When is AutoCAD not AutoCAD?

When is AutoCAD nor AutoCAD? When it’s AutoCAD WS. But it’s not quite that simple.

I’ve been correcting people for months when they say things like “Project Butterfly is AutoCAD on the Cloud.” No, it’s not. It’s a DWG editor of sorts, but anybody who has used both will know that it’s not AutoCAD or anything like it. Although it’s useful for viewing and markup and is improving all the time, Project Butterfly is still very restricted and is likely to remain so for a long time. You wouldn’t want to spend a significant portion of your day drawing with it.

OK, so Project Butterfly isn’t AutoCAD. I’m glad we’ve cleared that up. But wait! Now it is AutoCAD! AutoCAD WS, that is. AutoCAD WS is the recently-announced free iPod/iPhone/iPad app to access Project Butterfly. But it’s not really AutoCAD either, despite being named thus. Confused yet?

AutoCAD is Autodesk’s strongest brand name, but it has been diluted a great deal in recent times. Let’s have a look at things that are called AutoCAD or somehow based on AutoCAD, and try to make some sense of it all. Here they are, in alphabetical order:

• AutoCAD – the real thing
• AutoCAD Architecture – AutoCAD-based vertical
• AutoCAD Civil – AutoCAD-based vertical
• AutoCAD Civil 3D – AutoCAD-based vertical
• AutoCAD Electrical – AutoCAD-based vertical
• AutoCAD for Mac – AutoCAD with a few bits missing
• AutoCAD Freestyle – a cheap and simple DWG editor, not much like real AutoCAD
• AutoCAD Inventor Suite – this is basically Autodesk Inventor, which is neither AutoCAD nor based on AutoCAD. But a real AutoCAD and AutoCAD Mechanical also comes in the box.
• AutoCAD LT – AutoCAD with some features disabled to make it fit into a lower price bracket
• AutoCAD Map 3D – AutoCAD-based vertical
• AutoCAD Mechanical – AutoCAD-based vertical
• AutoCAD MEP – AutoCAD-based vertical
• AutoCAD OEM – development platform for using AutoCAD subsets as a basis for 3rd-party applications
• AutoCAD P&ID – AutoCAD-based vertical
• AutoCAD Plant 3D – AutoCAD-based vertical
• AutoCAD Raster Design – not AutoCAD, but adds features to AutoCAD and various AutoCAD-based verticals
• AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite – Autodesk Revit Architecture, which is neither AutoCAD nor based on AutoCAD. But AutoCAD and AutoCAD Architecture come in the box.
• AutoCAD Revit Structure Suite – Autodesk Revit Structure, which is neither AutoCAD nor based on AutoCAD. But AutoCAD Structural Detailing comes in the box.
• AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite – Autodesk Revit MEP, which is neither AutoCAD nor based on AutoCAD. But AutoCAD and AutoCAD MEP come in the box.
• AutoCAD Structural Detailing – AutoCAD-based vertical
• AutoCAD WS – not AutoCAD, but an iPod/iPhone/iPad app to access Project Butterfly
• Autodesk Design Review – not AutoCAD, but a DWF viewer & markup tool, works with DWG TrueView to allow DWG markup
• DWG TrueView – a very heavily cut-down AutoCAD to provide a free DWG viewer and release converter (includes DWG TrueConvert)
• Project Butterfly – not AutoCAD, but rather a cloud/browser-based DWG viewer/editor

That’s a lot of products, but I haven’t even included all the various new suites that include AutoCAD. I’m not sure this plethora is such a great thing, leading as it does to customer confusion and brand dilution. When “AutoCAD” can mean almost anything, does it still really mean something?