Great question! Starting with Visio 2002, the old Visio Technical content
was merged with the old Visio Professional content to create a single
product called Visio Professional. The previous Visio Standard product
continues today as Visio Standard. There was an Enterprise product at one
point, consisting of advanced Networking and Software / Database
functionality. This product was discontinued, although some of the
functionality lives on in Visual Studio Enterprise Architect.
Specifically, you will find a few differences between the Visio 5.0+ content
and Visio 2003 Professional. Several of the utility add-ons such as the
Mechanical Parts Library, Valve Builder and Furniture Selector has been
discontinued. I believe that Boundary was also discountined - it's not in
the product today. Some of these items were discontinued because of
licensing / royalty agreement expirations with 3rd parties. Some were
discontinued because of lack of customer interest (something that is
admittedly tough to measure).
For basic drawing, Visio 2003 remains a solid platform. All the previous
shape content is still available, plus some new content. The drawing tools
themselves have been improved slightly. There are great new dimensioning
shapes and a measure tool. Perhaps you would benefit from our new
intelligent callout shapes. AutoCAD import / export has been significantly
improved. The scalability of Visio is much better, though the app still
works best with a healthy amount of memory. You may even like the
long-awaited Print the Grid feature. A new reporting engine makes bill of
materials list much easier too.
Visio has not abandoned the engineering disciplines. However, in keeping
with Microsoft's product strategy, we are focusing on improvements that
benefit all types of drawings. You are unlikely to see new add-ons that
serve individual markets or drawing types. Instead you will see
improvements across the board in shape behavior, drawing tools, data
connectivity and visual presentation.
--
Mark Nelson
Microsoft Corporation
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
jerryb1973 said:
I have used 5+ for many many civil engineering, site planning, surveying,
and architectural projects. I am trying to find out if 2003 professional
has the same engineering versitility as 5+. For example, 5+ had a boundary
program that was ideal for plotting land surveys. Is this function
available on 2003? Or, since MS took over Visio has the IT, circuit
design, high tech, etc. side of engineering taken the forefront in Visio
development? In other words, has Visio abandoned traditional "engineering"
(civil, arch., mechanical) diciplines. I personally had turned in my
Autocad expertise in these areas in favor of Visio, but now I am wondering
if I will have to go back to Autocad. I have not upgraded my Visio since
5+, so I am behind on exactly where MS has taken Visio as the program
progressed thru v2000, v2002, and v2003. Additionally, I have not idea
about the enterprise?? addon that I hear mentioned. Please give some
advise. thanks
