OT: Visio or Autocad

Thu Oct 11 00:03:13 UTC 2007

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007, Stephen Fulton wrote:

> A good friend of mine swears that Autocad is superior for network design to 
> Visio.  I don't disagree, but only because I have never used Autocad for 
> network design.  So far Visio has generally met my needs when I'm working on 
> a design, but I have found it lacking (or perhaps just my Visio skills?) when 
> trying to merge L2 and L3 designs.  Most of the time I start from scratch on 
> each layer, but it does become a burden as changes are made once the design 
> becomes operational, and over its' lifetime.
>
> Is anyone using Autocad for network design?  What are your thoughts?

I'm using AutoCAD, but just for physical plant stuff such as route maps 
where I can overlay my plant data onto GIS maps.  We also use it because 
architects and contractors sometimes supply us with CAD drawings when 
we're reviewing construction plans and such.

I use Visio 2003 for the 'official' backbone maps used by our NOC and 
neteng groups.  Most of my peers also use Visio for doing design drawings.

AutoCAD and Visio both have their strengths and weaknesses.  It really 
boils down to your needs, preferences, learning curve tolerance, etc.

I've never tried to use AutoCAD for a network diagram, but for my way of 
working at least, it would seem to be pretty cumbersome, plus my templates 
and any customer shapes I've made are already built around Visio, so I'd 
have to re-create that to do the same task in AutoCad.

jms