Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!leah!bingvaxu!sunybcs!rutgers!att!mcdchg!ddsw1!corpane!sparks
From: sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Autocad (was OS/2 vs AmigaDOS)
Summary: Gimme!
Message-ID: <607@corpane.UUCP>
Date: 9 May 89 12:37:22 GMT
References: <8032@killer.Dallas.TX.US> <8035@killer.Dallas.TX.US>
Reply-To: sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks)
Organization: Corpane Industries, Inc.
Lines: 45

In article <8035@killer.Dallas.TX.US> elg@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Eric Green)
writes:
>ARGH! I'd rather eat vomitous gopher stew! AutoCAD is a BEAR of a
>program to learn. The user interface sux big time. If it came out on
>the Amiga market tomorrow, it'd flop so bad that it'd make
>WordPerfect's showing look good by comparison. 

I disagree whole heartedly! As far as CAD programs go, AUTOCAD is the 
CADillac. I use it everyday, for the last 2 years. It took me 1 weekend to 
learn enough to start using it. I have tried many other CAD programs both
on my company's microVAX and on the PC's, and AUTOCAD beat them all in 
usefulness, ease of use, and flexibility. Release 10 has a windowed interface,
with multiple viewpoints available at once, pop down menus and a true 3D
database. 

AutoCAD is slow unless you have at least a 286 based machine. I use a 386
at work, running unix with autocad running under DOSmerge. I have a
summagraphics 12" tablet that I have programed with all my symbols that I use
in my drawings. I simply pick a symbol and place it where I want in the
drawings. I wrote all this custom tablet and menu stuff for AutoCAD in about
1 week. And I am NOT a programmer. I know basic. But I picked up on AutoLISP
in about a week of playing around. 

I have played around with Aegis Draw + , IntroCAD and Homebuilders CAD on the
Amiga and they all are clearly very poor compared to Autocad. If AutoCAD came
to the Amiga, it would blow away any existing CAD software on the Amiga. 
True, you may have to have the 68020 and flicker fixer before it would be
very useful. The 68000 would probably be to slow, and you would need 640 x 400
non-interlaced to do some serious work. But with the Amiga's 4096 HAM mode and
hooks from AutoCAD to some of the ray-tracing packages, you would have a 
very powerful 3d solid modeling package. Much better than on any other micro.
I read an article in a CAD magazine where someone is using an Amiga 2500 with
the AT bridgecard. They run AutoCAD under the bridgecard and use the Amiga to 
render the drawings in HAM using Sculpt3d. The pictures of the results were
very impressive. It would be much nicer and easier if AutoCAD actually ran
under AmigaDOS.

The only thing that would keep AutoCAD from being a success in the Amiga
market would be its high price. I believe its around $2300, a bit high for the
Amiga market. 

-- 
John Sparks   |  {rutgers|uunet}!ukma!corpane!sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 1200bps
[not for RHF] |          sparks@corpane.UUCP         | 502/968-5401 thru -5406 
186,000 miles per second: it's not just a good idea, it's the law.