Thanks for the kind mention Eric. I would like to offer a bit of insight as well. As a seasoned AutoCAD-ArcGIS-Microstation veteran, I would say in today’s market hands down the product of choice would be Landmark from Vectorworks. Design, estimating (from reporting), pseudo GIS abilities like importing georeferenced imagery and shp files, and as you stated the ability to import GPS data makes it the clear winner. And lets not forget the modeling ability and modified graphics. Doesn’t break your budget upon initial investment to allow for quality training, custom programming or other needs. You can perform most of the same tasks that a $4k CAD and $1.5k GIS application can do.
AutoCAD and Microstation are great tools and are the industry standard, but are a bit of using a hammer to swat a fly, and if you are independent or a small company that is not part of a multi-disciplined engineering or architecture firm, you would be better served in a product like Landmark. Very well served. Think about training and all the IT support.
GIS is my passion as I find that a database driven graphics application is the wave of the future, but is far from being mainstream. (Thank you Google for starting to change that) Its not a design tool but a better analysis application. Lacks much in the graphics and in the drafting department. Those tools have never been fully developed as they are in their counterparts (e.g. CAD, Corel, Adobe).
Aloha from the GPS_GIS World,
Brian
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