AutoCAD

A computer-aided design software application used for creating and editing 2D and 3D designs in various industries

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Features & Limitations

+	2D-3D Drafting and Modeling	Create and edit 2D drawings, design and visualize 3D models
+	Layer Management	Organize drawings using layers
+	Annotation Tools	Add text, dimensions, and tables
+	Block Library	Store and reuse drawing components
+	Dynamic Blocks	Create blocks with adjustable properties
+	Xref Management	Attach and manage external references to allow different parts of a project can be developed independently
+	PDF Import	Import and edit PDF files
+	DWG Compare	Compare differences between drawing versions
+	Sheet Set Manager	Manage drawing sheets in a project
+	Parametric Constraints	Apply geometric and dimensional constraints
-	Steep Learning Curve	Requires significant time and effort to master. Can be overwhelming for new users.
-	Resource Intensive	Can slow down older systems. Needs a powerful computer to run smoothly.

Platform

Social

System Requirements

Version ↓

#	Minimum	Recommended	Optimal
1	64-bit Microsoft® Windows® 11 and Windows 10 version 1809 or above. See Autodesk’s Product Support Lifecycle for support information.
2	2.5-2.9 GHz processor with 8 logical cores (base) ARM Processors are not supported.	3+ GHz processor (base), 4+ GHz (turbo)
3	8 GB	32 GB
4	10.0 GB (suggested SSD)		16 GB (suggested SSD)
5	2 GB GPU with 29 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 11 compliant	8 GB GPU with 106 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 12 compliant	12 GB VRAM or greater Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater DirectX-capable workstation class graphics card
6	1920 x 1080 with True Color	Resolutions up to 3840 x 2160	3840 x 2160 (4K) or greater True Color video display adapter
7	.NET 8
8	Stable internet connection
9	MS-Mouse compliant pointing device

#	Minimum	Recommended
1	Apple® macOS® Sonoma v14 Apple macOS Ventura v13 Apple macOS Monterey v12
2	Apple Mac® computers compatible with macOS Monterey or above	Apple Mac models supporting Metal Graphics Engine
3	64-bit Intel CPU	Apple M series CPU
4	8 GB	16 GB
5	8 GB free disk space for download and installation
6		Mac native installed graphics cards
7	1280 x 800 display	2880 x 1800 with Retina Display
8	Apple-compliant Mouse, Apple-compliant Trackpad, Microsoft-compliant mouse APFS, APFS(Encrypted), Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) disk format

#	Minimum	Recommended
1	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 20 GB Dependency: Database & FDO	RAM: 32 GB
2	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 20 GB Dependency: Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable (x64) (16.0.5044.1000) or later, unless Microsoft Office 2016 (x64) or later is already installed. Installation on systems with 32-bit Microsoft Office/365 applications is not supported.	RAM: 32 GB
3	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 20GB	RAM: 32 GB
4	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 21GB	RAM: 32 GB
5	RAM: 32 GB Disk Space: 12GB
6	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 12GB	RAM: 32 GB
7	Disk Space: 1 GB

#	Minimum	Recommended	Optimal
1	64-bit Microsoft® Windows® 11 and Windows 10 version 1809 or above. See Autodesk’s Product Support Lifecycle for support information.
2	2.5-2.9 GHz processor (base) ARM Processors are not supported.	3+ GHz processor (base), 4+ GHz (turbo)
3	8 GB	32 GB
4	10.0 GB (suggested SSD)		16 GB (suggested SSD)
5	2 GB GPU with 29 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 11 compliant	8 GB GPU with 106 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 12 compliant	12 GB VRAM or greater Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater DirectX-capable workstation class graphics card
6	1920 x 1080 with True Color	Resolutions up to 3840 x 2160	3840 x 2160 (4K) or greater True Color video display adapter
7	.NET 4.8
8	Stable internet connection
9	MS-Mouse compliant pointing device

#	Minimum	Recommended
1	Apple® macOS® Sonoma v14 (requires Update 2024.1) Apple macOS Ventura v13 Apple macOS Monterey v12 Apple macOS Big Sur v11
2	Apple Mac® computers compatible with macOS Monterey or above	Apple Mac models supporting Metal Graphics Engine
3	64-bit Intel CPU	Apple M series CPU
4	4 GB	8 GB
5	6 GB free disk space for download and installation
6		Mac native installed graphics cards
7	1280 x 800 display	2880 x 1800 with Retina Display
8	Apple-compliant Mouse, Apple-compliant Trackpad, Microsoft-compliant mouse APFS, APFS(Encrypted), Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) disk format

#	Minimum
1	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 20 GB Dependency: Database & FDO
2	Disk Space: 20 GB Dependency: Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable (x64) (16.0.5044.1000) or later, unless Microsoft Office 2016 (x64) or later is already installed. Installation on systems with 32-bit Microsoft Office/365 applications is not supported.
3	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 20GB
4	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 21GB
5	RAM: 32 GB Disk Space: 12GB
6	Disk Space: 12GB
7	Disk Space: 1 GB

#	Minimum	Recommended	Optimal
1	64-bit Microsoft® Windows® 11 and Windows 10 version 1809 or above. See Autodesk’s Product Support Lifecycle for support information.
2	2.5-2.9 GHz processor (base) ARM Processors are not supported.	3+ GHz processor (base), 4+ GHz (turbo)
3	8 GB	16 GB
4	10.0 GB (suggested SSD)		16 GB (suggested SSD)
5	1 GB GPU with 29 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 11 compliant	4 GB GPU with 106 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 12 compliant	8 GB VRAM or greater Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater DirectX-capable workstation class graphics card
6	1920 x 1080 with True Color	Resolutions up to 3840 x 2160	3840 x 2160 (4K) or greater True Color video display adapter
7	.NET 4.8
8	Stable internet connection
9	MS-Mouse compliant pointing device

#	Minimum	Recommended
1	Apple® macOS® Sonoma v14 (requires Update 2023.3) Apple macOS Ventura v13 (requires Update 2023.2) Apple macOS Monterey v12 Apple macOS Big Sur v11 Apple macOS Catalina v10.15
2	Apple Mac® computers compatible with macOS Monterey or above	Apple Mac models supporting Metal Graphics Engine Apple Mac models with M series chip are supported under Rosetta 2 mode.
3	64-bit Intel CPU	Apple M series CPU
4	4 GB	8 GB
5	5 GB free disk space for download and installation
6		Mac native installed graphics cards
7	1280 x 800 display	2880 x 1800 with Retina Display
8	Apple-compliant Mouse, Apple-compliant Trackpad, Microsoft-compliant mouse APFS, APFS(Encrypted), Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) disk format

#	Minimum
1	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 20 GB Dependency: Database & FDO
2	Disk Space: 20 GB Dependency: Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable (x64) (16.0.5044.1000) or later, unless Microsoft Office 2016 (x64) or later is already installed. Installation on systems with 32-bit Microsoft Office/365 applications is not supported.
3	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 20GB
4	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 21GB
5	RAM: 32 GB Disk Space: 12GB
6	Disk Space: 12GB
7	Disk Space: 1 GB

#	Minimum	Recommended	Optimal
1	64-bit Microsoft® Windows® 11 and Windows 10. See Autodesk’s Product Support Lifecycle for support information.
2	2.5-2.9 GHz processor	3+ GHz processor
3	8 GB	16 GB
4	10.0 GB		16 GB
5	1 GB GPU with 29 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 11 compliant	4 GB GPU with 106 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 12 compliant	4 GB VRAM or greater Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater DirectX-capable workstation class graphics card
6	1920 x 1080 with True Color	Resolutions up to 3840 x 2160	3840 x 2160 (4K) or greater True Color video display adapter
7	.NET 4.8
8	Stable internet connection
9	MS-Mouse compliant pointing device

#	Minimum	Recommended
1	Apple® macOS® Sonoma v14 (requires Update 2022.4) Apple macOS Ventura v13 (requires Update 2022.3) Apple macOS Monterey v12 Apple macOS Big Sur v11 Apple macOS Catalina v10.15 Apple macOS Mojave v10.14
2	Apple Mac® computers compatible with macOS Monterey or above	Apple Mac models supporting Metal Graphics Engine Apple Mac models with M series chip are supported under Rosetta 2 mode.
3	64-bit Intel CPU	Intel Core i7 or higher
4	4 GB	8 GB
5	4 GB free disk space for download and installation
6		Mac native installed graphics cards
7	1280 x 800 display	2880 x 1800 with Retina Display
8	Apple-compliant Mouse, Apple-compliant Trackpad, Microsoft-compliant mouse APFS, APFS(Encrypted), Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) disk format

#	Minimum
1	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 20 GB Dependency: Database & FDO
2	Disk Space: 20 GB Dependency: Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable (x64) (16.0.5044.1000) or later, unless Microsoft Office 2016 (x64) or later is already installed. Installation on systems with 32-bit Microsoft Office/365 applications is not supported.
3	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 20GB
4	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 21GB
5	Disk Space: 12GB
6	Disk Space: 12GB
7	Disk Space: 1 GB

#	Minimum	Recommended	Optimal
1	64-bit Microsoft® Windows® 11, Windows 10 and Windows 8.1. See Autodesk’s Product Support Lifecycle for support information.
2	2.5-2.9 GHz processor	3+ GHz processor
3	8 GB	16 GB
4	7 GB		16 GB
5	1 GB GPU with 29 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 11 compliant	4 GB GPU with 106 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 11 compliant	Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater DirectX-capable workstation class graphics card
6	1920 x 1080 with True Color	Resolutions up to 3840 x 2160	3840 x 2160 (4K) or greater True Color video display adapter
7	.NET 4.8
8	Stable internet connection
9	MS-Mouse compliant pointing device

#	Minimum	Recommended
1	Apple® macOS® Monterey v12 (requires Update 2021.2) Apple macOS Big Sur v11 (requires Update 2021.1) Apple macOS Catalina v10.15 Apple macOS Mojave v10.14 Apple macOS High Sierra v10.13
2	Apple Mac® computers compatible with macOS Monterey or above	Apple Mac models supporting Metal Graphics Engine Apple Mac models with M series chip are supported under Rosetta 2 mode.
3	64-bit Intel CPU	Intel Core i7 or higher
4	4 GB	8 GB
5	3 GB free disk space for download and installation
6		Mac native installed graphics cards
7	1280 x 800 display	2880 x 1800 with Retina Display
8	Apple-compliant Mouse, Apple-compliant Trackpad, Microsoft-compliant mouse APFS, APFS(Encrypted), Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) disk format

#	Minimum
1	RAM: 16 GB Disk Space: 16 GB Dependency: Database & FDO
2	Disk Space: 12 GB Dependency: Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable (x64)
3	Disk Space: 12GB
4	Disk Space: 12GB
5	Disk Space: 10GB
6	Disk Space: 7GB
7	Disk Space: 1 GB

Ratings

4.14

Apple App Store	4.4 5 based on 6200 reviews
G2	4.4 5 based on 1424 reviews
Google Play	3.7 5 based on 173000 reviews
Softonic	3.5 5 based on 7871 reviews
SoftwareAdvice	4.7 5 based on 3051 reviews

Developer

Autodesk Inc

Written in

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Initial Release

December 1989

Repository

AutoCAD being a proprietary software, its source code is not publicly hosted.

License

Proprietary, Commercial

Alternatives

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