I'm currently trialling ViaCad so I suppose the trial period will run out shortly. I'm new to CAD. I'm wanting to know what are the differences between the standard ViaCad and the pro version. I can't find any such document on the site.

What I want to do: I've got plans (hand-drawn) of a homebuilt aircraft that I intend to build. The materials are composite (fibreglass). I want to copy these plans (for my own purposes) into a CAD file. Will the standard version suffice?

Before actually starting out on that process, I want to learn some of the 2D stuff (floor plans and the like) in order to get comfortable with the software. I'm assuming the standard version would be sufficient for this purpose.

Now a sales question. If I purchase the standard version and it becomes necessary that I need the pro version, is there an upgrade path/price?

Steve.

Thank you.

What i find worth the upgrade price in VC Pro vs VC 2D/3D is the ability to join together two surfaces that (due to my curves i bring in from another program) don't fully draw between two curves, but for some reason adjacent, similar curves DO fully faciliate a surface being drawn in.

To use your model aircraft fuselage as an example, i'm designing a ship. My stations are not unlike your fuselage's stations, except maybe yours are circular rings/hoops (like in a submarine?) but my ship's stations are U-shaped, with a line connecting the port and starboard sides.

Actually, tho, my stations are at 1-foot spacing, so they're really frame where i choose every 6, 7, 8, or 9 feet to put transverse stiffeners and have the skin surface or ruled surfaces between those frames.

What happens is that sometimes 90% of a surface will draw in/fill in, usually being fine in the keel area and along the sideshell, but failing to fill in within 2 feet of the bulwark (weather deck to sideshell meeting edge). In VC 2D/3D i realized i could draw a line to make like a triangle in the missing space and then surface that area, make a solid, and stitch the solid. But, it was painful. Having the surface joining tool saves time.

VCPro has a number of other features, too, so you may want to spend 1 or 2 weeks trialling 2D/3D, but you might want to definitely give VCP a good week or two, too. I may personally only be exploiting a handful of the VCP advantages over 2D/3D, and even then, i'm using fewer than half of the tools in VCP.

Sorry for the long post.

ZLC