FEIGN

To anyone who can help or advise.

My company is in the civil engineering industry, and we are looking into purchasing some new Autocad 2005 software. The problem is; it costs too much money. We currently have some licenses on subscription, wich is pretty costly to renew every year. Then we were thinking about purchasing some additional seats. But it is way too costly to renew and pruchase to be reasonable. It doesn't make any sense.

So what I was wondering was, has anyone ever purchased software overseas, I don't mean on the black market or anything, just that it might be cheaper from another country, say Canada or Australia.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Thank you for your support.

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avhg1

I'm a CADD Manager for a civil engineering company that runs LDD5 and Civil 3d, so I understand the concern about the cost. I haven't purchased AutoCAD or any other software from overseas, but would suggest before doing so, you verify with Autodesk that the licenses can be transferred overseas. Are you on a network? If so, the networked licenses can save a bit, by allowing you to share them.

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underscor_

I work for an civil and structural engineering company. I have no experience with purchasing software overseas. However, if you only require the ability to produce 2 dimensional drawings, you'll get by fine with AutoCAD 2005 LT, which has a reasonable price.

bollocks

I work for an electrical consultants. Our CAD software of choice is AutoCAD 2005 LT which we 'borrowed' from the good (structural engineers) people downstairs. Great piece of software, like underscor_ mentioned.

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Zephyr66

I used AutoCAD back in my highschool days, but for the past couple years, ive been using SolidWorks instead

Sbudda

The LT idea is a good one, but this is a civil guy. All of the profiles that he outputs from programs like CAiCE or inRoads are going to be in 3D and unusable in LT.

Go with the networked licensing. If you have more than 15 people in your office and more than half are not CAD people, you can get by with almost half of the licences that you would normally need.

I would also suggest that you look at Microstation, but I think the licensing for that is more expensive. They do give you take-home versions though for training of your people - and by training your people I mean send them home to work.

Oh yeah... I would also hold off on buying 2005. Autodesk really made a shitty product with this one. It doesn't save .dwg's in any format but 2005 and 2000 - making any clients that you have who only use r14 out in the cold. I'd say, stay with 2000 until the majority of your clients start getting pissed about having to save to 2000 for you. What a crummy release...

arch13

Oh boy.
If AutoDesk ever pulled an audit on you and found overseas versions, you'd be in for some pain.
I agree that 2005 is not worth the money.
I'm on 2004 and that's fine for me. Anyone with R14 needs to be moving up anyway. R14 is like Windows 98. Amazing in it's time, old and busted now.
Most respectable repair shops are going to report any overseas copies or rips they find when working, so keep that in mind.
I concur with network liscencing. Or better yet, if you have at least 2000, stay there for another year or so.

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