CAD in the AEC Sector - Some Stats

From the Autumn 2003 issue of

Of the nearly 20,000 UK sites using CAD applications, one-quarter of them represent the AEC application area. AEC is dominated by small sites, with a clear majority (58%) of the sites having 1-10 employees. Almost 90% of the sites have less than 100 employees.

AEC application area by number of employees at the site
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The dominance of smaller sites in AEC becomes clearer when comparing the number of employees in AEC and non-AEC sites. Sites of 1-10 employees make up 22% of non-AEC sites (compared to 58% of AEC sites). Sites with 1-10 employees clearly represent the majority, and both AEC and non-AEC sites have about the same number of sites in the 1-10 employees bracket. However, non-AEC sites show a greater diversity of site size, with significant numbers in sites that have employees up to 250. AEC sites, in contrast, have found a clear niche in sites in the 1-10 employees bracket.

AEC application area by number of employees at the site
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A look at the number of seats (or workstations) running CAD applications underlines the fact that the AEC application area is dominated by individuals and small groups who possibly work from an isolated or remote location. One-quarter of the AEC sector has only one seat running CAD applications, and over half (53%) have three or less. The number of seats tapers off after this.

AEC application area by number of CAD seats
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In sites where AEC is the sole application area, AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT are the most popular packages. These are by far the most popular packages overall in all application areas, although in AEC, their dominance in less pronounced. They share the field with many other CAD packages. Only the top eight are displayed below, but another 17% of the base includes over a dozen lesser known applications.

CAD packages used - sites where AEC is the sole application area
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CAD Spaghetti is a free monthly newsletter published by the Business Advantage Group Plc

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