Three platforms earn Leader status while AutoCAD tops overall satisfaction rankings in Winter 2015 report

CHICAGO, Jan. 23, 2015 — (PRNewswire) — The first Grid(SM) report for general-purpose computer-aided design software, or CAD software, published today by business software review site G2 Crowd, ranks eight products to help purchasers in their selections.

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The Winter 2015 report is based on 175 reviews written by business professionals.

The Grid(SM), which is created from G2 Crowd's industry-leading software review platform, factors in customer satisfaction reported by users and vendor market presence determined from social and public data to rank products.

CAD software is used by architects, engineers, artists, designers and others to develop 2D and 3D precision drawings and models of buildings and physical objects. General-purpose CAD software offers a wide range of tools and functionality to their users, as products are not designed exclusively to meet the needs of an individual industry. Instead, this category includes everything from sketching and 2D drafting programs, to 3D modeling and rendering, all of which can be used for a variety of purposes and industries.

For information about CAD products targeted toward solids modeling and product design, view G2 Crowd's Product and Machine Design software category. For information on building design and building information modeling products, view the Building Design and Building Information Modeling software category.

To qualify as a Leader, a product must receive a high customer satisfaction score and have substantial market presence. AutoCAD, SketchUp and DraftSight were named Leaders. High Performers have high customer satisfaction scores with a smaller market presence than Leaders. TurboCAD and Rhinoceros were named High Performers. AutoCAD earned the highest overall customer satisfaction score.

Across all CAD platforms, reviewers reported the product they use meets their requirements at an average rate of 80%, and on average reviewers said they were 79% likely to recommend the product they use.

Some highlights from the CAD software reviews on G2 Crowd:

"AutoCAD offers unparalleled versatility in 2D drawing, drafting, and design. Its vast array of tools and commands provide great precision and control over many aspects of project design and development. Customization and administrative controls are also excellent, allowing the program to be adapted to maximize efficiency for a given project or project series."

- Joseph Juhl, Architectural Designer at Gensler

"[SketchUp] is extremely easy to learn and to use, even to create detailed-looking models. The wide range of styles lets you display your models in a conceptual / hand-drawn aesthetic, or in a more finished-looking construction document format. You can't beat the [value:] free for the basic version, and very affordable for the pro version."

- Clarke Morrison, Architecture Solutions Specialist at Microdesk

"While many other CAD softwares only run on a Windows platform, DraftSight works easily on a Mac. The content and interface of DraftSight is very user friendly, maintaining similar symbols, icons, and inputs as other standard CAD software; these similarities enable easy communication between various CAD softwares when individuals are sharing files...File sizes are not gargantuan and exchanges between other [software] is easy. The company focuses on efficiencies and using customer feedback to improve their product."

- Sara Wing, Draftswoman at EDE Corporation

"TurboCad was my first introduction to using CAD programs in 2006, and, after looking at other programs that had more features, I have always decided to stick with TurboCad. I don't have a need for a lot of 'bells and whistles', and, I need a quick turn-around time to get the designs in my customers' hands. The libraries that are included are quite substantial, so, it can be used for many different applications."

- Cheryl Daly, Regional Landscape Designer at TruGreen LandCare

"Rhinoceros is an easy software to learn and can open/import most popular file formats. It has good surface modeling tools, is easy to navigate and has a good open source scripting interface. There is also a very large user base and online community to help trouble shoot problems."

- Jonathan Asher, Director of Design Technology at A. Zahner Company & Lecturer at The University of Kansas

Of the more than 15 software vendors listed in G2 Crowd's general-purpose CAD category, the eight ranked products each received 10 or more reviews to qualify for inclusion on the Grid(SM).

Satisfaction rankings are generated from the user reviews, and market presence is calculated from vendor size, market share, and social impact. Based on a combination of these scores, each software solution is categorized as a Leader, High Performer, Contender, or Niche.

Premium research access can be purchased on the site for $599. These offers the original data for filtering and weighting, as well as individual profiles of each platform with the most helpful positive and negative CAD software reviews, detailed company information, user satisfaction ratings, feature scores and customer metrics. Future refreshes of the Grid(SM) will provide updated rankings based on the latest reviews and social data.

Be sure to check out the new Grid(SM) for the best general-purpose CAD tools and subscribe to the premium research.

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About G2 Crowd, Inc.

G2 Crowd is the world's leading business software review platform, leveraging its more than 23,000 user reviews to drive better purchasing decisions. Technology buyers, investors, and analysts use the site to compare and select the best software based on peer reviews and synthesized social data. Co-founded by the founder and former executives from SaaS leader BigMachines and backed by more than $4.5 million in capital, G2 Crowd aims to bring authenticity and transparency to business technology research. For more information, go to G2Crowd.com.

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SOURCE G2 Crowd