It's far from cheap, but we reckon
this is a cost-effective CAD option
While AutoCAD is arguably the leader in the
field of computer aided design, it’s a very expensive option; effectively
beyond the price-range of most home and small business users. There are other
products to choose from, and at more palatable prices.
A case in point is this latest release from
Corel Corporation: CorelCAD 2013. A new release, this version upgrades the
program to bring it in line with the latest release of AutoCAD, while
introducing a few new features - compatibility with AutoCAD 2013 being by far
the most important to anyone looking for a viable alternative to that software.
CorelCAD
2013
CorelCAD uses the AutoCAD.DWG file format
natively, so there’s no conversion and consequential loss of data often
associated with that process. In addition, the keyboard shortcuts and familiar
command line interface make the transition for experienced AutoCAD users a
pretty painless one. In all the tests I did, AutoCAD files loaded immediately,
maintaining layer properties, text attributes and even dimension styles. These
are important elements invariably lost when loading into other CAD products.
The last thing you want to do when collaborating on a product with another
company, is to spend valuable time reformatting the drawings; simply because
your CAD program can’t cope with the nuances of AutoCAD.
In order to make collaboration more
effective, CorelCAD now includes the facility to add a VoiceNotes directly into
a drawing. You can also attach other drawings for reference, clipping and
masking them to highlight areas of interest. Similarly the new Revision Cloud
Tool allows you draw an irregular shape around any changes you’ve made, this is
designed to bring them to the attention of any colleagues working on the same
project.
In
order to make collaboration more effective, CorelCAD now includes the facility
to add a VoiceNotes directly into a drawing.
In previous versions you could reference
various image files and underlay them within your drawings; this facility has
now been extended to include Microstation DNG and PDF files. Again following
AutoCAD’s latest convention, text editing can now be done in place without the
need to open a separate dialogue box. There’s also a new ExplodeX command that
will convert splines and ellipses to polylines; making them more compatible
with older CNC systems that don’t support such complex objects.
Although there are many dedicated 3D design
programs, these generally have their own bespoke user interface, making it
necessary to learn a whole new set of tools. This latest version of CorelCAD
includes the full spectrum of 3D solid modelling tools, allowing users to work
within a familiar environment. This feature doesn’t extend to full photographic
rendering, but certainly stretches the design capabilities for CorelCAD users.
This
latest version of CorelCAD includes the full spectrum of 3D solid modelling
tools, allowing users to work within a familiar environment.
Finally, this version provides an easy
workflow throughout the Corel group of products. So, for example, you could
rough out a sketch in CorelDraw, or Corel Designer and import it directly into
CorelCAD. This incidentally is a two way street, where CorelCAD drawings can be
exported directly in the same way. So building a presentation in CorelDraw, or
a more graphic technical drawing based on a CAD drawing with Designer is pretty
straightforward. The interface is not as slick as the latest one from AutoCAD,
but CorelCAD 2013 is extremely good value. We’re talking about a product that’s
a fraction of the price of AutoCAD, yet leaves very few things (in the way of
technical drawing) that you can’t accomplish.
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Details
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Recommended Price: $944
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Manufacturer: Corel
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Website: www.corel.com
·
Required Spec: 32-bit application version:
Microsoft Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP with latest Service Pack (32-bit or
64-bit editions) 64-bit application version: Microsoft
Verdict
·
Quality: 8
·
Value: 8
·
Overall: 8
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