Best LCD for CAD applications?

[ed.howell]

We just moved to a new facility at work, and our HUGE 21" CRT monitors look like crap on our new desks. I am looking for a good LCD to replace our CRT monitors.

I have been told that the resolution would be a problem on the LCD. The resolution we use for our CAD programs is 1152X864. If we changed our resolutions to 1600X1200, what would we have to do with the font size and icons, just change it in the display settings? Do LCD's have a problem if you have the resolution set at anything other than the native?

Can you guys give me some suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Ed

[fiji]

mm i can't help you much with the lcd selection

but (this is probably obvious to you) you can change your crt resolution and see what things would change relative to each other

first then by that information, you will be able to better choose a lcd

[hafa]

LCD monitors must be set to their native resolution or image quality will suffer dramatically. Both 17” and 19” monitors have a native resolution of 1280 x 1024.
To get 1600 x 1200 you’d have to go with a 20 or 21” monitor.

The VIEWSONIC 20.1" VP201B is a great value now at only $609 from mwave and is the bigger brother to the VP191B which I am using and love. I do extensive professional work with Illustrator and Photoshop on these monitors and have yet to find a single shortcoming with them.

[clockless]

Im not sure what you use for CAD but with AutoCad I don think it matters my brother is a professional cad drafter he runs 2 19"CRT's and a 17"CRT at 1280 x 1024.

[shiltz]

the resolution shouldn't matter (well aside from higher is better), I work on cad programs for a living and everyone i've used is just a windows program so you maximize the window like any windows program, higher res just means more space, we used to have 21" CRT's which I ran at 1600x1200, now we have 20.1" widescreen LCD's which are 1680x1050 native res which is what I run it at.

[consumer9000]

I've been very pleased with my Dell 2005FPW for daily CAD/CAM use. I upgraded from a 21" Trinitron CRT, and the difference is remarkable. Much better contrast, far greater geometric accuracy, and the wide format is a godsend for managing all those viewports and floating palletes/toolbars. :)

[deathman20]

Yes you will want to keep it at native res.

Only down side to going larger res is yes the text does get smaller on the screen but usually theres ways to make the text bigger. At least in autocad I know you can make the icons bigger but then again thats neglecting the point of upgrading to a higher resolution really.

I run a 19" LCD here at work with AutoCAD/Solidworks. Its nice but i'd prefer a nice 24" Widescreen like what I got at home for more work space.

[stui_nz]

autocad 2002 runs like crap on my lcd

thin lines are jagged, and the cross hairs flicker on and off when you pan them across the screen. there is no way to turn on anti-aliasing that i am aware of.

i recommend you get a test model before committing to buying a hole bunch for your office...

[shiltz]

well the jagged edges on thin lines in autocad happen with LCD or CRT, the only thing that may make it more noticable on an LCD is that LCD's have a much sharper clearer picture especialy when compaired to larger 21-22" CRT's which have a slightly blurrier picture which somewhat hides jaggedness.

the flickering thing with the cursor does suck though, we had 21" trinitron CRT's and went to dell 2005FP's and we do get the flicker on the new monitors, it does seem to be an autocad specific issue though because solidworks 2005 comes with an autocad clone program for free and that doesn't flicker so i've been using that mostly now when I do need to work on an autocad file.