worked in a prominent office in the mid/late nineties where their CAD software of choice at the time was Drawbase...i remember it being very easy to pick up and very object oriented (grouped entities)...looking back, i think it was way ahead of its time in terms of simplicity...
but Drawbase was more of regional player in the CAD market, so it got phased out of the office in favor of you know what...i think Archicad bought it though and it's still used for Facility Management...
questions from me to any ex-users are: 1) what software out there today is most like Drawbase in terms of ease of use and grouped objects? and 2) anyone who thinks that Drawbase was a great product with awful marketing?
i do have strong thoughts on one package that i find very similar in many ways but am curious about other thoughts...
Thanks for the Drawbase mention. Drawbase Software is still in business and quite strong in the FM, IWMS and Datacenter Management areas. Graphisoft spun the company off back in 2005 as they really had no interest in the FM space. It is completely compatbile w/other CAD systems and has the ability to read and write those file formats. I have to agree with the marketing effort back in the '90's but I should also point out that other cad products were free and easily copied back then while Drawbase always had a software lock which hampered its expansion in the marketspace with users that felt that software should be free. Don't you remember products like Datacad, ComputerVision and others that were far superior but not free?
There has always been an international presence and multiple language versions of the product as well.
yeah, i know it's still around as a niche product, but obviously with no one using it in architecture, it's not an option anymore...and never did try datacad or computer vision back in the day..
the manner of working with drawbase was odd at first, but i quickly understood and appreciated the need to group every object being drawn so there were no loose lines...and i find sketchup now to be equally sleek and simple to use...a pretty locked down set of features without endless cascading menus of crap that i don't need...
without a FT in-house autocad tech with proprietary CAD standards blocks set up, i find today's base install of autocad to be pretty useless and essentially at the same level of functionality it was since R14...
so what else out there right now (drafting-wise) then, do people think is similarly structured to drawbase? simple UI, intuitive, great consistent standard library and no bloated useless menus...have tried a couple versions of intellicad, now doublecad and am still hoping to find some simpler CAD package for speed and convenience...
I used Drawbase back in windows 3.1 days. All I can think is you want it for nostaglia reasons. All the tools and commands were on a separate tablet. There was no line weight control. Or at least my boss insisted on minimal line weight differences as well as few lines of text because it ate up to much memory and harddisk space. This is back when HD space. were less than a gig. Acad LT 98 has more power.
you know what? i had actually completely forgot about the tablet...it's the command sequencing and command options that i remember were so well managed...line weights i recall were set up already for me, so can't comment on how it was in a base install...
but yeah, i have no desire to go back to dinosaur technology...although, if anyone looks at some of my old postings, you'll know i consider autocad to be as ancient a technology and am trying hard to still find a new world option...
have tried doublecad and will test it out a bit more, but it's not an improvement so much as a free option...
Apr 13, 09 4:22 pm ·
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any ex-Drawbase users out there?
worked in a prominent office in the mid/late nineties where their CAD software of choice at the time was Drawbase...i remember it being very easy to pick up and very object oriented (grouped entities)...looking back, i think it was way ahead of its time in terms of simplicity...
but Drawbase was more of regional player in the CAD market, so it got phased out of the office in favor of you know what...i think Archicad bought it though and it's still used for Facility Management...
questions from me to any ex-users are: 1) what software out there today is most like Drawbase in terms of ease of use and grouped objects? and 2) anyone who thinks that Drawbase was a great product with awful marketing?
i do have strong thoughts on one package that i find very similar in many ways but am curious about other thoughts...
Thanks for the Drawbase mention. Drawbase Software is still in business and quite strong in the FM, IWMS and Datacenter Management areas. Graphisoft spun the company off back in 2005 as they really had no interest in the FM space. It is completely compatbile w/other CAD systems and has the ability to read and write those file formats. I have to agree with the marketing effort back in the '90's but I should also point out that other cad products were free and easily copied back then while Drawbase always had a software lock which hampered its expansion in the marketspace with users that felt that software should be free. Don't you remember products like Datacad, ComputerVision and others that were far superior but not free?
There has always been an international presence and multiple language versions of the product as well.
yeah, i know it's still around as a niche product, but obviously with no one using it in architecture, it's not an option anymore...and never did try datacad or computer vision back in the day..
the manner of working with drawbase was odd at first, but i quickly understood and appreciated the need to group every object being drawn so there were no loose lines...and i find sketchup now to be equally sleek and simple to use...a pretty locked down set of features without endless cascading menus of crap that i don't need...
without a FT in-house autocad tech with proprietary CAD standards blocks set up, i find today's base install of autocad to be pretty useless and essentially at the same level of functionality it was since R14...
so what else out there right now (drafting-wise) then, do people think is similarly structured to drawbase? simple UI, intuitive, great consistent standard library and no bloated useless menus...have tried a couple versions of intellicad, now doublecad and am still hoping to find some simpler CAD package for speed and convenience...
I used Drawbase back in windows 3.1 days. All I can think is you want it for nostaglia reasons. All the tools and commands were on a separate tablet. There was no line weight control. Or at least my boss insisted on minimal line weight differences as well as few lines of text because it ate up to much memory and harddisk space. This is back when HD space. were less than a gig. Acad LT 98 has more power.
those were the days...
you know what? i had actually completely forgot about the tablet...it's the command sequencing and command options that i remember were so well managed...line weights i recall were set up already for me, so can't comment on how it was in a base install...
but yeah, i have no desire to go back to dinosaur technology...although, if anyone looks at some of my old postings, you'll know i consider autocad to be as ancient a technology and am trying hard to still find a new world option...
have tried doublecad and will test it out a bit more, but it's not an improvement so much as a free option...
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