Product comparison

The price dif­fer­ence between the com­mon CAD pro­grams is very large, and some pro­grams are pur­chased while oth­ers are rent­ed. The func­tions of the pro­grams are sim­i­lar but there are dif­fer­ences. Below we have gath­ered some infor­ma­tion to help you choose between the most com­mon CAD programs.

What fea­tures do you need in your CAD program?

Whether you are look­ing for a sim­ple CAD pro­gram or a cheap CAD pro­gram, you need to con­sid­er whether it will be used in a Win­dows or Mac envi­ron­ment and what 2D/3D CAD func­tions you need. In the table we present the major gen­er­al CAD pro­grams for Win­dows: Prog­eCAD, Auto­CAD® and Auto­CAD® LT.

Needsprog­eCADAuto­CAD®Auto­CAD® LT
Does it sup­port 2D or 3D?2D and 3D2D and 3D2D
Do you want an Eng­lish or Swedish CAD pro­gram?Swedish and EnglishEng­lishSwedish and English
Do you need com­pat­i­bil­i­ty with old Auto­CAD® ver­sions?Can save and open to ALL Auto­CAD® versionsCan open, but NOT save to all old versionsCan open, but NOT save to all old versions
Need to com­ply with a draw­ing stan­dard, e.g. Con­struc­tion Doc­u­ment 90?Buy into an indus­try appli­ca­tion, e.g. CADdirektBuy into an indus­try appli­ca­tion, e.g. CADdirektPur­chase to an indus­try appli­ca­tion, e.g. CADdirekt
Do you need to import PDF draw­ings?Yes, an appli­ca­tion for that is includedNot includ­edNot includ­ed
Do you need to cre­ate 3D PDF draw­ings?Yes, an appli­ca­tion for that is includedNot includ­edNot includ­ed
Do you need ready-made sym­bols?More than 22,000 sym­bols for dif­fer­ent indus­tries includedNot includ­edNot includ­ed
Do you need to import scanned draw­ings and vec­tor­ize them?Yes, an appli­ca­tion for that is includedNot includ­edNot includ­ed
Do you want to buy or rent your CAD pro­gram?Pur­chase ver­sion avail­able, you pay only onceRental ver­sion only, you pay every yearRental ver­sion only, you pay every year

Key fea­tures

prog­eCAD Pro­fes­sion­al is an afford­able alter­na­tive to Auto­CAD® and Auto­CAD® LT. Com­pare the key fea­tures of prog­eCAD and Auto­CAD® using this table. If you are still unsure, down­load a tri­al ver­sion and try it out or con­tact our sup­port for more information.

  • progeCAD  AutoCAD®  Auto­CAD® LT 
    Nat­ur­al DWG  ✅ ✅ ✅
    DWG for Auto­CAD ver­sion 2.5 to 2024  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Sup­port for clas­sic menus and Ribbon  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Func­tion-based Ribbon  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Cus­tom menu sup­port­CUI menu support  ✅ ✅ ✅
    3D PDF export  ✅ ❌ ❌
    EasyArch 3D (Archi­tect add-on)  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Import Revit  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Import IFC (BIM) ✅ ❌ ❌
    Visu­al­iza­tion of objects for con­struc­tion and soci­ety, geo­graph­i­cal maps and mechanics  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Sup­port for geomaps  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Import of maps  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Import ESRI-SHAPE (.shp) graph­ics and data  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Geolo­ca­tion with inter­ac­tive back­ground map from Microsoft Bing  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Import Autodesk SDF files (spa­tial data)  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Import/​export STEP/IGES ✅ ✅ ❌
    Import SolidWorks  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Data link  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Import XLS  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Tool palettes  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Prop­er­ties palette  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Superhatch  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Palette for fast traits  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Con­struc­tion lines  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Add select­ed object  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Restore drawing  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Per­spec­tive cor­rec­tion for images  ✅ ❌ ❌
    On-site text editor  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Slope tool (topog­ra­phy) ✅ ❌ ❌
    Autosez tool (Auto­mat­i­cal­ly cre­ate sur­face profiles)  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Sup­port for workspaces  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Stan­dard lay­ers for sec­tion mark­ings and dimensioning  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Ton­ing for exter­nal ref­er­ences, locked lay­ers and ref­er­ence editing  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Dynam­ic input  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Export to DWF  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Inte­grat­ed cloud service  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Create/​edit tables  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Tables with styles  ✅ ✅ ✅
    For­mu­las in tables  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Num­bered mark­ings (bal­loons) ✅ ❌ ❌
    Asso­cia­tive matrix  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Sup­port for user profiles  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Sup­port for PC3  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Anno­ta­tive objects  ✅ ✅ ✅
    QR code  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Area text (Insert the area text for lim­it­ed areas)  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Pub­lish (Mass print)  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Auto­mat­ic publishing  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Sheet set  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Mul­ti­ple paper spaces (lay­outs) ✅ ✅ ✅
    Auto­CAD 3D sur­face commands  ✅ ✅ ❌
    ACIS view  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Full ACIS mod­el­ing and editing  ✅ ✅ ❌
    3DGO + 3DFLYG  ✅ ✅ ✅
    3D printing  ✅ ✅ ❌
    2D Representation  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Lift and Spi­ral commands  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Han­dlers for Exter­nal References  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Xref Notification  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Sup­port for text via exter­nal editor  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Edit sec­tion markup  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Open/​Import Micro­sta­tion files (.dgn, .dgn­lib, .rdl, .cel) ✅ ✅ ✅
    View raster images (image management)  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Polyg­o­nal clip­ping of images  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Rendering  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Image menu  ✅ ✅ ✅
    CTB col­or-based table files / STB col­or-based table files  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Import point clouds  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Export to Google Earth®  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Com­mand line  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Auto­CAD® menu and script files  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Explor­er for man­ag­ing lay­ers, blocks and line types, etc.  ✅ ✅ ✅
    TIN sur­face from points  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Snap­ping to imag­i­nary and exten­sion of intersection  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Polar tracing  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Tog­gle selection  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Express tools  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Block Edi­tor (BED­IT) ✅ ✅ ✅
    Ref­er­ence edit­ing ( Edit local­ly indi­vid­ual objects in a block)  ✅ ✅ ✅
    2D/3D Wood details, steel and stan­dard profiles  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Stock Man­ag­er (Save and restore stock configurations)  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Item tracking  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Dig­i­tal sig­na­ture to DWG  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Visu­al menu customization  ✅ ✅ ✅
    ActiveX, includ­ing on-site editing  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Solu­tions Devel­op­ment Sys­tem (IRX — sim­i­lar to ARX — SDS/ADS C++)  ✅ ✅ ❌
    AutoLISP (includ­ing DCL)  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Script recording  ✅ ✅ ❌
    .COM support  ✅ ✅ ❌
    .NET support  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Visu­al Basic for Appli­ca­tions (VBA) ✅ ✅ ❌
    Load­ing of exter­nal VBA files  ✅ ✅ ❌
    PDF to DWG (con­vert PDF files to DWG files)  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Con­vert DWF/​DWFx to DWG,DXF,DAE,3DS,DGN ✅ ✅ ✅
    Print to JPG  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Print to PDF and PDF/A ✅ ✅ ✅
    Export STL and Col­la­da (DAE) ✅ ✅ ❌
    PDF, DWF, DGN documents  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Bet­ter­WMF integration  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Raster-to-vec­tor module  ✅ ❌ ❌
    iCADLib block manager  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Block Library (Con­struc­tion, Archi­tec­ture ANSI-ISO and DIN-ISO Mechan­ics ANSI and IEC Elec­tron­ics, Steel pro­files, Fur­ni­ture, Kitchen)  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Para­met­ric 2D libraries  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Inte­gra­tion for Tra­ceparts, Cade­nas and BIM&CO ✅ ❌ ❌
    True Type Font (TTF) ✅ ✅ ✅
    Arc-aligned text  ✅ ✅ ❌
    Quick measurement  ✅ ✅ ✅
    AIDIMSTYLE  ✅ ✅ ✅
    eTransfer  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Send to Skype  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Home page  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Draw­ing field  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Search and replace  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Nat­ur­al sup­port for ECW,Jpeg 2000, MrSID  ✅ ❌ ❌
    Sup­port for True col­or and Stan­dard col­or books  ✅ ✅ ✅
    Masking  ✅ ✅ ✅