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Hardware Recommendations for Autodesk AutoCAD

If you’re just beginning working as drafter or designer, starting a new project that calls for the use of Autodesk AutoCAD or your computer simply needs replacing, it’s essential to be aware of a few essential aspects before you purchase the best computer For AutoCAD.

Because AutoCAD can be used to draw any 2D drawing, 3D model or construction digitally, as opposed to using hand, it takes up significant power on hardware. It was designed to help drafters and designers make their drawings faster, so what would be the benefit to run the software on a CAD-equipped computer that would slow the program down? How do you determine which one to select given the many possibilities available?

Here are a few things to think about when selecting the right CAD workstation for AutoCAD:

1. Understand your workloads

The first step to selecting the best CAD machine for you is to take into consideration what you will be using it for. For instance, if you’ll be using AutoCAD to draw two-dimensional drawings or small 3D models, you’ll not require a machine that is with the same specifications as someone who uses AutoCAD to create massive 3D model.

2. Consider other programs or software you might need to utilize

If AutoCAD is the software you’ll use frequently to draw, but you occasionally require rendering your model in 3dsMax It is essential to search for a CAD workstation capable of running the program just as efficiently. While the file that you are importing into 3dsMax isn’t too large however, the requirements to run the software alone exceed the requirements for a moderate workload of AutoCAD.

3. You should think about a system with lots of capacity disk space

While this may seem to be an obvious point yet it is quite often not looked at in detail. For instance, the latest version AutoCAD (AutoCAD 2021) occupies seven GB on the Windows operating system. However this doesn’t include any particular toolsets or large datasets like point clouds, point clouds or 3D models that could accumulate over time, in addition to the installing of other software , such as 3ds Max, etc. It’s important to reserve more disk space beyond what you believe you require.

4. Consider investing in a premium graphics card

Whilst AutoCAD can turn on software graphics acceleration such as calculating the graphics that are displayed using the CPU only however, the performance will be quite poor and slow. Particularly, if you’re using 3D models or using more than one monitor or a monitor with 4K resolution. The software is extremely graphics intensive, so it’s logical to use it with a CAD workstation that has a graphics card of the highest quality to get the most performance.

5. Find the appropriate CPU and specifications for RAM

When choosing CPU and RAM specifications, there’s a myriad of variables to take into account based on the program you’re using as well as the demands of your work. Both are equally crucial. One complements the other by providing overall speed. The number of tasks a CPU can handle is heavily dependent on the amount of RAM that is available to it since this will hold the data that the CPU will process, thus allowing more applications to run simultaneously.

Autodesk tends to design software based on Xeon CPU’s rather than i7’s or i9’s because of the larger caches and more complex calculations. We generally recommend Xeon CPUs for an enterprise-grade CAD environment especially in areas where rendering is heavily used. Additionally, it will increase reliability and system longevity as it is a business grade processor.