REVIEW

DESIGNING PROGRAMS

Five CAD Packages Compared

BY MARIO PERDUE

As a computer-aided design professional, I have always been intrigued with what is available on microcomputers for use in the CAD/CAM arena. Some quite excellent programs are already on the ST, five in fact. In the following comparison, we'll take a look at these packages and see how well they compare to the high-end systems that I am familiar with.

My background includes 12-plus years in the CAD/CAM industry, working mostly with Computervision minicomputers and workstations. This experience has certainly affected my perception of what a CAD system must have to be considered a professional design tool. To be a complete package, a CAD system has to be packed full of features, the interface must be intuitive and easy to use and above all, it must be fast.

This comparison is in two parts. Part I provides a short description and my overall impression of each program. Part 2 is a series of comparison charts, the result of very rigorous testing.

Athena

Athena II Version 2.0

Athena is probably the oldest CAD package on the ST. The package I tested was a beta of version 2.0. Unfortunately, a manual did not accompany the program, so I had to rely on my own resources to find a solution anytime something appeared to be missing.

Fortunately, the program is very easy to learn. Athena's user interface is reminiscent of a paint program. You're presented with a series of icons along the left side of the screen which select the major functions. Once a function is selected - lines for instance - a submenu pops up in the center of the screen that lets you set the specifics of the command. Since this type of interface is common to many GEM applications, ST users will feel at home with it. However, when working in a drafting environment, I find this to be slightly annoying. I prefer to have the graphics I am working on visible at all times. Having my design obscured periodically tends to break my concentration.

There were many capabilities that I feel are necessary for professional drafting which are not available in Athena. For this reason, I would not recommend it for drafting. It may be a good choice for engineering sketches, especially if the bugs can be worked out of the DXF converter. Having DXF would let you take an engineer's drawing and import it into a more full-featured drafting package. Athena II, however, is a good choice for home use, or if you have limited drafting needs and/or a tight budget.

BeckerCAD ST

BeckerCAD is a German import. It has a reasonable collection of features and performed well in the timing tests, placing second in overall speed. Abacus has done a competent job translating the manual into American (as opposed to English, which isn't always the same thing). It is well written and does what it's supposed to do; it tells you how to use the program.

BeckerCAD is the only package to come with supporting libraries, including electronic schematic, hydraulic/pneumatic and architectural applications. If your design needs are in one of these areas, a large amount of the groundwork has already been done for you.

There is nothing about BeckerCAD that I found difficult to use. The user interface is easy to learn. It won't take you long to draw that room addition or that model rocket you've been wanting to build for the last several months. For most personal and even some small-business uses BeckerCAD will suffice.

CADjA

This program is so new (in this country) that it almost didn't make it into this comparison. The copy I evaluated was a partially-disabled demo version. Features and performance place it in the same category as Drafix and BeckerCAD.

The user interface is somewhat like DEGAS in that the command menu fills the entire screen and is toggled with the right mouse button. As with Athena, I found this to be annoying. However, the icons are fairly well-designed and their arrangement on the screen is somewhat logical.

Some commands and modifiers are available only through keyboard entry. This includes things like snapping to the end point or midpoint of a line. Again, I found this to be irritating. I think it would be better to support these functions with menus and have keyboard equivalents. Fortunately the choice of keystroke normally makes sense (for instance 'E' snaps to the end of an entity).

I didn't encounter any problems with CADjA in the short time that I used it. It seems to be a fairly solid, bug-free product. Once the manual is completed, this program will be a strong contender in the mid-priced CAD arena.

Drafix

Drafix

One of the better programs of the bunch, Drafix has capabilities second only to DynaCADD. The documentation is very complete and well organized and libraries are available (for a fee) to support many different applications.

Drafix was ported from the IBM and as such does not use the standard GEM interface. However, the interface is easy to use so this doesn't cause any real problem. The only irritant is that it is assumed that you use a three-button mouse. The right button serves as the middle button and both buttons as the right button (the left button is, of course, the left button).

Overall, Drafix is an excellent package for home and small-business. Unfortunately, Foresight has decided to publish no further upgrades or enhancements.

DynaCADD

DynaCADD is, without a doubt, the best CAD program on the ST. It is also the best CAD program that I have seen running on any microcomputer. It comes closer to having all the features of a major CADDS package than any other PC-based system I have ever used. And it's fast. In many cases, faster than CADDS 4X, a very high-end drafting machine.

DynaCADD supports both 2D and 3D entity types, the only ST program to do so. This makes it possible to look at a part from any angle to help visualize its shape. Four different views of a 3D model can be displayed on the screen at any given time. These views can be mixed with 2D graphics for dimensioning, etc.

DynaCADD

The documentation supplied with DynaCADD is excellent. It includes both a 2D and 3D tutorial and a complete command reference. Each command includes a clear example of how it is used from the icon interface as well as from the command line.

DynaCADD is the only CAD program that I would not hesitate to recommend for professional use (it's a bit expensive for home use). I have used it in a production environment on 3D applications and it performed beyond my expectations.

About the Comparison Charts

Table I is a comparison of the major features of each of the programs.

Table 2 shows the results of the timing tests. The Part used in these comparisons consisted of 3,744 2D entities (including 3,328 lines and 416 circles).

All ST software was run on a Mega 2 (.5 MIPS) with a monochrome monitor, math coprocessor and 40MB hard disk. The tests on CADDS 4X were run on a Sun Microsystems 3/160 (2 MIPS) workstation with 16MB RAM, a 19-inch color monitor, graphics accelerator, FPU, math coprocessor and two 515MB hard disks.

This is Mario Perdue's first appearance in START.

Products Mentioned

Athena II Version 2.0, $149.95. Iliad Software Inc., 1470 S. State St., Orem, UT 84058, (801) 226-3270.

BeckerCAD ST, $95. Abacus, 5370 52nd St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512, (616) 698-0330.

CADjA, Call for price. Rio/Datel Computers, 3430 E. Tropicana Ave. #67, Las Vegas, NV 89121, (800) 782-9110.

Drafix, $195. Foresight Resources Corp., 10725 Ambassador Drive, Kansas City, MO 64153, (800) 231-8574.

DynaCADD, $995. ISD Marketing Inc., 2651 John St., Unit 3, Markham, Ontario L3R 2W5, Canada, (416) 479-1880.

PROGRAM FEATURES
Retail Insertable Entity Types LINEAR Points Lines Chamfers Rectangles Polygons Strings CURVES Circles Arcs Fillets Ellipses Elliptical Arcs Hyperbolas Parabolas Splines B-Splines Bezier Curves Nurbs DIMENSIONING ANSI Standard DIN Standard JIS/ISO Standard Linear Ordinate Radius Diameter Angular Feature Control Symbols Datums Labels Detail Balloons TEXT Text Font Editor DTP Fonts User Selected Fonts User Selected Height User Selected Width User Selected Angle User Selected Slant Text Justification True Character Kerning Proportional Spacing Constant Spacing OTHER 2D-Solid Figures Subfigures Cross Hatch Pattern Hatch Centerlines LOCATION & ENTITY SNAP Mouse Location Absolute Incremental Relative End On Origin Intersection Parallel To Perpendicular To Tangent To ENTITY SELECTION Single Entity All Entities Inside Window Outside Window Inside Poly Window Outside Poly Window Last Entity By Layer By Color/Pen Number By Style Or Weight By Chaining Entities By Type ENTITY & DRAWING INFO Measure Distances Measure Angles Measure Perimeters Measure Areas VERIFY Location Style Slant Rotation Extents Drawing Parameters ENTITY TRANSFORMATION Move Copy Delete Mirror Stretch Scale Rotate Blank Unblank Trim To Location Trim To Corner Trim To Intersection Trim Multiple Divide At Location Divide No. of Times Revolve Sweep Group Offset Add Draft Add Shrinkage Remove Shrinkage Map 3D To 2D PLOTTER SUPPORT HPGL DMPL Custom Drivers Scaled Plots Plot To Disk File Background Plotting Plot To Fit Device PRINTER SUPPORT Epson 9-Pin Epson 24-Pin Laser Printer Postscript Compatible Encapsulated Postscript FILE FORMATS DXF ASCII IGES PDES LINE WEIGHTS/STYLES User Widths User Styles GRID User Selectable Grid Grid On, No Snap Grid On, With Snap COLOR SELECTION Color By Layer Color By Type Color By Entity MISCELLANEOUS Plotter Driver Editor Math Coprocessor Support Graphics Accelerator	Athena $149 Y Y N Y N N Y Y Y Y Y N N N Y N N ? ? ? Y N Y Y Y N N Y N N N N Y N N N N N N Y Y Y N N Y Y Y Y N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N Y Y N N N Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y N N N N Y N Y N N N N N N N N N/A N N N N N N N Y Y Y N N Y Y N N Y N Y Y Y Y N N N N N	BeckerCAD $95 Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N N N N N N N Y N Y N Y Y Y N N N N Y N Y Y N Y N N N Y Y N Y N Y Y N Y N N N N N N N N Y Y Y N Y N N N N N N N N N N Y N N N N N N N N Y Y Y Y N N Y N N N Y Y N Y N N N Y N N N N N/A Y N N N N N Y Y Y Y Y N N N N N N N Y N Y N N N N N N	CADjA Call Y Y Y Y N N Y Y Y Y Y N N N Y N N N Y N Y N Y Y Y N N Y N N N N Y N Y N N N N Y N Y N Y N N Y Y Y N Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y N Y N N N N Y N N N N Y Y N N Y N N N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N N Y Y Y N Y Y N N N N N N N N/A Y N N Y N N N Y Y Y N N N Y N N N N Y Y Y N N N N N N	Drafix $195 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y N N N Y N N N Y N N Y Y Y Y Y N N N N N N Y Y Y Y Y Y N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N N N Y Y N N Y Y Y N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y N N N Y Y N N N N/A N N N Y N N Y Y Y Y N N N Y N N N N Y Y Y N N Y N N N	DynaCADD $995 Y Y N Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y N N N Y Y N Y N N Y N Y Y Y N N Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y N N N Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y N	CADDS 4X $20,000+ Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N N Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y Y N Y N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y N N N N Y Y Y Y N Y Y Y N N N N N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Notes 1. No accelerator exists for the ST. 2. DynaCADD supports color, but requires optional high-resolution color monitor.

TEST-PART RESULTS
File Size Time to Activate Part Time to Repaint Screen Time to Regenerate Part Move Group of Entities Copy Group of Entities Rotate Group of Entities	Athena 303344 1:43.00 1:29.95 N/A __2 __2 __2	BeckerCAD 191919 0:37.85 0:27.21 N/A 0:24.11 0:20.15 0:03.20	CADjA __1 __1 0:40.56.21 N/A 0:30.64 0:22.61 0:08.52	Drafix 100015 0:59.71 0:31.64 N/A 0:49.48 0:30.59 0:08.29	DynaCADD 280006 0:28.29 0:09.77 0:09.92 0:10.72 0:10.73 0:02.55	CADDS 4X 414720 0:24.51 0:06.74 1:09.20 1:49.24 2:10.50 0:12.06
Notes 1. CADjA was provided in a demo version only. The functions necessary for this test were disabled. 2. Athena was not able to select by window, which made entity selection too time consuming to include in this comparison.