your current version is the key to not losing productivity.?ÿ The command differences are more of an aggravation than a productivity killer.?ÿ

I am using Carlson Survey 2011 Intellicad. I will be cross grading to the embedded version this year. Too many small differences and issues with Intellicad and I prefer the autocad environment. I have demoed some of the newer versions but still not the same.

Posted by: Mark Indzeris

I'm thinking about upgrading from Carlson Survey (Embedded) 2011 to the latest version of Carlson Survey IntelliCAD.

1.?ÿ What differences will I see compared to AutoCAD embedded?

Few differences will stand out at first. The layer dialog is a bit different. The pull-down menus have some differences. Most of the differences will become apparent after you start working and find that a command behaves slightly differently, or you might find a command quick key missing that you are used to having.

2.?ÿ Those that have done this- Was your productivity affected?

No. I already had long experience with AutoCAD, so it only took a couple of weeks to get used to the differences. If you have not used AutoCAD, it will probably take a little longer to not be so surprised when something is different.

3.?ÿ Are the command line commands the same, or are the subtle differences like having to spell out the full commands?

Most are the same, there are quite a few subtle differences, and you will find a few aggravations because something is completely not there. But there is always another way to do what you were trying to do.

I've got the demo downloaded and waiting to install until I have a spare minute to really dig into it.

My company was running with IntelliCAD, but decided to switch to AutoCAD because of program stability issues. When we first started running ICAD, program crashes a few times a day was the norm (2014-2015). With 2016 ICAD things had improved a lot, but the company decided to make the switch. I went from 1 or 2 crashes per week to my current 1 crash every 2 or 3 weeks with ACAD. If they have continued to improve ICAD's stability, it is probably on an equal footing now.

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I understand dynamic blocks lose their dynamic functions in IntelliCAD, but I don't have any personal experience with newest versions to confirm.

Intellicad is finally stable.?ÿ I finally canceled my AutoCAD subscription for support after giving Intellicad a thorough workout with three large projects.?ÿ?ÿ

The transition is intuitive and easy.?ÿ And if you are using Carlson, the Intellicad support is incredibly good.?ÿ It has been a long time coming, but we are now 100% Intellicad.?ÿ Highly recommended for any civil/survey firm to check it out.

Thanks for the replies.?ÿ Been using Carlson Survey since the 99 release.?ÿ I remember the days of crashing, don't want to go back.?ÿ But I think I will give IntelliCad a go.