Autodesk Civil 2009?  Don’t your mean Civil 3D 2009…….

Nope we now have a new package and starting July 7th you will be able to purchase it.

So what is Autodesk Civil 2009 and why do you care?

First of all if I was naming it, it would not be called Autodesk Civil 2009. I would have called it Autodesk Survey 2009, because that is who it is really aimed at! So why not call it what it is? I could go on for about 3 paragraphs on things I wish they would name something else! But we’ll leave that for another post.

We’ll what is Autodesk Civil 2009? We first off it is about $1500 cheaper!  Civil 3D MSRP is $7495 while Civil is $5995. Subscription is $995 and $725 respectfully. So it is cheaper!

Why is it cheaper? Because they have pulled the H&H extensions and Map functions. (Not everything mostly the GIS stuff, will know more about this when it comes out.)

From what I get from this the pipes will still be included just not the new H&H extensions we got last December.

Why are they doing this? My take from this it that they are aiming this at the Surveyors! (They officially say Civil is aimed at the techs, drafters and surveyors, while C3D is for designers and engineers) (But my take is that they should call this Autodesk Survey 2009)This should be dropping the cost near what most surveyors are now paying for there other 3rd party packages with AutoCAD. Closer pricing just not necessarily the same or below.

And to add even more into this one must know that as of this month LDT will no longer be available unless you have subscription and only for 2009 and only as a subscription download. Meaning next year when Autocad rolls out a new dwg version (Not saying they will but they have been on the 3 year cycle on new file types of dwg) they will not need to convert LDT to the new 2010 file type.  This is big for Autodesk’s programmers, meaning they can now focus just on the Civil 3D/Civil products!  This is not just a good thing but a great thing!

So there you go, you now know more about the subject than I do! 

Talk to our sales guys for the low down on how this can affect your company and its future purchases.

Bill N.