AutoCAD 2010 Reduces Work Week to 3.3 Hrs (By Ralph)
A number of people have been writing in, chuckling over efficiency gains Autodesk is claiming for AutoCAD -- not just this week, but over the last decade.
Here are some of the claims I tracked down:
AutoCAD 2004
"Study Finds AutoCAD 2004 Boosts Average User Productivity By Up to 35 Per Cent" [over AutoCAD 2000/i/2002]
http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=452932&id=3516672
AutoCAD 2005
"Designers and other professionals can realize as many as 14 hours per week in productivity gains by shifting to AutoCAD 2005 from older version... [2002 -- works out to 35%].
http://www.dexigner.com/architecture/news-g2978.html
AutoCAD 2006
"Study participants using new features in AutoCAD 2006 completed typical design and documentation tasks 29 percent faster than participants using AutoCAD 2002."
http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=452932&id=6156477
AutoCAD 2008
AutoCAD 2008 makes architects 26% more productive [than 2005].
autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/files/AutoCAD08_Productivity_White_Paper_Final.pdf
At this point, Autodesk might have been getting worried, because the rate of efficiency gains was falling. However...
AutoCAD 2010
"...a new study that found productivity gains of up to 63 percent when engineers and designers use AutoCAD 2010 software for common design and documentation tasks" [over AutoCAD 2007].
http://news.autodesk.com/news/autodesk/20091109005349/en
To get the total efficiency, you have to multiply the 1- decimal values (as my son reminded me, efficiencies are multiplied, not added), like this:
TE = 0.65 * 0.65 * 0.71 * 0.74 * 0.37 = 0.08 213 315 5
12.2x more productive. Drafting tasks that formerly took a week to complete with AutoCAD 2002 are now accomplished in just 3.3 hours. (Note to Matt Lombard: This one's called "Dino Purple.")
But Wait, There's More!
Despite all those gains in productivity, AutoCAD is a positive laggard compared with...
"The company also made public a sanctioned benchmark study that indicates MicroStation PowerDraft provides nearly twice the productivity of AutoCAD."
http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/management-benchmarking/7112560-1.html
"Field Tests Show 42 Percent Productivity Gain Using AutoCAD P&ID [over an unknown version of AutoCAD]"
http://cadcam-insider.com/index.php/Field-Tests-Show-42-Percent-Productivity-Gain-Using-AutoCAD-PID.html
"Want to increase your productivity by up to 65 percent? Then now is the time to move to AutoCAD Mechanical [from AutoCAD]" in 2008.
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:eU2C5c9z_ksJ:www.mesa-cad.com/pdf/top10_autocad_mechanical_2009.pdf
"A recent study shows up to an 80 percent increase in productivity when moving to AutoCAD Electrical from basic AutoCAD" in 2008
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:MzIj9cyUmwIJ:www.procad.ie/pdf/auto-elec/AutoCAD%2520Electrical%2520Product%2520Overview%2520Brochure.pdf
What It Means
Wrote a reader from Norway, "AutoCAD will soon do your work at no time at all?"
