Testimonials from Carlson Software Users

Recorded at Carlson Software Silver Anniversary User Conference in 2008

Carlson Civil

Tony Kinder, Civil Engineer and Surveyor for Cleveland Survey in Cleveland, Tenn.

We use both Carlson Civil and Carlson Survey and have for years. The biggest thing [about Carlson Civil] is not only its ease of use, but also its simplicity. It works in the pattern of what someone is used to doing, what they have been taught for years, so you’re not asking the person to learn an entirely new procedure. Most people can look at Carlson Software and say this is something that I already know where some of the other software packages we’ve seen, they are not as intuitive as Carlson’s is.

We are a small company but I would say that it has helped us from a drafting technician to a surveyor to a civil engineer, they are all on the same page. They are all using the same methodology to accomplish the same thing so we get to work together as a team more. It really helps us to work together as a team and communicate better.

I can’t compliment enough the telephone support that the company has had for years and years. They’ve been extremely supportive to us over the years. We also feel the webinars that have been live and are archived on the website now have been invaluable to us. It’s one of the best ways to learn the software that I’ve seen anywhere.

Would you recommend Carlson Civil to others? If you’re talking about someone who is out of our territory, then absolutely I’d recommend it. If it’s a competitor, then, no, you want to use another software. Seriously, it’s an outstanding software and an outstanding company to work with. We are proud of our association with them.

J.T. Hardin, DDS Engineering, Bowling Green, Kentucky – CAD Manager

“I like everything from the Road Network to the Storm Sewer Network. It has just improved our productivity and our speed with how we get drawings done. The layouts with the LotNet and the SiteNet are also great. [Carlson Civil] is so much more powerful and it’s so easy to use that the average user can sit down and within half an hour be turning out RoadNets and LotNets. If I had to put a time on it, it’d be hard to figure, it really would.

Name two of your favorite features: Only two features? The Field-to-Finish work in regards to doing TOPOS, SiteNet, LotNet, the storm and sewer network, all of that is just so easy to use and so productive, it’s hard to narrow it down. It has greatly improved our efficiency in the office, no doubt about it. We were spending too much time looking for all of our files. With the Project Data Folder Setup, we can find them just like that.

If you have any, even a small amount of knowledge of what you want to do, it makes the process so much easier because it is so intuitive, it gives you the most common default answers. It’ll walk you through the process step-by-step. The software is without a doubt leading edge, especially the Civil Suite. I would not want to do my job without Carlson Civil. It is by far and away the best software that I’ve ever worked with and I can say that without a doubt.

I would recommend Carlson Civil to anybody and have. It’s going to make your job so much easier. It’s the absolute best company that I’ve ever worked with as far as technical support. Any problem or bug and they’ve fixed it in a couple of hours or let me know exactly what’s going on. All of the staff [at Carlson] is extremely proud of what they do – you can feel the energy. As a company, they have gone above and beyond as far as technical support goes and how they take care of their customers.”

Jennifer DiBona, ThatCadGirl, Carlson Dealer, North Carolina

“Most of my customers are going to be most interested in LotNet and RoadNet in Carlson Civil and the reason for that is that it is really built the way that they do their design work. Just the network ability, the ability to do the different options ? it puts it in one easy-to-use dialog box and it’s just the way they do their design work. It’s very powerful.

Most of the software my customers have used in the past is Land Desktop – they were happy with it – then Civil3D came along and there were a lot of questions of what was going to happen with Land Desktop. When we got into looking into Civil3D as an option – when they did the numbers, it just wasn’t an option for them. So they were stuck. Carlson has ended up being the alternative for them because it’s a little bit of the best of both worlds. The ease of implementation and the cost has made it a great alternative for them. And then you’ve got the Carlson support team behind them – free tech support is just unheard of in the industry. Nobody actually believes it – it’s totally unexpected. And also when you call in and make a suggestion, chances are you’ll see that in the next release – again that’s just unheard of in the industry. The responsiveness is a level just no one is expecting.

Again what I’m finding as I go and talk to my customers about it, using roadway design as an example – when we really get down to looking at the numbers and what it’s going to cost for them to even use current software that they have in-house, if they want to learn how to do roadway design in Land Desktop. I can show them Carlson, they can buy the software and get them the training for a lot less than it would cost to just get the training for the software that they have in-house. With Land Desktop it may be six months before they are truly productive. With Carlson, it’s pretty easy implementation.

I have supported the “other guys” for a long time – Softdesk/Land Desktop – 17-18 years. It was a great alternative, but when Civil 3D came along, it almost opened a Pandora’s Box. We could see some great new tools and dynamics that everybody had wanted, it gets you all excited, but when you really get down to looking at what it costs to implement, it just was not an option.

The personal experience is that the software that we’ve used for years has gotten away from being a user-based software. I don’t know who it’s made for. But they’ve gotten away from being a software that’s made for the user. That’s the itch that Carlson is scratching. And then there’s their free tech support from the home office. No you don’t have to buy a subscription. No matter what version you own, Carlson supports it – unheard of! You talk to the developers. If you find a bug, you will get it fixed. If you suggest something, very good chance it’s going to end up in the next release. Very responsive.

--------

Check out the conference Overview or the What's New page to learn more about Carlson's 2009 User Conference.