progeCAD

You guys saved a wonderful CAD environment!

I am so happy to have found you! I love the Original AutoCAD, but I don't want to rent it. When Autodesk dropped the perpetual license, I kept using my 2013 version. I was waiting for it to stop working any day. I avoided upgrading to Windows 11 because of that. Realistically, they are changing 10 all the time regardless, so it was bound to happen. I would give your program 6 stars if I could.

We are very happy with the program

We are very happy with the program, we are electrical drafters and so far there are no issues. The program does mirror AutoCAD LT for the most part. The price is great but performance is what's important to us.

Survey drafting Programs

Finding a solid drafting program is hard for Land Surveyors.. The learning curve was great! Purchase and download was seamless.and I was using it fairly well in a few hours of practice. Good luck with other cad programs.

Same problems I had with autodesk

Same problems I had with autodesk. It worked better before I bought it.

Purchase was easy and very cost…

Purchase was easy and very cost efficient compared to competition. I am new to CAD, just played in AutoCAD previously, very similar, just takes time to find the buttons you need! Seems to be lots of short how to videos that really help navigate the program too!

A fantastic program

I spent some time reading reviews, forums and watching YouTube videos to find an alternative to my old AutoCAD that was showing it's age. I found ProgeCAD and decided to give it a try and downloaded the trial. I was immediately impressed as it felt familiar and comfortable from the start. I was able to customize it, use my fonts, custom hatch patterns etc. just like I was used to. The AEC tool set that is included was great for me as I have been using AutoCAD Architecture since the early 2000's and use those same tools in all of my projects. I have used AutoCAD for 25 years and I can say that everything that I can do in AutoCAD, I can do in ProgeCAD and faster. It really is a true alternative at a much better price. ProgeCAD is a great program at a great price and sold as a perpetual license and not a yearly subscription. Highly Recommended.

Excellent AutoCad replacement program…

Excellent AutoCad replacement program especially about having a perpetual license.

Excellent features

Excellent features. Needs a few more functions to be as good as AutoCAD. But for the price, I am willing to deal with the workarounds.

Great AutoCad replacement.

Great AutoCad replacement. I was able to hit the road running, it used my existing files without any issues. I have been using AutoCad for years, there was no re-training - I could use ProgeCAD perfectly on my first day. The price is great, and not having an annual subscription is essential for what I need.

Easy transition from autocad

Easy transition from autocad. Wish I had done it sooner!

Great alternative to Autocad

Great alternative to Autocad, and you own it instead of renting it

Still evaluating ProgeCAD

Still evaluating ProgeCAD. Used AutoCAD for over 30 years and see some differences that will take time for me to master. Biggest issue is popup menu that appears using Trim in a zoomed view. A popup menu should not appear when I trim a line or ellipse after I select the boundaries. This is the most irritating feature of ProgeCAD.

Great product

Great product! At a great price! East to purchase and install.

This is a great CAD product

This is a great CAD product. It's easy to use and works very similar to AutoCad commands. All I need is a drafting software with no subscription. I like it very much.

No problem moving from AutoCAD to Procad

This is a great product coming from Autocad

This is a great product coming from an Autocad user. The environment is very similar to Autocad, especially in the options area, so chaning my settings to what I am accustomed to was a breeze. I use a lot of lisp programs which still work in Progecad. I do wish that Progecad had the Vlisp editor that Autocad does, but I wass informed that may be coming shortly. Regarding customer support, Progecad blows away Autodesk. The have been very prompt with help.

Unstable for Professional Engineering

Unstable for Professional Engineering I purchased progeCAD based on the "Nothing to learn for AutoCAD users" marketing promise, but the reality is a significant loss in productivity due to critical engine bugs and database instabilities. Key Technical Failures: Database Corruption via Character Parsing: Using the inch symbol (") in Visibility States breaks block functionality and permanently corrupts the DWG table. There is no input validation or error messaging. Failed Block Redefinition (Ghost Definitions): The software retains "ghost" data in memory. Even after PURGE, AUDIT, and application restarts, inserting a new block with the same name restores parameters from the deleted block (mixing geometries and units). Annotative Scaling Bugs: Annotative blocks fail to scale correctly when inserted between drawings with different units (e.g., mm to meters), ignoring the viewport's annotative scale. Hatch Regression: It is impossible to have a Hatch that is simultaneously Associative (linked to polyline) and Annotative (scale-aware). Forcing a choice between these two is unacceptable in professional CAD. Missing Productivity Tools: Lack of essential commands like MOVEBAK (for network file management), TESTBLOCK (to validate dynamics inside BEDIT), and full support for Geometric Constraints. Conclusion: I am spending more time as an "unpaid beta tester" troubleshooting database-level bugs than performing actual engineering design. The software is currently unreliable for professional Fire Protection (NFPA) workflows. -------------------- UPDATE (March 27, 2026): Rating downgraded to 1/5 I am downgrading my rating (from 2 to 1) because the company’s official reply below is untrue. They claim they "found no requests," yet I have an active communication thread with Salvatore Pagani from their technical team under Ticket #XYG-485-52691. The lack of internal communication is alarming, but the technical response is worse: Misleading Support: Instead of addressing the database corruption and parsing errors I meticulously documented (such as the " character breaking visibility states), Salvatore sent me a basic video tutorial on how to create a dynamic block. As an engineering firm, we don't need basic tutorials; we need a CAD engine that actually works. Ghost Data Persistence: I have proven that progeCAD retains "ghost" data in memory even after deep purges and restarts. This makes professional Fire Protection (NFPA) documentation unreliable. Inaccurate Public Reply: Telling a verified customer with an active ticket that "no requests were found" is an attempt to discredit a professional report. Stop the administrative excuses and the "basic tutorials." Address the parsing bugs and the annotative scaling failures I have already submitted. Our productivity depends on professional tools, not marketing videos. ---------------- Update (March 28, 2026): New Critical Issue - XREF Management (Ticket #CPC-621-27334) Since my last update, I have discovered even more regressions that break the professional workflow. I have opened a second formal ticket regarding External References (XREFs): XREF Notification Failure: The software fails to notify when an attached architectural XREF has been updated by another user. In a professional engineering firm, this leads to dangerous coordination errors. Broken Path Management: There is no way to switch an XREF to a "Relative Path" once it is attached. You are forced to detach and re-attach False Marketing: The "Nothing to learn" slogan is a facade. These are not "features to learn"; these are industry-standard CAD functionalities that are simply missing or non-functional in progeCAD 2026.

Relearning CAD

Aloha My AutoCAD 12 expired. I have used this software since the 1990's, maybe 30 years. It is excellent, but it has gotten expensive even with the lease payments. So I needed to do an architecture project with only pdf's of my plans. I was pleasantly surprised to find that progeCAD could translate them into object-oriented CAD. ProgeCAD has all of the AutoCAD commands I needed, although it took some time to find them. I completed my work and was so impressed with its performance that I now know it is my favorite CAD. It is a struggle to learn CAD, and the command button ribbons in progeCAD make it much easier to learn or, in my case, relearn. I would recommend ProgeCAD to anyone who needs to get a job done right.

very good and easy to use

very similar to Autocad

Love the software and ease of use

Love the software and ease of use. I love that the program is so similar to AutoCAD. There are quite a few bugs though, which AutoCAD do not have. More importantly, I wish there was an online account I could link my purchase to, rather than being dependent on a past email