AutoCAD and a spreadsheet, versus one object
This is the comparison that actually matters in this industry, because the incumbent is not another rack tool — it is AutoCAD plus a spreadsheet, or the manufacturer’s design desk and its queue. What follows compares the two workflows honestly, including the parts AutoCAD wins outright.
| FloorCast3D | AutoCAD | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $199/mo | $175/mo |
| Load-estimate BOM | Yes | not offered |
| Permit pre-flight + placards | Yes | not offered |
| Flow / throughput simulation | Yes | not offered |
| CAD + simulation, one tool | Yes | not offered |
“×” means the vendor does not publish the capability — not that it is impossible. $175/mo is the annual-plan rate; month-to-month is $260. Prices were checked against the vendor’s own page on 19 July 2026, US list, excluding tax, and software pricing moves — verify the current figure with AutoCAD rather than trusting this page.
What those crosses do and do not mean
They do not mean you cannot draw racking in AutoCAD. You obviously can, and the industry has done it for decades. They mean AutoCAD does not publish rack-specific automation: it draws what you tell it and does not know that the thing you drew is 792 pallet positions worth $93,200, so it cannot update a count or a price when the geometry moves. A feature table comparing a general CAD platform against a single-purpose tool is close to meaningless read any other way.
The difference is per revision, not per licence
In a CAD-plus-spreadsheet workflow the drawing and the takeoff are separate objects that a person keeps in agreement. That works fine until the customer moves a wall, at which point the redraw, the renumber, the recount, the re-price and the re-check all happen again by hand — and the customer waits, often in an engineering queue, cooling off. The cost is not the licence, it is the revision cycle, and it is paid every time.
When the drawing is the data, that cycle collapses: change the geometry and the positions, the quantities, the price and the code findings all move with it, because there is only one object. That is the whole argument, and it is why the interesting row in the table is the last one rather than the price.
When to stay in AutoCAD
When racking is a small part of what you draw. AutoCAD is a general platform and FloorCast3D is not: if your work spans site plans, mechanical, architectural details and the racking is one layer among many, a single-purpose rack tool is the wrong shape for the job. The same applies if a client contract specifies native DWG authoring, or if your deliverables have to match an established title block and layer standard that lives in your CAD environment.
And you do not have to choose. FloorCast3D exports DXF and DWG, so the layout opens in the seat you already own — the realistic pattern is rack layout, takeoff and permit pre-flight in one tool, everything else in AutoCAD.
What you get that a spreadsheet cannot give you
Two things, both of which are hard to bolt onto a drafting workflow. A permit pre-flight that reads the layout against the jurisdiction and returns a cited checklist sorted by what actually stops a filing — described in the permit guide — and a flow simulation that compares two candidate layouts before either is steel. Neither is a claim AutoCAD makes, and neither is something a spreadsheet beside a drawing can be made to do.
The fuller argument, with figures from one real project run end to end, is in the buyer’s guide.
Frequently asked
Can you do warehouse rack layout in AutoCAD?
Yes, and most of this industry does. AutoCAD draws anything, and a skilled drafter produces an excellent rack drawing in it. What it does not do on its own is count what it drew: the bill of materials, the pricing, the capacity placards and the code checks are assembled separately, usually in a spreadsheet, and reassembled by hand every time the customer moves a wall.
Is FloorCast3D cheaper than AutoCAD?
Slightly, at list. FloorCast3D is $199/mo against AutoCAD at $175/mo on the annual plan — month-to-month is $260 — as read on 19 July 2026. But price is rarely the deciding factor here, because the two are not doing the same job: the honest comparison is the drafting-plus-takeoff time per revision, not the licence line.
Do I have to give up AutoCAD to use FloorCast3D?
No, and most users should not. FloorCast3D exports DXF and DWG, so the drawing opens in the CAD seat you already have. The common pattern is to do the rack layout, takeoff and permit pre-flight in FloorCast3D and keep AutoCAD for everything else in the building and for final drafting where a client demands it.
What about the drafting skill we already have?
It stays valuable. What gets replaced is the manual reassembly — renumbering, re-counting, re-checking the schedule after every change — not the judgment about how a building should be laid out. The drawing is still yours to direct; the arithmetic just stops being retyped.
Draw one zone and watch the count move
It is a ten-second test: drag a zone, click a dimension, type a new number, and see whether the count and the price follow. The free trial key is the whole product for 14 days — no card, and everything it generates is marked as a trial copy until you subscribe.