Topic Title

I purchased a collection of plans drawn on DataCad 11 but I draw in AutoCad 14. The conversion process fron DataCad is slow and tedious. Is the process any better with DataCad 12 and will version 12 convert to Autocad 14?

Hi Rick,

How slow and tedious can it be: Export/DWG/All Layers to R14? It should be done in about 1 minute or less. Both v11 and v12 can export to R14 -- v12 can export to much newer versions, as well.

Do you own v11?

v12 will export to r14, and up to r2009.
As for speed, a lot of that depends on your computer stats' and the complexity of the v11 dwgs.
Depending on what you are doing, maybe having just the layers on that you need instead of all layers might quicken it by a second or two, but really shouldn't take to long. Or, are you doing 100's of files?

I am converting 200 duplex, apartment and townhouse plans from DataCad 11 to AutoCad 14. The program exports quickly but the fonts, linestyles, dimensioning, text, symbols, arrows, layers etc. etc. come in all over the place. The line thickness in DataCad translate different as well. We have tweaked both programs to export to each other but its a complicated process that takes me anywhere from a couple of hours on a duplex to all day on a townhouse to make a complete conversion that functions well in AutoCad.

After 3 years of stumbling around in DataCad, I still find AutoCad much more logical and a lot faster for me. Maybe I should take a DataCad seminar but all the training I have had was a half day crash course in the basic commands from the Architect I purchased the plans from.

Rick -

Speaking from experience, if you try to kludge DataCAD into doing things the way that AutoCAD does it you'll continue to be frustrated.

You have to realize that both do approximately the same thing (ie. draw lines, insert symbols/blocks, print, etc.) but each has specific terminology and ways that they work. Try and get yourself into the mindset that you are going to do things the way that each one does it in their own environment, and not force a square Acad command into a round Dcad program!

Feel free to contact me off-forum with any specific questions, or search the forum for some of my other Acad/Dcad posts. I've worked with Acad for over 20 years and Dcad for over 14 years as well (and a few other cadd systems along the way, too!).