How are Autodesk, AutoCad, and Autodesk Civil 3D different?
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9 Answers
Dilip Damle, Using Autocad since R12 for DOS. More than 30,000 hours of usage.
Answered Jan 26, 2017 · Author has 3.1k answers and 2.7m answer views
You are trying to compare three things .
• Autodesk
• Autocad
• Autodesk Civil 3D
First one is the company that has developed and sells the other two as its products. Even there
you have made a mistake of naming the third one.
So what you wnat to ask is a Comparison between Autocad and Autocad Civil 3D (Not
Autodesk Civil 3d) the name makes a difference because the company has several products
with like names.
So the correct question is what is the difference between Autocad and Autocad Civil 3d?
Autocad is a General purpose CAD software. many people misunderstand it as only 2d
software. That ( 2D v/s 3D in bare Autocad ) is a subject of separate discussion so I will
discuss it may be in a blog post.
What needs to be stated before we proceed is bare Autocad does have 3D capabilities they are
not user friendly as some other software but they are there as a building block for something
better on top of it.
So we as users look at Autocad as a product and try to compare it.
In fact it is more than a product Autocad is a CAD platform on which anything can be
built.
How is that possible and who can do it. It is done using what is called the API (application
programming interface) . Autocad has API capability since Autolisp in January 1986. Using
Autolisp you and me can develop add ons to Autocad. There are thousands of small addons
available. Most of them free. People have developed their own private add ons for specific
purposes.
But there were limitations in the capabilities of Autolisp in terms of performance and
capabilities. So Autodesk developed better API.
Over the years better API have been developed. You may read this article for more details.
AutoCAD and Programming Languages – ADS/ADSRX/ARX
After Autocad moved to windows and the API became more powerful many third party
developers started developing powerful discipline specific add ons. AEC was a big market
and many players came in. One of them is About Us - Eagle Point Software I just picked it at
random. There was another named Softdesk. They developed Land Development desktop.
That time Autodesk itself was not selling many add ons. Later they came up with Mechanical
Desktop, Architectural Desktop, and Land Development Desktop. They bought softdesk….
the history is long. That is when Autodesk wen in themselves in a large way in the discipline
specific products. Read this link AutoCAD Release History
All along the above history and the products Autocad remained the base platform on which
the products were built. Then the term Verticals was coined.
So a vertical product is Autocad platform on which a product is built and has all the
capabilities of Autocad plus the added capabilities for the specific Discipline.
Today there is a long list of products that Autodesk has. All the products that have Autocad in
their name are verticals. Please see the links below.
Autodesk | 3D Design, Engineering & Entertainment Software
List Of All Products
With that as the history we come to the basic Question What is Autocad and Autocad Civil 3
D
I will explain it using images below.
This is AutoCAD
Even in bare Autocad there are components that are addons called expresstools. The toothed
layer is the API layer where the add ons are plugged. All small black boxes represent various
groups of capabilities.
This is Autocad Map 3d
You may ask why Map? This is the Autodesk’s GIS software which is necessary for Civil 3d
to Work
And now when you plug in the Civil 3d add on on top of Map then this becomes
This is Autocad Civil 3D
So essentially Civil 3d is Autocad + Map 3d + Civil 3d .
To complete the discussion I need to clear one doubt
What is AutoCAD LT?
Take a saw and saw off the API part and make it lame so that no one can write their own add
ons . That is what is Autocad LT. That is the reason it is cheap.
Now to the question Is it just Autocad + Storm analysis
NO
Storm Analysis is one of the small black boxes in the Civil 3d part.
When I first saw the demonstration of Civil 3d I thought it was only for Road design.
So it is that. What you are exposed to. I have used Civil 3d but not all of it’s capabilities.
So the capabilities of Civil 3d are
Everything that Map 3d can do. But they do not say it explicitly.
What they say is this Civil Engineering Design | AutoCAD Civil 3D | Autodesk
They are listing 61 features there.
Note : If any factual mistakes please point out.
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