Carlson frustration...

[bcyr]

Currently in the process of transitioning from AutoCad Civil 3D to Carlson w/ IntelliCad, and it seems like we have had nothing but problems here. I'm really trying to give this product a chance, as it seems to have some very simple and useful Civil design tools. I wish Carlson had put as much effort into the little things that really add up, such as mtext functions, match properties, docking toolbars, functions/commands with less dialog boxes popping up, program stability, print preview, etc. We have had an incredible amount of down time cause by the program doing strange things - either ignoring commands, not regening, losing linework (somehow), locking up frequently, etc. etc. etc. At least when AutoCad crashes one has the ability to save a recovery file....
Tech support has been very helpful, but all this down time means money out the door. How are we supposed to remain competative when the drafting part of things takes twice the time???

[Pin Cushion]

At the end of the day CAD is two things, LINES and TEXT... Carlson|iCAD has text issues... it is just not up to PAR yet.

here is my current list of what is wrong with intellicad:

1) Point node is not snapped to when hovering over point data (point attribute)… thus being less effective than Acad. I need, or would like VERY MUCH, to have this feature.
2) No “fillet” of polylines, instead polylines must be trimmed then joined thus being less effective than Acad
3) “Match Properties” does not match text sizes. Icad6.6 does match the text rotations & text layers… but not the text sizes, not cool
4) Point settings need to be upgraded... I cannot get over #1. It is basic fundamentals of land survey drafting/CAD. I need, or would like VERY MUCH, to have this feature.
7) No background mask… just text mask
8] Wblock creation crashed the program nearly every time.
9) Paper space Title block stuff needs to be addressed; it is not capable in the arena.
10) The creations/settings boxes are like Windows 95, they seem a step back… even from a 2005 aCAD platform
10) I have to figure out what my text sizes need to be in every scaled drawing, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 150, 200 and calculate the text height instead of using a "text scaler" as seen in the survey text defaults.... this kills the software for me

[site admin]

Hi bcyr,

We apologize for the frustration. Please copy your comments and send them to support@carlsonsw.com so we can try to work through these items with you.

Also, when you email us, please provide the version of Carlson and IntelliCAD and your contact information.

Thank you.

Carlson Software
Technical Support
606-564-5028
support@carlsonsw.com

[bcyr]

I have spent more time in last couple of days messing with text formatting and other little glitches than I have drawing a sewer network and profile.

[monksjm]

bcyr,

are you running just Carlson with IntelliCAD? do you still have your AutoCADs available to have Carlson run on those? We run on top of 2008 and 2009. Putting off the transition to straight IntelliCAD as long as we can.

[bcyr]

Yeah, running straight IntelliCad. Fairly soon our office will drop all AutoCad seats except for 1. Carlson seems to be a good program, but IntelliCad is incredibly unstable. Project Managers will have a stroke when they realize how much down time there will be. I think the IT departement has begun to regret not running Carlson on AutoCad, but it's too late at this point.

[Pin Cushion]

the mythical iCAD 7+ should be the savior of iCAD.... or at least I am optimistic about it.

[Dent Cermak]

I am running just Carlson Survey. I paid extra for the AutoCad embedded version, because I knew it to be a stable and useable product. I played with a demo of the Intellicad version prior to switching over from AutoCad LDD. That demo CD showed me that I would need the AutoCad embedded version of the package.
Intellicad has a L O O O O O N N N G G G way to go to become a stable and useable product. I don't think all of that will magically appear in the Version 7 that everyone hopes for.
They will eventually get there, but not in one or two releases. They just have so much to overcome and the major functionallity changes that AutoDesk has employed in the last few releases. It will take a while.
They are way behind right now. Until then I will use the embedded versions where available. Paying full price for a seat of AutoCad and then putting Carlson on top of it for the added features and functionality is costly and just not an option for my little company right now.

[gskelhorn]

I agree with Dent on this... years.

I had a longer response typed up but deleted most of it... All I can say is I am hoping for a lot but feel rather skeptical.

Bricscad + Carlson... Man, I just have to stop thinking about it!

[ColC]

Like Dent, I was keeping my Embedded version, however I am now using 2011 v6.6 regularly. I keep trying 2012 7.1, but I am still having to many crashes for it to be used regularly.

I have adjusted to most of the short comings of 2011, and there are just a few. It became a lot more stable about two revisions ago. I have found that the right click menu in 2011 to be a real improvement and better than the embedded version. I think it is a real positive. The default 2012 right click menu was a backward step, although it probably could be customised.

The few occasions I have used 2012 I have noted some improvements with the layer control, however, it is still well behind the Autocad flexibility. I think the speed is the most notable improvement. I will be happy when the upgrades consist of just functional improvements rather than having the number crashes and hang ups reduced.

I have a gut feeling that there is a short coming in the structure of coordinate file either in Intellicad or the manner Carlsons handles the crd file. My reasoning is that a lot (not all) of my crashes occur when the crd file is being directly accessed, such as F2F or Edit Coordinate file. Often, after editing the Coordinate file it takes along time to save(if it does get to save). It is long time since I did any programming, but the time it takes to crunch a relative small number of points has me concerned. Ihe lack of speed in dealing with a moderate number of points was the most noticeable difference I found compared to the Australian Survey software I had been using in 2003.

I have made the choice to fully invest in Carlson and Intellicad. For about twelve months I think I paid I heavy price for that decision. Now I am more comfortable with that decision. I don't think 2012 is too far being fully functional