CASE STUDY RESEARCH PAPER- REPORT ( 48 Hours - A+ Score Required)

Computer Aided Design

Contract Options

Luis Medina

Professor Hemati

Spring 2019

Principles of Engineering Economy

Table of Contents

Proposal / problem: 3

Options:

· AutoCAD vs MicroStation 4

Calculation Analysis: 5-6

Conclusion:

Recommendation: 7

Reflection: 8

References: 9

Appendix: 10

Proposal:

San Diego State University’s (SDSU) contract with the Computer Aided Design (CAD) Application “AutoCAD” is expiring soon. SDSU is exploring the option of switching CAD programs and has MicroStation as the front runner. There are many factors that university has to consider before making the decision of either renewing their AutoCAD contract or switching over to MicroStation.

SDSU has to look into all the possible outcomes and effects of their decision. The reason this is such an important decision is because of the fact that the Civil Engineering CAD course is a course that is mandatory for all majors in the department. This means that every student in the department will either benefit or suffer from the decision that the university decides to move forward with. The AutoCAD course being taught is instrumental in helping students become ready for the next step after college.

Options:

AutoCAD vs MicroStation:

AutoCAD has been the most widely used 2D design application in world for nearly two decades and is currently the application used in CAD learning for the SDSU Civil department. AutoCAD is known for its extensive customization and its endless hotkeys and shortcuts. MicroStation allows its users to use AutoCAD files and drawings, but AutoCAD does not allow MicroStation drawings to be used in their application. AutoCAD can run both 2D and 3D with a separate application for BIM tools while MicroStation offers very engineering specific capabilities in their platform all under the same roof. Both programs are very similar and offer similar experiences but is the deciding factor between the programs most of the time is the specific need of the customer. Both programs are overwhelmingly similar, in terms of them both having the same specifications for their programs to run, similar prices (within 4% of each other), and a similar acquisition process. It is important to take all these factors into account in order to realize that the only thing separating these two programs are the quality of the content and not any external factors like licensing or hardware specifications.

When comparing both of these programs there is an assumption made when purchasing either of these programs, there is no interest being paid on any loans since the funds will be provided by the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering department. This assumption is made because of the fact that the school is funded by the government. Another assumption being made in the calculations is that the institution will purchase a book for every student enrolled in the course, even though it is not plausible, the assumption is made to cover all the bases of fees possible in this comparison.

Calculations:

My calculations found that the more economical choice would be to choose MicroStation over AutoCAD. The main factors that affected this were the prices of each program and their accompanying textbooks.

Calculations Continued:

Recommendation:

My final recommendation for choosing between CAD programs is AutoCAD. Even though AutoCAD is the more expensive choice I concluded that AutoCAD was the more important program to know since it has been the best-selling CAD program for nearly 20 years. If the students in the department all take the AutoCAD class, it’ll make their transition into the adult work life that little bit easier since the majority of engineering companies use AutoCAD in comparison to MicroStation. Another reason AutoCAD seems like the obvious answer is that the current Professor already works with AutoCAD, so they wouldn’t have to learn a new program like they would if the switch to MicroStation is made. The drawbacks of using AutoCAD is that it is the more expensive option when compared to MicroStation. The price is easily justified when you consider the fact that switching to MicroStation will bring about the risk of the professor not teaching the new program adequately enough.

There are many factors that were not considered in the final decision of the two products. First of all, the amount of storage space that each program uses is not being considered because all computers on campus have the available storage for each program so no changes will have to be made. Another factor that is not being considered is safety, since this is only an application that is computer-based there is no safety to consider. Lastly, in deciding which program to use the number of employees would not change in either decision, so there is no ethics comparison to be made when deciding between these two options.

The only risk factor that is present in this decision is considering future application partnerships. If SDSU switches from AutoCAD to MicroStation, then it is possible that the switch will affect any future possibility of SDSU working with AutoDesk products.

Reflection:

This Case Study allowed me to make an informed decision about whether or not it would be plausible to switch from the current CAD program taught at SDSU, AutoCAD, to a new alternative of MicroStation. I think this an important topic to look at because it was one of the few classes in college where students know that their future employer will almost always ask about in interviews. If the class can prepare the students to enter the workforce as well as give them exposure to important technical skills, then I think it is very important to make the choice that will allow the students to have the most success outside the classroom. AutoCAD has been dominating the Civil Engineering workforce for nearly 20 years and is often one of the only programs that kids entering college know about. Another aspect in this decision that wasn’t mentioned in the study was the execution of teaching the course. The course is taught to most first or second year students. The problem with that is that by the time students are applying for internships and jobs they have forgotten most of what they have learned. At first glance, keeping AutoCAD seemed like the obvious choice, but once all the factors were considered then it became a decision that took various information to accurately make.

References:

Newnan, D. G., Eschenbach, T. G., Lavelle, J. P., & Lewis, N. A. (2017). Engineering economic analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.

Autodesk Sales, Marketing and Annual Revenue Case Study. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://corporatevisions.com/success-stories/autodesk/

Design Modeling Software. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bentley.com/en/products/product-line/modeling-and-visualization-software/microstation

Appendix

Additional calculations:

Overhead for Computer usage:

Price of Materials for AutoCAD textbooks:

Price of Materials for MicroStation textbooks:

Price of Training Professor in MicroStation: