AUTOCAD vs VISIO - COMMENTS PLEASE

[Andy Fern]

We are in the process investigating the best CAD package for use under
the following set of requirements.

1. Must be able to easily draw network equipment that is typically
mounted in racks. This includes Wide Area Network and Telco Central
Office equipment from various vendors - Lucent, Cisco, et. al. - quite a
varity of vendors and a reasonably large set of major equipment items.

2. Must be either relatively easy to learn or have a pool of capable
users that is large enough so as not to present a hiring and retention
problem.

3. Must provide a history of adequate software support and some
assurance of future support.

4. (Would be nice) Can easily place informatioin embedded into the
equipment "pictures" into a database - for report generation and
tracking.

5. (Would be nice) Drawings can be "tracked" in a commercially
available, proven, documentation management system.

Now. If any of you out there have at least one or more years experience
with AutoCAD AND Visio, I would appreciate it if you could help in this
"quest".

My thanks in advance.

Regards,

Andy Fern

[Allan Lindsay]

I would not invest in a CAD package for this. While it may be possible to
do everything you want in AutoCAD or other CAD packages, you'll be starting
from basically ground zero and will have to develop everything for yourself.
CAD packages are for design work either mechanical or architectural. Very
good for exact measurements, but with very poor library of devices.
Visio with it's network package is a closer match for what you need,
especially with it's Autodiscovery feature. For best result, you'll need the
Enterprise version which comes with the device library you'll need. Before
buying it, I would review the postings in the various Visio newsgroups about
it's reliability and workability. There use be a number of network
diagramming tools, like Clicknet, but they seem to have disappeared. There
is still one called NetViz.
Be aware, that Visio Enterprise is not a CAD tool. If you need CAD
functionality, then you'll also need to get Visio Technical.
"Andy Fern" <af...@mailbox.bellatlantic.net> wrote in message
news:3961006...@mailbox.bellatlantic.net...

[Bill R (beejay) [MVP - Outlook]]

I would think Visio is better suited to your needs. It isn't, however, A CAD
package. I'd go with Visio and se if you need anything beyond it. if you do,
then consider TurboCAD as a less-expensive option to AutoCAD
(www.turbocad.com ). TurboCAD has some compatibility with Visio via the dwg
format.

--
Bill R