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CAD, 3d Monitor choice

doho47

Junior Member
I could really use some advice from ppl who work regularly with AutoCAD and/or 3D apps. I'm just starting to learn CAD so don't know much about it

LCD or CRT?
How many?
What size?
What specs to look for?
Your favorite Brand(s) and Model(s)?

All advice welcome and appreciated.
 
-LCD
-1
-17" to 19", but really depends on budget
-25ms response time or lower, and DVI
-Samsung makes the best LCDs, bar-none

Make sure you have 512mb of ram. 1gb is preferrable.
 
Thanks for the input ribbon13. I had narrowed it down to this one after many hrs. of research. One link led to another, and I found it at Dell for quite a bit cheaper and free shipping. Think I'll order one at the end of the day unless someone can convince me otherwise. I'm a little concerned about the text being clear enough but I'm hoping the downloadable tweaking software will allow me to make it OK. I think maybe I will like it much better for gaming as well. Thanks again.
 
A few things:

LCD will give you much clearer images, especially for line drawings. However, be sure to get one with a fast responce time, as otherwise your greys will dissapear as you manipulate a wireframe (pan, zoom, rotate, etc...)

I personally have a Samsung 243T and I'm EXTREMELY dissapointed in the performance of this exact thing: the ghosting is so bad for shades of grey that it drives me nuts sometimes. It's true that this is one big badass display, and for photos and such I've never seen an equal, however drawing in autocad sometimes is a drag (pun intended).

Another thing to think about is resolution - for me, the more the merrier. At 1920x1200 this screen has alot of real-estate. That means I can fit alot of icons in a small row at the top or sides, and I have alot more definition of wireframes and models. The drawback is that all the text on the screen is alot smaller (but you can fit alot more on at once!). This is definately a personal preference, as some people prefer larger text to more real-estate.

The last thing to think about is what vid card you're using... you'll want one that can handle a high res if that's what you're going for. If you're doing any sort of work in 3D Studio or another modeling program, you'll want a card with good 3D performance (although autocad only depends on the card's 2D performance...).

Hope this helps!
 
Actually I have used LCD and CRT and LCD sucks ppl!!! It is 25ms but it didn't look anyhwere as clear and crisp as my CRT.....I recommend a good CRT. On work LCDs suck as well and they are some nice 19" Dells. The one 19" CRT again looks much better....

My wife wnated to buy me a big nice LCD (samsng) this Xmas...I said no I wasn't giving up my CRT yet!!! LCD also makes my movie stuff look like crap!!! I dont know who uses this shite!!!
 
Originally posted by: ribbon13
If it's a permanent workstation and not something you're going to move often, I would suggest this. It's cheaper than a high-end LCD, liable to last longer, doesn't carry the dead pixel risk or LCDs, has a far far greater refresh rate, and far greater color accuracy.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=24-002-012&depa=0


I agree about the color accuracy part and the dead pixel/backlight issues that are common on LCDs, but when it comes to price I have to disagree. It is really not that hard to get a Dell 2001FP for $600 or below if you keep an eye on the Hot Deals forum. If you want something that is a bit better on the quality control side than the Dell, then there is always this nice 20" Viewsonic that is only $709 at Newegg. When you factor in the higher shipping on the monster CRT, you are only paying $10 more for the Viewsonic LCD.

Also, refresh rate is pretty much a moot point with an LCD, since an LCD doesn't depend upon persistence of vision to create an optical illusion of a complete image on the screen like a CRT does. Repsonse time can matter if you are doing gaming, but for CAD it isn't a biggie. An LCD using DVI is actually ideal for CAD because the wireframes come out super sharp, espeically if you softmod the 6800GT to a Quadro and turn on the hardware accelerated wireframe antialiasing. For CAD work, color accuracy isn't as big of an issue as it is with image and video editing, so I think you'll be fine with a nice 20" LCD.
 
Originally posted by: batmanuel
Repsonse time can matter if you are doing gaming, but for CAD it isn't a biggie.

I have to disagree, as I wrote above... response time can make a big difference. On my dell laptop, I don't notice too much ghosting, but on this samsung 243T the ghosting is REALLY bad for certian colors (darker, mostly). Greys are the worst. If I have a cad drawing made of grey lines, when I pan, it virtually dissapears until I stop. It's a pain! I've gotten used to it, but I have to say I wish I had known it was going to be that bad before I bought it!
 
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