CAD Programs

[dbldland]

I have 3 thatres I need to draw to keep up with broadway touring production needs. They all want manipulable lighting plots. My company cannot afford to buy a whole program, but may be able to pay for a license. I can get a tech to draw them on her vectorworx, but it looks like I will have to make adjustments as we get new equipment, and have changes.

Will vectorworx translate into an autocad program like CAD14, or visio? is the conversion manipulable (did I make up a word?), any shareware out there that might work? thx

[SteveB]

Vectorworks is THE program used on Broadway, and I would assume that your going to see the touring LD's using it as well, along with Lightwright and Filemaker Pro

The current VW - 11.5.1 does a very good job importing/exporting the BASIC stuff into DXF/DWG files, which A-Cad can read, just be prepared to have to play around and get good at the conversions, especially determining in advance what flavor A-Cad a particular designer might be using. I would be surprised though, if you get many request for A-Cad.

I would also think that the money spent on VW and LW is money very well spent, even though it's a big initial outlay.

SB

[Inaki2]

VectorWorks is the touring choice now too, WYSIWYG is slowly moving to a lesser realm, especially with ESP Vision being configurable with VW. This sucks because I liked WYSIWYG, now I have to really learn VW!
The education version of VW runs for about $200. I know, u can "borrow" AutoCAD from the web, but still....

[MidStateTheatre]

I use AutoCad but I am soon to buy VectorWorks Spotlight, its what I was taught to use in college. I am soon to buy WYSIWYG but that is a company expense that I cannot afford right now. Hardware is just a little to important right now.


Rob