I have been using AutoCAD since version 2007.
From 2007 I moved up to 2011. From 2011, I moved up to 2013. From 2013 I moved to 2014. Where i have been sitting. Until January 2018,
In January my work partner got fed up with his 2011 version of AutoCAD and decided to move to the subscription 2018 AutoCAD lt.
We tested AutoCAD LT by opening all of the past files we had worked on and saw no problem. In fact, the files opened much faster and smoother.
Took me a couple weeks of having to get my work partner to convert files down to my version, me taking almost 3 minutes to open files on my Ryzen 1800x liquid cooled machine while his Pentium 4 was opening the same files in under 30 seconds. So I had to give in. The cost was low and the installation went quick and tech support was there for all of my questions before I made the actual purchase. So far I haven’t had to ask anything. Googled a couple times but that’s about it.
This Pros and cons will be between using an older full version of cad, and a new full support LT subscription version. Yes I understand how that is not a fair comparison but it is what I have.
If you are looking to change from a full version older version to the new subscription version and just want to do the LT plan to save a buck each year, here’s what I have found Pros
Opens much faster.
Uses video card to speed up use- Acceleration far better than previous versions of full AutoCAD
Drawings look better Lines no longer have the odd zigzag that we have all come to accept.
Cons
Bcount is gone in LT
Multiline or MLINE is gone. You can no longer draw 2 inch or 8 inch walls without drawing each layer of Sheetrock separately.
EATTEXT – gone
Lisp – Gone
I find myself searching the internet trying to find alternative methods of doing my everyday stuff.
There is nothing that wont break the agreement with AutoCAD and getting my account canceled.
It looks as though I will have to give BricsCad, ProgeCAD and NanoCAD another run through to see what is missing where and how can I fix it.
Looks like AutoCAD LT turned out to be too little of of what I need for it to be of any use to me. Let’s see how the return policy (I was told about over the phone) about holds up.
I have to have all functions that full version AutoCAD 2013 had. I design fire alarm systems for fire alarm companies all around Texas. There is plenty of importance in me being able to draw everything I need to draw, use function of all attributes and block functions I have created over the years. I have a large collection of fire alarm tools, blocks, and symbols.
As a fire alarm designer who has pretty much simplified fire alarm design, I’ve decided to make a handful of super hero symbols that resemble fire alarm symbols for autocad.
Understand that I can’t really use all of their symbols, and I can’t really figure out how to make them all relate.
So I stuck with the basic symbols.
Pull station = The Flashish looking
Smoke Detector = Supermanish looking
Waterflow = Wonder Womanish looking
Strobe = Captain America-ish looking
Horn Strobe = Green Lanternish looking
Duct Detector = Dare Devilish looking
Smoke/Heat Combo – Dead Poolish
Tamper SWitch – Thor Hammerish looking
……And a few more
Of course the symbols do not look exactly like the actual character’s logos. That would just be weird. It’s kind of nice having them resemble the real deal.
Feel free to use these when messing around. These are not to be sold because… Well you know. Neither of us is Marvel or DC.
These autocad block for fire alarm design are also not NFPA 170 (and likely ahj) approved symbols. These do not come with any guarantee of passing plans review at all. They do come with guarantee that I doubt they will pass but I won’t bet on that.
They are however in their own blocks and can be dropped right in your autocad template for messing around.
Enjoy.
Here’s some more free fire alarm blocks for autocad
If you’d like to see more of my work go to firealarmdwg.com For a large bundled set of Fire alarm symbols and blocks. About ten years of work.
Comment below if you have any requests or suggestions.
Decided to try a few alternatives to AutoCAD and see if I can cut my next upgrade costs.
Here’s the list of programs I found that seemed like the best options for replacing AutoCAD
I tried a few but these are the only ones that made the list.
Specs for the test computer
Windows 7 Ultimate 64
16 gigs DDR3
AMD 6300 six-Core Processor 3.5 GHz
For test reasons I used one of my Fire Alarm templates. Since it is full of my most common blocks and xrefs. This allows me to see if I can operate normally (or better) without any slowdowns to my daily tasks at work. My template is in DWT format and 1=1 scale.The template has 4 layout views that have viewports set to 1/8 scale on print.
I design in 2d only. My job is for permitting process, so no need in 3d design software. So this is a 2d drafting and design test only.
ProgeCAD
ProgeCAD
Progecad’s website
Alternative to AutoCAD at a price range of just under $500
I installed the trial version so I can see if ProgeCAD has what I need for the drafting work I do
So far ProgeCAD does everything that autoCAD.
blocks inserted fine
Commands ran as they do in autocad
LibreCAD
AutoCAD vs LibreCAD
LibreCaD’s Website
Free Drafting software alternative to AutoCAD
This is a much slower program and seemed to only work (kinda worked) with DXF files.
LibreCAD opened very slow and zero of my commands worked.
No idea why anyone would work with DXF, since DXF files load so poorly it makes you feel like you are in the middle of a memory dump.
LibreCAD wouldn’t load my blocks and would not load the DWT template file.
Lines were very hard to draw between hesitations and jumps in the program.
FreeCAD
FreeCAD
Would not load a DWG file right away but would see one in folder.
Would not load DXF files and a message popped up saying to run some sort of importer, the first time I tried.
Import function in menu did nothing. Was not able to click that option.
I did however get a DXF file to open. Which opened very slowly.
The scroll function by use of the mouse wheel, worked smooth and fast. not hesitation whatsoever.
Weird thing is room labels and doors did not show up in the DXF file I used, though they are all there in other AutoCAD alternatives.
Could not copy symbols from autoCAD and paste them into FreeCAD.
No sign of layout tabs.
NanoCAD
Another Cad alternative that is on a “buy” only service.
I am currently using the trial version for testing and I have to say this one seems to run well and quite strong,
All commands and functions work.
If I want to insert a dynamic block, it inserts and the all of the options work as I designed them to.
NanoCAD looks like it has the best price range. From what I see the price starts at less than $200 and I see no higher prices so. NanoCAD seems to be the winner here.
Works with DWG and DWT template files. Good enough for me to like. NanoCAD website.
Sketchup
Did not open dwg,dwt or dxf files
Sketchup is not able to be tested for my needs.
Inconclusive.
Fact is, for what I need, the free versions of AutoCAD alternatives just were not worth the download nor the install.
If I had to select one and someone else was buying, I would get the Progecad. The price is just a fraction of AutoCAD and every function I normally need is right there in ProgeCAD.
but if I was buying it for myself, I would pick nanoCAD. Everything just works flawlessly and the price is currently half the price of ProgeCAD.
A few fire alarm cad blocks that have unique attributes and functions to simplify fire alarm design.
These are blocks that I have used in fire alarm design for a few years but recently revamped. These are the ones I backed up for just in case I don’t like my new changes. Since my new changes to the fire alarm blocks went well, I am going ahead and giving these away for free.
Please keep in mind that I also have more on my FireAlarmDWG.com website that are for sale. They have even more simplified and smoother functions.
If you are the designer for your company and you have sales members who need a better way to make bids, direct them to my Fire Alarm gimp brushes (free also) this will save you so much headache in designs.
These autocad blocks can be dropped into your drawings or templates as you see fit.
The smoke detector and the pull station and the heat detector and duct detector symbols are all addressable. at the moment of insertion to drawings you will be prompted to title the device numerically that way you can get a running count from the moment you design. This allows your fire alarm system to have an exact format per plans. Not the other way around.
The horn strobe blocks have menus to select multiple options from. such as left facing or right facing. The horn strobe you see that is a typical wall mounted horn strobe, actually has a few features and the option to change to any fire alarm symbol you chose. This allows for change orders or changes per manager or ahj or customer.
**Update** The Fire Alarm Template has been updated and is currently listed on This site with an updated photo.
Added an access control template (more robust that initial announcement).
If you are looking for the fire sprinkler template, please comment below. **Update**
If you haven’t been following my other project, I have an Autocad template that I have been working for about 8 years. The idea of this template is to offer a low cost alternative to the people in the fire alarm industry and less costly alternative to simplifying their fire alarm designs.
The fire alarm Template I sell at The top of the page here Fire Design Blocks Is currently for sell.
Things that are being added to the next fire alarm template are blocks that have these features:
Horn/strobes-Strobes with candela rating and amperage, built in them.
Both “the last strobe” and “the last horn strobe”. These blocks are their own block with multiple devices inserted that way you can drop the single device in a location and select from a drop down menu to change the orientation of the device and the candela. Yes you can still just buy each of these independently if you are not in need of the full alarm template with all fire alarm blocks added.
Dynamic Title block. To change settings for all of the title blocks. Such as job name, jurisdiction, notes for technicians.
Initiating devices with addresses ready to type in.Smoke detectors,heat detectors,control modules,relays, and pull stations. You just insert their block and you will be prompted to type in the address. There is also a version of the fire alarm devices for each that does not have this option, if you are just doing a quick mark up.
All of the previous blocks and template features are still included in the new fire alarm template. The difference is a small handful of blocks have been altered a pretty good amount. In this case it would be in your best interest to keep both templates if you qualify for a the new template after purchasing the current template.
The date of launch for the new fire alarm blocks template will be June 1st. at that date the price will go up to $450. For now the price is reduced to $375.
The plan is to create a new post on this site explaining how to use the fire alarm Autocad template and insert the blocks to optimize your fire alarm design to reduce design time, and increase accuracy of fire alarm design.
The fire Sprinkler template is for title block and legend attributes to simplify the initial set up of fire sprinkler design.
The access control template works much like the fire alarm template.
If you want to just skip ahead to the pricing fire alarm template pricing
For a few years now I have been working on a fire alarm template. Actually a couple templates. I recently added a fire sprinkler template and an access control template.
In the templates I have tons of tools that I have created. They make my job much easier. I am continuously adding more features to the templates. The end goal is some day to own my own fire alarm company and be able to hire people who are in need of a job, yet have no skills. I can then hand them a computer with autodesk/autocad on it and turn the person into a fire alarm designer and I won’t have to worry about much to teach them and the jobs go as flawlessly as I can make them go.
and here is the fire alarm template version from 2015 (Videos showing function) <– NEW Also please notice I added a fire sprinkler template and an access control template with symbols.
Features of the fire alarm template
If you look click this image of a section of the fire alarm title block, everything that says “select one” has a drop down menu to select through the options I regularly have. Such as AHJ, Sales Person, Job type (new construct,add to existing) and so on.
I have also created Attributes for the site title and the address.
If you look at the fire alarm legend your will see I have parts numbers listed along with part count for relocated devices, existing devices and new devices. Also I made sure to show the little menu so that you can see when you click of the parts numbers of say …. for a Fire alarm Horn/Strobe you will see the little globe pop up next to the pointer telling you that you can click on it and get taken to the manufacturer’s website to download the cutsheets for the device. This cutting out the time it normally takes you to look up the devices on the web and find the cut sheets for each fire alarm device. Every place you see the word “select” there is a menu of items I regularly use pertaining to that mart of the legend. No sense in typing that stuff with every fire alarm I design.
Cool feature I added in Autocad/autodesk for fire alarm design
The goal is to be able to click the legend and a menu will come up asking you what vendor or parts distributor like genesis,system sensor, or firelite etc. you select one and the legend changes to the correct parts numbers. Then click the numbers on the left (parts count) and a drop down comes up of 0-1000. So if you have 43 pull stations , you go to the 00 to the left of the pull station in the legend and click once for the menu, then scroll to the number 43 and you now have your count as accurate as you need. Also the devices are on separate layers, this way if I want to not show my smoke detectors in the drawing, I just turn that layer off. It removes the smoke detectors from the drawing and the legend, and the theory of operation and the parts count. Kind of cool.
Now, there is a function that uses excel that I have been working on and “Table” command that is in progress. The goal to so that when you select your notification devices such as strobes or horn/strobes your counts change for your battery calculations. Yes you still have to manually do a few things to make this work so right now, that isn’t much worth mentioning unless someone has a better option they would like to share with me
I currently have three custom fire alarm templates that I use regularly and in their current state, It is BLISS. So much stuff you have to memorize about fire alarm design is a non issue while using these templates. Depending on task, location, manufacture and a few other issues, I will decide which template I need most for the job.
Many of the blocks and data links and attributes I have added to the fire alarm templates, are to remove human error, some are for my own security. Such as print time, creation date designer “Field” entries. Say if someone comes to me and asks me questions, I can see what date the drawing was printed and who’s computer printed the drawings. This is for my security and prevents people from tampering with my designs, and getting away with it. Yes I have worked in a pretty cut-throat office with people who tampered with my designs. These are great features.
Another helpful feature is the option to insert devices anywhere in a drawing with just a simple insert command. Then just hit the enter button as many times as you need to drop the same device. Example:
I typically start my design with initiating devices. Pull stations first so I just simply type “insert” or “i” and hit enter. Then a window pops up asking what I want to insert I type in “pull” and hit enter. and boop, a pull station as at the end of my pointer. Now I just find a place that the pull station needs to go and click that spot.. There it is… pull station. I notice a few more spots, so I just hit the enter button (repeats last command) little window pops up again, this time “pull” is already in there, so I just hit enter again. From here out with the pull stations I repeat this ; enter-enter-click, enter-enter-click, enter-enter-click, enter-enter-click. By doing that I have just placed 4 more pullstations in the time it usually takes someone to place 1 pull station.
Like this:
My Autocad templates are full of blocks that I have created and named to make the jobs that are repeated similarities, much easier and much more correct and uniform. I made these templates to simplify repeated drawings that have the exact same floor plans or layout and use the exact same equipment. The equipment is in separate blocks to be layed out per each individual locations unique requests. Maybe this is what you are looking for for your Autocad template.
For this “How to” I am using Autodesk Autocad 2014 in classic view.
If you have never made yourself a template file for Autocad and have a reason that you may need to use the same design on multiple occasions and be able to pull up the default version of the Autocad design with ease. Then this might help you.
In the most simple way, right click any cad file and select “rename” and change the file from DWG to DWT. save. Then place the file into your templates folder.
In a more complex way but not real bad.
Open a cad file, then go to the menu area and select “save as”. Now name the file and below the area you name the file is “file type” select “dwt”. This will automatically place the new Template file in your templates folder when you select “save”.
Now to load the template, you select file in top left of your screen, then select “new”. and in there will be your template file that you just created.
You can update the file as you go along, just be sure to select “dwt” each time you update the template.. And select “dwg” when you have designed something that will not be your default.
Let’s start with creating a simple block for this post.
Creating a block is a good way to to lock a set of items in one place to prevent deletion of useful items during editing. creating a block is also useful if you want to use that same block multiple times and call that item back up again with the quickest methods.
First you have to draw the item you want to be in a block.
Once the item is drawn, you can now highlight the item you just drew in cad, and then either right click and select “paste as block” or if you are on a newer version of autocad, you have to turn on the menu at the top of the window . once the menu is activated in Autocad, select “edit” in the droop down menu you will see “paste as block” select “paste as block”
You have now created a block.
Now double click that block. and you will see block editor open. The block will be highlighted in the list of blocks. The name should be random alphanumeric and symbols.
Let’s name that block something you can remember.
Now at the top of that list there should be a space you can type in. The blocks name will be in that spot. Go ahead and copy that name and close the block editor.
Now in the command area type “rename” a new window should pop open.
In the area that says “Old Name” paste in the name you copied, or you can scroll down the list of blocks on the right until you see the name of the block you want to rename. In the field below “Old Name” simply type in the new name of the block and press “Ok”.
You have now created and renamed a block in autocad.
you can easily call the item up with the “Insert command” or just type “i” and press enter.
Please let me know if this was informative enough, or simple enough or not.
