forum.datacad.com

Our computeres are now 6 years old and we need to update. We use Datacad, Sketchup and Photoshop for presentation drawings. Can anyone suggest optimum system specifications for best performance? I read a similar topic last August in the forum. Is there any new information I should consider?

Hello,

Here's a thread on this topic (it may be the one you are thinking of):
http://forum.datacad.com/viewtopic.php?t=400
And another one:
http://forum.datacad.com/viewtopic.php?t=3499

The basics haven't changed much recently:

Dual core CPU's are the norm: Core 2 Duo's are excellent, and Athlon 64 X2 are nearly as good

2GB of RAM is good -- especially if you get Vista.

medium performance video card with 256-512MB of RAM is good, and near cutting edge performance if you are doing much 3D.

Windows Vista is the biggest unknown: it may work fine for you, but you really need to look into Vista compatibility with all your peripherals! WinXP is still available, and it may be the safer choice right now -- most/all should come with a free upgrade to Vista; get the upgrade CD-ROM and install it in a year or so, after the kinks are ironed out.

It's my understanding that the Sketch-up or Google Pro 6.0 is not compatible with Vista. I was wondering if the is a problem with DCad 11 or the soon to be released 12 & the new windows format.

Both Datacad v.11 & v.12 (still in beta) work great in Vista (32 bit version at least which I tested) with the available hardlock drivers from the Datacad website. The free version of Sketch-Up 6 work o.k. in Vista, but does have a few bugs now and again, but I can usually save the file, restart Sketch-Up 6 and continue working, but I'm a very basic user so there maybe some more issues with more advanced functions or the pro version.