After sending in my AutoCAD renewal today and being told that the price went up yesterday, I'm seriously thinking about dumping the AutoCAD. However, I have a big investment in AutoLISP. How well does IntelliCAD support AutoLISP, if at all?
I'm not familiar with the newer versions of ICad. That said, 5 years ago, just for the heck of it, I converted our AutoCAD R14 stuff (which, like yours, represented many years of time and effort) to ICad. This included a couple of VBA programs, as well.
I was amazed at how well the transition was. There was code that needed to be slightly re-written, but not a terrifying amount.
My recommendation would be to download a trial version and fiddle with it. I am guessing you will be impressed.
> My recommendation would be to download a trial version and fiddle with it. I am guessing you will be impressed.
There seem to be many flavors of IntelliCAD available. Any favorites?
Jim,
You can download the MIcroSurvey CAD 2013 for a free 30 day demo at:
http://www.microsurvey.com/products/mscad/index.htm
It uses the latest version of IntelliCAD and you could try the AutoLISP routines to see if they work. Just a source for a 30 day trail using IntelliCAD.
Mark
Keep in mind this was a number of years ago...
We tried Briscad, but at that time it was having problems reading TIF world files correctly. And it was VERY slow with images.
We then tried Cadopia, which seemed fine.
Back in the day, all of these companies were pretty aggressive about helping folks to switch to ICad - if that's still true, try 'em all!
I've installed CMS IntelliCAD 7.2 Pro to try out. Initial impression with a fairly complex ALTA/topo is that it's every so slightly slower than AutoCAD to respond to commands, but much to my surprise my custom AutoLISP functions seem to be working fine.
I'm hopeful that it'll work out, as I'm so fed up with Autodesk right now that I really want to become a former customer.
If you like that, you will LOVE the Carlson packages with Intellicad.
(1) I will have to try CMS ICad sometime. Impressive if you got it to run AutoLISP with no modifications!
(2) We got fed up with AutoDESK 10 years ago.
> If you like that, you will LOVE the Carlson packages with Intellicad.
If I had a multi-seat operation I'd probably go with something like Carlson or Microsurvey, but I've been running my little outfit on vanilla AutoCAD with a bunch of custom programming (mostly AutoLISP) for 20 years. I'm probably too old -- and almost certainly too cheap -- to switch now.
Ditto on Carlson 2013/intellicad version. You might want to try a Bricsys version of intellicad, which is a cadd package with no embedded cogo. There are some surveying/engineering packages that work with it.
Imagine if they notified you that they were switching you to a different software suite that will cost you more money unless you contact them and opt out.
That just happened.
Imagine if you just payed to upgrade to the Infrastructure Design Suite and Autodesk turns around and gives it away for free after they took your money?
That just happened.
I have the CMS intellicad with and add on menu for surveyors. Been using Intellicad for 10 to 12 years now and am pleased with it.
> After sending in my AutoCAD renewal today and being told that the price went up yesterday, I'm seriously thinking about dumping the AutoCAD. However, I have a big investment in AutoLISP. How well does IntelliCAD support AutoLISP, if at all?
So how much do they want for plain ole AutoCAD these days? $1000 a year?
> So how much do they want for plain ole AutoCAD these days? $1000 a year?
It just went from $450 to $495.
> > So how much do they want for plain ole AutoCAD these days? $1000 a year?
>
> It just went from $450 to $495.
I guess its not as bad as I thought. Maybe the $1000 was for Civil3D subscription. Carlson Survey with Intellicad is like $170 a year.
I used to check the market for cad programs that supported lisp about once a year. So my info is a year old at least. Here is some of what I had gleaned in October of 2011.
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Here is one link:
It appears that a single copy is $399 with some discounts for larger orders. The page also shows a mac version but with a different name and I don't see any indication of whether it supports LISP yet. It is called icadmac and looks like it is $1000 but may run on ipad. Not to sure about it and it really doesn't look like it is from the same company or anything.
That led me to another autocad clone Briscad The LT-extender site shows that they have a free autolisp compiler for it.
http://www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/bricscad/index.jsp
called DEScoder
http://www.lt-extender.de/lt-extender/deutsch/inhalte/DEScoder/DESCoder.pdf
Briscad appears to be around $395 and up depending on features. It also has linux versions, but nothing for the mac.
https://www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/
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- jlw
> Briscad appears to be around $395 and up depending on features. It also has linux versions, but nothing for the mac.
>
>> https://www.bricsys.com/en_INTL/
> -----------------------
>
> - jlw
Linux user here, I tried numerous times to force install the 32bit version but gave it up.
I just checked again, there is now a 64bit version with a .deb install package...
===
PS: downloaded quickly, installed with no glitches. nice interface
I have no idea if it handles lisp... but still worth looking into.
> After sending in my AutoCAD renewal today and being told that the price went up yesterday, I'm seriously thinking about dumping the AutoCAD. However, I have a big investment in AutoLISP. How well does IntelliCAD support AutoLISP, if at all?
Jim, if you go to Intellicad, just remember to save a lot. In my experience, ICAD is not as stable as ACAD. It doesn't happen very often but every now and then something happens and it will save, but it will be a drawing saved with errors. Usually I keep the Windows Explorer dwg directory open to monitor to see if that happens. It shows up on the command line as well, but if you are not watching you could miss it. I have never been able to open a drawing that was saved with errors after closing ICAD. If you catch it doing that, just WBLOCK out your Model Space and Paper Space entities to separate DWG files. Then you can reconstruct it.
> Jim, if you go to Intellicad, just remember to save a lot.
Thanks for the tip. I'm sure it'll take some getting used to.
I run MsCad but also BricsCad.
There are so many Lisp routines written for BricsCad and AutoCad ones generally work.
BricsCad is a very robust program, but haven't seen any really good survey routines. That has to be tempered against my extensive use of MsCad.
BricsCad is my favoured plan drawing application. So sweet to use, and the users bend over backwards to help when I get stuck or need a Lisp to do something special.
