[Inspired]

Ok, John. I’ll give you the long version of what DJ just said.

I used to be a design/build contractor as well. I used to hand render everything and I'm not that good at it. I decided to get into some sort of CAD program and immediately freaked when I saw the price tags. The early 90's full on versions of AutoCAD and RainCAD and one other I can't remember the name of, were like 2,500 - 5,500.

I decided to go with Dynascape because it looked good, it had a tutorial and a bid program AND it cost a heck of a lot less. However, the bid program (IRIS) never worked, the plant database was pretty much useless for this climate, but the program got me started in CAD and has been a good performer. I was able to produce some very nice drawings very soon after buying it and my customers seemed to appreciate the clean professional look.

Everything was great till I noticed my drawings weren't really scaled. None of the print or blueprint houses here can read a Dynascape file, so I had to convert them to a tif, jpeg, or psd (Photoshop) format. Unfortunately the scale would be slightly changed in the conversion process and the prints would be skewed or just plain out of scale.

I ended up buying my own printer - 1,000. to 1,400.

Everything was great. I had my program working. I could print all my drawings myself anytime and I could even take them to Kinko's at the last minute if I had to for copies.

Then I took on some commercial work and I found out that nobody else used Dynascape around here but me. I found that the cities here had site plans and plot plans in AutoCAD from previous permit submittals that I could have for free to use to base my designs on. Much easier then measuring on site.yourself or even scanning in a plot and drawing over it. I found that virtually all the architects and engineers here used AutoCAD as well. Detail sheets from hundreds of manufacturers are all in one of the AutoCAD file formats. Everyone spoke AutoCAD but me.

I felt like I was being forced into it, so I bought AutoCAD LT - 749.00.

AutoCAD LT is just different enough from Dynascape to make it painful. I felt like I was learning it all aver again. I missed the cool image palette in Dynascape. I ended up making my own images. Soon I was faster drawing with AutoCAD. It seems like thousands of software companies (even Garden Graphics) makes some sort of cool add on for AutoCAD (not all of them are worth a nickel though). The program didn't lock up on large designs like Dynascape either.

I felt like I wasted my time with Dynascape but that isn't really true. Dynascape was a great first step for me. I was totally new to CAD and to start with a bare bones CAD program like AutoCAD LT would have been tough. As always, I was very busy and really didn't feel like I had time to learn everything I needed to know or take one of the numerous AutoCAD classes available.

Dynascape a great for a design/build company where 99% of the jobs are medium sized residential. That, in my opinion, is the Dynascape niche. I’m not familiar with the other programs you mentioned.

If you start to design larger, more complicated jobs and/or if you move more into the design only realm, I believe you will eventually need to become fluent in some form of AutoCAD, 3D Max or other Autodesk product. Virtually everyone uses it. Even the colleges teach it to drafting, design and architecture students. AutoCAD is pretty much the cornerstone of CAD.

So my suggestion, make the move to AutoCAD now. Especially since you already have some CAD experience. The LT program is cheaper if you don't want to spend the money on the 3D version.

Take the info for what it’s worth to you. I hope it helps.