Running Carlson Survey on AutoCAD LT!

No.

3 choices:

-Imbedded with AutoCAD engine (price 1)
-On your AutoCAD as a platform
- or with IntelliCAD if you do not have AutoCAD (price 2).

When purchasing Carlson Survey with AutoCAD engine you are getting AutoCAD light. Why pursue the two separately?

Paul in PA

As stated above, NO. Best solution, AutoCAD Survey with embedded AutoCAD.
This costs more, but a transition from AutoCAD is much smoother, right now the product is more stable and the learning curve is much shallower.
If you go with the "cheaper" version, you may encounter issues with the Intellicad version. It's come a long way, but it's not quite there yet.(Read the NUMEROUS discussions on its pro's and con's on this site and make up your own mind.)
Installing the "cheaper" version on top of a current version of AutoCAD Civil 3D is cost prohibitive.
Those are your options. Carlson Survey is an awesome product, and once you het it all set up and learn how to use it, you will be amazed at the power in that package.
You're headed the right way. Now go find the system that's right for you.

Keep in mind that you can't add anything to LT, not even the simplest free lisp routine, etc. I would not recommend it to anyone.

On that note however, if your surveys includes road work, you will need the civil module. For example, you cannot cut cross-sections with survey stand alone (unless you do them as profiles, which is a work around).

I'd get the civil suite, 4 modules (Survey/Civil/Hydro/GIS), covers it all. For example, the hydro module is useful when a guy wants to do the rain drops test to depict the paths of water for drainage sketches. Not used often, but when needed, sure makes a nice product for the client.

Actually it is not really LT. It's like LT on steroids. LT does not do coordinates very well or 3d. AutoCAD LT is a totally different bird.

The four modules suggested, would this be nearing the price of a C3D seat? (If you chose the AutoCAD version of Carlson)

I would say so, price tag is $3,500 for the 4 modules suite. How much does C3D cost these days? Somewhere around there, I suppose. Two good programs.

> I would say so, price tag is $3,500 for the 4 modules suite. How much does C3D cost these days? Somewhere around there, I suppose.
C3d goes for over $6k. I've seen quotes in the $7k range. Plain vanilla AutoCad alone is $4k.

I didn't think it was that much, I guess a guy is looking at around $10,000 for C3D+AutoCAD, and $8,500 for Carlson Civil Suite+AutoCAD.

Not bad when you are already on the bandwagon, a bit of a step to get on it.

C3d is a flavor of AutoCAD. If you buy it, you don't need to also buy AutoCAD separately.

If you buy Carlson Survey with imbedded ACAD for $3k, you don't need to buy AutoCAD separately either.

I'm not sure about the arrangements with Carlson's Civil Suite, but it appears that it comes with IntelliCAD for $3500, and there is no imbedded ACAD option.

I was thinking retail "cash price" of C3D had dropped to 6500$

I wasn't sure if you could still buy the Carlson modules and THEN a seat of plain AutoCAD. It sounds like no more embedded AutoCAD option for Carlson?

The embedded AutoCAD engine is only available with Carlson Survey stand alone, a market far enough from C3D. The civil suite requires either: to have your license of AutoCAD (anywhere from 2004 or 2002 to now, don't quote me on this) as platform or to us the complimentary IntelliCAD engine that comes with the purchase.

10-4: "Survey Standalone" comes with OEM (Embedded ACAD.) I understand...

So, if a person was starting from scratch, and they wanted the four modules and did not have AutoCAD, they would need to purchase: (according to the cash retail prices listed on each companies websites:)
Civil Suite: $3595
AutoCAD: $4195

Total: $7,790

OR: Civil3D which comes with everything; Survey, Civil, Hydrology, full AutoCAD, plus full AutoCAD Map 3d: $6825

Seems that the oft-assumed notion that "Carlson" is cheaper than Civil3D simply isn't true.

If you don't have significant experience with C3D I would suggest adding a reoccurring training expense to your budget also. Developing an effective template on your own is no quick/easy task.

An advantage to Carlson is a large user/support base in the survey industry. Read... you can get by with Carlson with less training cost.

Of course it's more expensive, it's better. 😉

Have you worked with both?

not exactly..you don't need the autocad with the carlson modules, you can use the included intellicad and only pay the 3595.

OK, you get intellicad with the suite by default?

You just don't need to install it. Gotcha.

thanks.

The last time I used Carlson was a head-to-head comparison of the survey features between Carlson Survey 2012 and Civil3D 2012. The survey-only features in CarlsonSurvey standalone were in most respects far superior to the Survey-only features in C3D.

In a mixed office situation (engineers/surveyors) I still think C3D would be my preference.

Agreed. C3D is no easy nut to crack, and no one will ever dispute that. If an office is primarily doing their own boundary and survey only type work, C3D is a hard choice to make. It took me quite a long time to become proficient in C3D.

If I could marry the excellent F2F and least squares reduction of Carlson with the fantastic modeling capabilities of C3D we'd have a near perfect creature.