Sting! Bentley Burns Autodesk

Bentley Systems ships a press release this morning containing a stinging rebuke of Autodesk from a former customer. The East Coast CAD company republishes a customer letter that complains about software from the West Coast CAD company:

"In nearly three decades of service, we have used the major engineering programs running on the AutoCAD platform, including Land Desktop. We have been continually frustrated and disappointed in the inability of these programs to adapt to the needs of our engineers and surveyors," writes Wayne Rosendahl, principal of Rosendahl and Associates.

It is common for software companies to tout customer steals, but rare for complaints to be aired publicly.

"This year we reached a crossroads with our AutoCAD and Land Desktop licensing. Faced with a forced retirement policy for our software versions and steep upgrade costs [to Civil 3D?], we set out to find an alternative solution to our software problem."

The letter goes on to praise Bentley Systems, its support, its software, etc, etc. The problem is that it's all touchy-feely. Left out are hard numbers that those in charge of CAD systems would be interested in knowing:

- What are the upgrade and crossgrade costs from Autodesk and Bentley Systems. Over ten years? Short-term pain for long-term gain.
- How long did the conversion from Autodesk to Bentley software take? What were some stumbling blocks? Inquring minds want to know.
- Did Mr Rosendahl compare PowerCivil with the newish Civil 3D from Autodesk? I'm not pimping for Autodesk, just wondering.

I am, however, puzzled by the reference to "nearly 3 decades" of using "major engineering programs" on AutoCAD -- the earliest such software became available in the mid-1980s, which is just 2 decades ago. Ooops.

Comments

[Richard Graves]

My company was solicited a couple of years ago by a competing CAD software maker to give positive tesyimonials in exchange for free seats of their software. We of course declined. That could be the case here as well.

[Evan Yares]

I do not believe that Bentley would have solicited a customer to give positive testimonials in exchange for free software. Or free anything. Bentley has always been on the up and up on this sort of thing.

My guess is that the engineering firm wrote this letter on their own volition, out of frustration. But if it were really important to find out, it would only take a phone call to be sure.

By the way, the customer says "in nearly three decades of service..." They are referring to their history as a company, not the history of Autodesk.

[Patrick EMIN]

"In nearly three decades of service, we have used the major engineering programs running on the AutoCAD platform" means AutoCAD has been used as a platform by this company for nearly three decades. It should be nearly two decades. Exageration does not give credit to this testimonial.

[John Burrill]

I know the Geopak people stand righteously behind Bentley, for, amoung other reasons, it's acceptance by the state DOT's. I agree that Autodesk's been slow in fleshing out the features of their civil products (still no hydrology in Civil3D and no really useful tools for designing intersections anywhere in their canon), but I think Autodesk's tools are a lot easier to work with and understand than Bentley's.
I mean, have you seen what's it's like trying to get a 3D surface out of cross sections in Geopak?