forum.datacad.com

Hi everyone! I'm currently running Dcad on my XP laptop with dual monitor, but looking to get a beefier desktop in the near future. Anyone know anything about how v14 is expected to perform on Windows 8? Or should I just get Windows 7 and ride it out on that OS for awhile?

Thanks,
Melina

My personal view would be to stick with Win7, but I've only seen snippets of Win8 and what I've seen I don't care for.

Stick with Windows 7 for sure. I used the RTM (Release To Market) version of Windows 8 for weeks, and I am back on Windows 7 for good. Unless your looking for a good tablet experience on a tablet device that can also pull double duty once in a while for normal windows apps, it's not worth the upgrade and learning curve. Plus the lack of finish to the product was pretty amazing. There are still tons of unfinished bits of text and options floating around or missing from the beta and release previews. It was really rushed out the door poorly.

Isn't this MS's standard MO - create a nice release, create a worthless release, create a nice release, create ...? WinME (worthless), WinXP (nice), Vista (worthless), Win7 (nice), Win8 (worthless).

Vista was missunderstood, far from worthless

Thanks guys, I think I just needed assurance for what my gut was already telling me. It does seem that I would have to "argue" with the platform even more than the previous versions just to get it to run the programs I actually use (I've read complaints from graphic artists on this for Win8) and not be wasting the cpu's time running other meaningless apps or pinging the internet to justify it's trendy new interface. It's starting to remind me of my recent upgrade to Acrobat X - they rearranged the menus, took out a couple favorite functions, but didn't give me anything new I could use.

On the other hand, since everything computer is obsolete 5 minutes before you purchase it and Dcad is my most important piece of software, I had to ask.

Before WinME, we had Win98 (not so good) and Win98 SE (much better) -- so it does seem that every other version of Windows is the one to go with. We'll hear soon enough how Win8 is -- they may need to do a SP1 to get the major glitches out...

Neil Blanchard wrote:they may need to do a SP1 to get the major glitches out...

Yeah ... it will be called "Windows 9"!!

It very well might be, MS has been shooting for a 2-3 year cycle for it's new products.

Update - in case you were wondering, I went with the Windows 7 pro, 64 bit. So far, except for a glitch I've posted elsewhere, everything is going well so far. Of course, many of the hardware recommendations made in other posts like the 3.5Ghz processor, 16Ghz ram, and solid-state drive doesn't hurt!

Thanks again for all your input,
Melina

All is not perfect in Windows 7 land.
The interface is just different enough to require what seems to be, more clicking to do the same common tasks. Perhaps there is some way to retrieve an older appearance/style, but if there is, I haven't found it.
There is also the issue of compatibility with legacy programs. Anything more than just a couple of years old is dead. Except for DataCAD which seems to work on everything. Thank you DataCAD, LLC.
Availability of hardware drivers are another concern.
All of the above were issues when I recently had an older XP machine go down. I had hopes that all of the above items were being exaggerated when I went out and bought myself a new desktop.
First thing that I noticed was that my Northgate PS2 keyboard was history unless I could find an adapter to make it work in a USB port. Fortunately, I had been exposed to that when I bought a Win 7 laptop. I had found that the ones sold through Clickykeyboards worked great. Actually, my keyboard started life as an AT board so it now has an AT to PS2 converter plugged in to the PS2 to USB adapter.
The first program that proved to not work was my ACAD 2000... history. But, because of someone on this forum, I could do without it because of the news that DraftSight was available. Thanks for the information, whoever that was.
Then, I discovered that my old Word and Excel would not work. So I had to load Open Office. Again, an alternative offered by someone here on the forum.
Other smaller less critical applications seemed to work, but that was after only being loaded and opened to check on that.
Finally, I got to the deal killer for me. My HP Designjet 430 had no Win 7 drivers. As far as Win 7 was concerned, it didn't exist. Searches only discovered other lost souls wandering the internet with new Win 7 computers while dragging around perfectly good 430 printers with no drivers.
So, last weekend, I gutted the old computer. I purchased a new motherboard, memory chips, a processor, and some associated cabling and installed everything while retaining the case and my hard drive. Once I had all of the little LED wires and power control connections hooked up properly, all went well. The repair of the operating system may not have been necessary, but I did that anyway just to be on the safe side.
Here, I have something good to say about Microsoft. Because the hard drive recognized that there was some extensive change noted between my old hardware and my new hardware, it required that I authenticate the new hardware/OS. I made a single phone call that had one of the robos on the other end. The instructions given by HAL were clear and easily followed. I had to give a 45 number list broken down into strings of 5 digits. The choice there was by keyboard or verbally. I chose verbal and all numbers were recognized. I then received one back. The time for keyboard entry was totally adequate so the ninety number series all went through only a single time. When done, the authentication was completed and my old, but new Windows XP machine was up and running.
I connected my plotter and ran a test plot.... and now everything is truly better than new.
So... I have a new HP desktop that has just been relegated to the status of a really nice Christmas gift for my daughter.
Woody

I'm now using Windows-7 x64 at work.

One quick comment...

ORWoody wrote:There is also the issue of compatibility with legacy programs. Anything more than just a couple of years old is dead. Except for DataCAD which seems to work on everything. Thank you DataCAD, LLC.

Not necessarily. If you do go to Win-7, be sure to get "Windows 7 Professional". It does let you install many older programs in some sort of compatibility mode. A couple of examples... My old HyperSnap for doing screenshots (1997) ... TaskPlus calendar (2005) ... o2c v1.9.9.149 (2004). I was forced to upgrade a few things. If I upgraded my home machine to Win-7, surely I would find more programs that I could not use.

There were a few Win-7 glitches that I had to work out.

So, Woody, what version of Word and Excel, wouldn't work. I have Office 2000 and I'm not feeling too happy about incurring yet another expense just because I'm getting a bit tired of the search facility in XP.
I have only started to seriously consider W7 because I now have a new 4Gb motherboard and I'm in line for an old freebie desktop that can be used as an XP server, so I can put the scanner, which is definitely too old for W7, and my Laserjet, which is probably too old, on that.

Nick:
You have the same version that I have. There may be a way to get it to work, but I sure didn't find it. The same frustrations applied to my HP 430 and no work arounds got it to be recognized.
So, I did what any cheap rascal would do... I took off all of the programs that I'd loaded, re-boxed the computer and wrapped it up in Christmas dress and gave it to my daughter as her extra special Christmas treat.
Then, I went down and got a new motherboard, a processor and some memory. After assembly and a little bit of massaging, I now have an XP operating system on a computer that recognizes all of my old programs and plays nice with my plotter.
I know that Microsoft may not agree with my philosophy, but whenever a operating system change lines me up to double my current computer equipment/software costs, it becomes a little tough to accept. Fortunately, this time, I didn't have to take all of the pain.