AutoCAD vs. MicroStation

AutoCAD

559 Reviews and Ratings

MicroStation

24 Reviews and Ratings

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
AutoCAD	Score7.8 out of 10	N/A	AutoCAD is a CAD product from Autodesk. It allows designers to work in 2D and 3D, and is available on Windows and Mac, but with extensive online collaboration tools.	$245 per month
MicroStation	Score6 out of 10	Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)	Bentley Systems offers the MicroStation application and product family as a 3D and 2D modeling and computer-aided design (CAD) solution for engineers and designers.	$250 Per User Per Month

Pricing

AutoCAD

MicroStation

Monthly Subscription: $245
per month per user
Yearly Subscription: $1975
per year per user
3-Year Subscription: $5925
3 years per user

Microstation: $250.00
Per User Per Month

Pricing Offerings
AutoCAD	MicroStation
Free Trial
Yes	Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	Yes

No setup fee

No setup fee

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Community Pulse
Key User Insights
	AutoCAD	MicroStation
Considered Both Products	Autodesk Verified User Chose AutoCAD AutoCAD was chosen for its versatility, customisation and compatibility. AutoCAD is a highly versatile software used across various industries, including civil engineering. It's known for its precise drafting and drawing capabilities. It allows for extensive customization … Incentivized Helpful? Bob Diaz Professor at College of Southern Nevada (Higher Education, 501-1000 employees) Chose AutoCAD AutoCAD has been around for over 30 years. AutoCAD was one of the first CAD programs that ran on a PC. Intergraph ran off a mainframe until MicroStation came in a PC version at a later date. By this time, AutoCAD had a market on smaller companies because of the cost and colleges … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose AutoCAD I use both regularly, and AutoCAD has its pros and its cons versus MicroStation. Its pros are: that it functions like Microsoft (tables, auto-format text for lists, running spell check, etc.), is used by a lot more people, and more people know how to use it (it is typically … Incentivized Helpful? Tony Dang EDMS Administrator in Engineering at Synertec (Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 11-50 employees) Chose AutoCAD AutoCAD has a more user-friendly approach to drawing, and the interface is easy to use and is understandable. BricsCAD is an exact replica of AutoCAD in terms of user commands, however, it is cheaper to license. The industry that we work in, though, expects a certain file type … Incentivized Helpful?	Bentley Systems Randall (Rande) Robinson Information Technology Specialist in Information Technology at North Carolina Dept. Information Technology - Transportation (Civil Engineering, 10,001+ employees) Chose MicroStation The only general purpose CAD program that you can compare MicroStation with would be AutoCAD. MicroStation, in my opinion, is a superior product in every way but one. That one issue is that there are just more people who have and know how to use AutoCAD than there are ones … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose MicroStation I grew up working on AutoCAD and most recently was training on Microstation. To be honest I like MicroStation but Autodesk has a little bit more refined product. But we utilize MicroStation as mush as possible when needed. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose MicroStation In my opinion, I would recommend AutoCAD Civil 3D over Microstation V8i unless you/your company benefit from using MicroStation due to your contracts requiring you to submit a digital design in MicroStation file type (.dgn). Otherwise, I feel that AutoCAD Civil 3D is actually a … Incentivized Helpful? Huma Ali Center Head at iNIFD (Education Management, 51-200 employees) Chose MicroStation MicroStation is best suited for large infrastructure projects, example: road design projects. Designing 2D and 3D can be done in other software too, but the context of real-life examples is an added advantage of MicroStation. Incentivized Helpful? Jackline Julias Proyecto Coordindor in Engineering at JOYCO (Civil Engineering, 51-200 employees) Chose MicroStation MicroStation offers great capabilities which enable quick Engineering design and document generation, the view comparison functions is the best among the above tools and the easy of customizing the features. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose MicroStation It seems to be getting good investment with features, and information exchange is working between us and others still. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Chose MicroStation I prefer MicroStation personally. It is much less taxing on your computer's RAM. However, they all have their pros and cons. Incentivized Helpful?
	Would buy again
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Delivers good value for the price
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Happy with the feature set
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Lived up to sales and marketing promises
	No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic
	Implementation went as expected
No answers on this topic	No answers on this topic

Features

AutoCAD

MicroStation

Comparison of Computer-Aided Design Software features of AutoCAD and MicroStation
Feature	AutoCAD 6.1 3 Ratings	MicroStation - Ratings
3D Modeling	6.03 Ratings	00 Ratings
2D Drafting	9.23 Ratings	00 Ratings
Rendering and Visualization	5.13 Ratings	00 Ratings
Parametric Design	4.83 Ratings	00 Ratings
Collaboration and Sharing	5.73 Ratings	00 Ratings
Compatibility with other software and formats	8.33 Ratings	00 Ratings
Assembly Design	5.33 Ratings	00 Ratings
Simulation and Analysis	1.02 Ratings	00 Ratings
Documentation and Annotation	7.83 Ratings	00 Ratings
Customization and Extensions	8.23 Ratings	00 Ratings

User Ratings
	AutoCAD	MicroStation
Likelihood to Recommend	7.3 (84 ratings)	7.2 (8 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	8.0 (2 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Usability	8.5 (5 ratings)	2.0 (1 ratings)
Support Rating	6.9 (13 ratings)	10.0 (1 ratings)
Implementation Rating	8.0 (2 ratings)	- (0 ratings)