Are you ready for Carlson 2016?
Carlson is expected to release the 2016 versions of their desktop software packages that include IntelliCAD or run on top of your AutoCAD later this month. If it follows the same pattern we can expect the embedded AutoCAD (OEM) versions of Survey and Takeoff a couple of months later.
The 2016 products can be installed on top of any full-AutoCAD program versions 2010-2016. Since Autodesk didn’t change the DWG format this year, you should be able to open and work with 2016 files with programs based on AutoCAD 2013-2015 without having to save back to an earlier version.
The 2016 release will include IntelliCAD 8.1 which, so far during my limited time testing, seems to be working pretty darn well. I’m excited to see more support for Annotative Text and a lot of interface enhancements (like a ribbon) that make it look more and more like the brand-name product.
The annual maintenance plan is still the cheapest way to keep your desktop software (ICAD/for CAD) up to date. If you have let your maintenance lapse but think you’re ready to upgrade, now is seriously the time to do it because your pricing to upgrade/reinstate maintenance will go up as soon as 2016 comes out. It’s also nice to be able to immediately get the 2015 upgrade and have access to the 2016 whenever you’re ready.
In addition, Carlson is trying to get SurvCE and SurvPC on an annual release cycle so we should see 5.xx come out this year. With this change, you’ll also see these products start showing up as available for an annual maintenance plan. If you’re running an older version of SurvCE and would like to upgrade, you can upgrade and purchase maintenance to immediately upgrade you to 4.xx and also receive 5.xx when it comes out. One word of caution though – make sure to check the table on this page to make sure the newer versions of SurvCE and SurvPC will still communicate with your equipment.
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