Migrating from AutoCAD to MicroStation

- [Jeanne] Hello again, my name is Jeanne Aarhus. Let me welcome you to the other side of CAD. At this point you're probably feeling a little apprehensive about your decision to learn a new CAD application. But don't worry, many of us have survived this transition, and even thrive in the MicroStation environment today. Dual CAD environments are becoming more and more common in many engineering offices today. And once you have completed the exercises in this course you will discover what the differences, and similarities are between AutoCAD and MicroStation.

For this course I am focusing on the most common releases of both CAD applications, MicroStation V8i, and AutoCAD release 2018. First and foremost, remember that no two CAD applications are exactly alike. As technology progresses, and the Windows environment influences just about every aspect of our software applications, MicroStation and AutoCAD are becoming more and more similar. However I can't lie, they are still very different in many ways, specifically in design and usage.

My goal is to help you make this transition as seamless as possible. During this course we will learn the differences and limitations, and hopefully use your current AutoCAD knowledge to help you learn MicroStation. So take a deep breath, and smile. You are about to embark on an adventure where change is progress. One of the first barriers for AutoCAD users is the language barrier. I have delivered a document with the exercise files, located here, that compares the AutoCAD commands to MicroStation commands.

This should help you to learn and identify the new language. And throughout this course I will continue to compare the two CAD applications, so that you can use your current AutoCAD knowledge to simplify the entire process. These comparisons will fly in at the appropriate times, and fly back out when I need you to concentrate on the screen activity. I know many of these command comparisons are longer than I give you time to read, but not everyone will want to read all this information. So if you do want to read more information on each command comparison, just pause the video to read as needed, and proceed through the videos at your own pace.

I will also provide AutoCAD tips to highlight important information related specifically to the AutoCAD user, to help you become more productive in using MicroStation as it relates to AutoCAD. As an AutoCAD user myself, I can assure you that MicroStation offers many tools that you will recognize. And it even offers some enhancements that will take you above and beyond what you could do in AutoCAD. So let's get started with this course using MicroStation V8i.