[/quote].. Money is tight and the added cost isn't an option for us at this time although Carlson Civil Suite with AutoCAD 2009 is still half the price of C3d.[/quote]
The cost of software is certainly a factor. From what I recall, Autocad costs about $4000. If so, and with Carlson Civil being another $3500, then we are looking at a comparable cost to Civil 3D, and with C3D we'd have Map to boot.
I understand the implications of switching to Microstation, but the way I see it, the users are going to need training to learn Autocad as well since we haven't updated since 2004. When you throw in all the changes since then they will be lost when they sit in front of ACAD 2010. Yes they will still be able to do things the old way once they figure out where their tools are, but if we would be more productive in the long term with Microstation it would be worthwhile to invest a little more in training.
The main reason most private companies use Autocad is not because it is better software, but rather because it is familiar to the user base. I'm not convinced that argument should be the deciding factor, but we are not even close to the point where we will have to make that decision yet.