AutoCAD LT 2004 is available for $659 US.
General CADD Pro v.2.1.0 sells for $499 US.
Generic 6.1 was priced at $495 US for the July 1993 release. (Has it really been 10 years?)
The upgrade to AutoCAD LT’s next release is expected to be $300± US.
General CADD Pro 2.1.0 Support Plus is only $199 US and includes quarterly updates to
2.02, 2.03, & the 3.00 betas, plus the 3.01 upgrade.
This is as if the Generic CADD 6.0 users could have received 6.1.x, 6.2.x, 6.3.x, the 7.0.x betas, plus an
upgrade to 7.1.0 for only $50 more than the so called upgrade to Generic CADD 6.1.0 cost them in 1993.

Only Useful Windows Features are provided in General CADD Pro:
Mouse Scroll Wheel to Zoom [plus Shift key to Pan]
— Scroll mouse input devices also support menu and list picks.
Mouse left click on Status Bar Buttons to change settings.
Mouse right click on third line of Status Bar display settings list box.
Windows Drop-Down Menus supplement the customizable Side Menus.
Windows Explorer style drag & drop file folder options for Thumbnail settings.
Windows pop-up box for most all the [on/off] Toggle settings.
Windows GUI Clipboard Commands (Cut, Copy, Paste), and selected Icon buttons aid new users.
Windows Toolbars [on/off] toggle commands.
Windows command Button Pallets can be relocated or hidden.

New CADD Features added to General CADD Pro:
Improved GXM Macro Programming Language [Also runs the GC6 MCR batch files]
Improved GXV Video Menus [Also runs the GC6 native & custom video MNU menus]
All Menus include the, easy to learn, 2-Letter Mnemonic Native commands.
— Side menu & custom side menus can be hidden to increase screen space.
GCP stores Floating Point numbers in 8-byte variables, GC6 stores them in 4-byte.
A Text Editor is included plus the new Quick Edit command.
Improved Drawing Print function that now adds perfect control of the Printed Line Widths.
— Printing utility allows simple, direct use of the Adobe Acrobat 5.0 PDF Distiller program.
Unlimited number of Components may be placed in drawings, up from 256 in GC6.
— Visual scaling and rotation of component blocks may be done on the fly.
Screen Capture program added.  Access GCP-CAPture from [Alt]+C or Start/Programs/General CADD.
Number of Layers increased from 256 to 1024.
Additional Line Type patterns added for GCD, DWG, and ISO file compatibility.
— Device and World line types include a total of 80 different patterns.
— Custom line types may be added by the user. [File conversions create custom patterns for non native line types].
Additional Line Type files from Generic 6.1.5 and Custom Line Type files may be loaded with the new LO, L command.
Unlimited number of  different Line Types supported.  GC6 and GCP1.xx are limited to 256 patterns.
Digitizer Support is being added to latest update.
Drawing File Size has been greatly reduced using self-compression.
Optional Thumbnail image selector used for loading drawings and placing hatches or components.
Faster direct entry for Length + Angle using the optional Polar Coordinates command
— modifier ( ` ). [The grave accent symbol replaces < for angle and decimals replace the colons] providing
— a new faster shift free command line entry of angles].
Use the @ command modifier for Direct Entry of x,y coordinates.
Use [Shift] + right mouse button to edit Text, Dimensions or Components.
Use [Tab] key for PenUp, Enter, or to Browse file lists. [Windows scroll bars are only used in selection list boxes].
Use the Arrow Keys to Pan and Zoom.

New Native Commands for Version 1.01 Included:
A1 Aligned linear dimension
A5 Arc 5 tangent arcs [draw]
AB Arc to Bezier curve [utility]
BA Bezier curve to Arc [utility]
BD Batch/macro De-bugger [utility]
BQ B-spline Quadratic curve [draw]
CQ Component Query [list & place]
CT ConverT [ATB, CMP, FNT, SHX, GCD, HCH, PAT & TTfont files to GCP format]
DK Drawing Kleen [removes double & zero length objects from file]
DQ Dimension Query settings [dialog box]
FB File Bug report online [E-mail]
FV Fraction Value [setting]
H1 Horizontal linear dimension
HE displays the extensive html HElp [utility]
HO Hatch Origin [relocate]
IM Import: [.gcd, .dwg, dxf, .ai, .wwf & .emt files plus the HPGL .dpf, .txt, .plt & .hpg files]
LF Load Font to edit an existing or create a new GCP .gxf font [utility]
LM Layer Manager [list box]
OX Object eXplode
P4 Path 4 to .gcd vector files
P5 Path 5 to .dwg vector files
P6 Path 6 to dxf vector files
PP ProPerty settings [dialog box]
QC Query Commands [list box]
QE Quick text Edit [also works on leader text]
RN Restore eNvironment saved settings [select saved drawing configuration style from list]
S2 Snap mid point between 2 points
SF Save Font after edit or creation
TN ThumbNail [on/off] settings [for Drawings, Components & Hatches]
V1 Vertical linear dimension
WK Window Kleen [removes double & zero length objects from file]
WO Window sOrt [utility]
WV Window conVert lines to arcs
XC restrict Cursor to drawing area
XP eXPort Bitmap [jpg, bmp, tif, png files] & Vector Drawing files [R-11/12 & R-2002 files]

New Native Commands for Version 2.1 Include:
AA Active Area of digitizer
AU AUto save [utility]
EC Edit Configuration [Access & revise program .cfg files directly from the program]
DA Drawing Align on digitizer 
DM Digitizer Menu
HG Hatch chaGe
IF Insertion Fill [seed fill]
IG ImaGe object [Place, scale & rotate BMP, JPG, PNG, TIF & WMF files in drawing]
IH Insertion Hatch [seed hatch]
LP Last Point [snap]
M1 Measure area [utility]
M2 Measure 2-point angle [utility]
M3 Measure 3-point angle [utility]
MC Multi Copy [edit]
QT Query Toggle [on/off] settings [pop-up with More & Close buttons]
RS Re-Sort drawing by entity order [dialog box ]
RZ tRace siZe digitizer scale[setting]
S1 Save as GCP version 1.0x format
SU Snap Universal [to pre-established snap points]
TB move selected objects To Back of RedrawDisplay order
TF move selected objects To Front of RedrawDisplay order
TM Trace Mode for digitizer
TQ Text Query [settings & editing dialog box]
TY Text laYer [settings for specific or current layer]
UP Universal Points [set reference points coordinate locations]
UY aUto dimension laYer [settings for specific or current layer]
YU laYer Un-name by: [Selected, Unused or All layers]
ZE Zoom bird's Eye view

Improved GC6 Command Features include:
CG ChanGe [All properties, pick object to match added]
DC Display Coordinates [Manual entry, Absolute, Relative, & Basepoint added]
DG Drawing chanGe [All properties, pick object to match added]
DI DIsplay screen settings [Background, rubberbanD, Grid & Highlight color, menu Font,
— Menu tips, pOint size, cursor Prompt & Rotate cursor to ortho angle settings added]
DP Drawing Print or Plot HPGL/2 [Date & Time Stamp on DP output & set custom plotter page size added]
EN Environment [save current & name multiple drawing configuration styles]
FP File Paths [GCD, Plot files, Image & aTtributes added]
HS Hatch/fill Settings [Origin change & display fIll added]
LO LOad file GCD, CMP, MCR, ASCII and DWG/DXF
— [GXD, Read GCD Header, Unit settings for DWG/DXF, Image files & ATtribute files added]
LV Load Video side menu runs GC6 MNU or native GXM files [improved menu selection list box]
OG Object Change [All properties, pick object to match added]
OI Object Information [additional geometric data is listed]
P1 Path 1 to .gxd vector files [was to .GCD]
P2 Path 2 to .gxc component block files [was to .CMP]
P3 Path 3 to .gxf font files [was to .FNT]
SA Save As [screen Image, gxd v.1, generic friendly dwG & dxF files added]
SE Selection [select by Allow right/left crossing, Invert & coNnected added]
TG Text chanGe [List box with nine more options has been added]
TS Text Settings [Bold & laYer added]
WG Window chanGe [All properties, pick object to match added]
YG laYer chanGe [All properties, pick object to match added]
YN laYer Name [Longer layer names are permitted]

Online Features for All Versions of General CADD Pro:
Frequent updates of the downloadable HTML Help file.
Bug fixes are available promptly as downloads.
Send bug reports from the program directly to the developers by E-mail.
Contact on-line support directly from within the program.
Plus an Internet bulletin board system (BBS) that provides the best technical support in the industry

Only two significant GC6 features are still missing from version .2.1.13:
View ports, and the BIll of material utility.
These features are expected to be included shortly after the release of GCP version 2.1.13

General CADD Products, Inc.
1 Railroad Avenue
Cherry Valley, New York 13320

Author’s Disclaimer:
This review represents my knowledge of the current 2.1.13  program.
The program will likely be subjected to continuing emendation
plus additional basic & useful features.
 

Copyright©2003 Noel H. Browning
Permission is granted to reprint this complete review, providing that the Author is credited.