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Any AutoCAD users?

D

derickdub

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 13, 2011
317
0
VA
Does anyone here use their MBP for CAD at all?

I normally use my PC for it but ever since Autodesk released it on OSX I've been trying to use my MBP as much as possible. The problem is it's the top end 13" model from mid 2009.

I'm mostly using it for 3D modeling, which it does alright if I don't use realistic styles or try to render. I do however encounter occasional beachballs and crashes, which I can only assume are from the graphic incapability, since my CPU usage isn't all that high.

I am considering an upgrade, if it will be worth it. I'm looking into the 15" model because the upgraded graphics, but can't really decide between the lower-end and higher-end model.

Does anyone use either model for any sort of CAD? I'd like to know if that $400 would be worth the extra GPU memory.
 
I use AutoCAD on my base 2011 MacBook Pro. I get the occasional crash and/or beach ball as well which I attribute to the application itself rather than incompatibilities with the graphics card. The crashing and beach balling has been reduced in recent updates.
 
superericla said:
I use AutoCAD on my base 2011 MacBook Pro. I get the occasional crash and/or beach ball as well which I attribute to the application itself rather than incompatibilities with the graphics card. The crashing and beach balling has been reduced in recent updates.
Click to expand...

Do you have the 13" or 15"?
 
You'll be fine. I have the first 13" alu unibody macbook 2.4ghz w/ 4gb ram and it runs autocad fine. I even use it for small assemblies in inventor.

Only bad thing is the screen size & gloss unless you hook it to a external monitor.
 
Would the 13" be fine for autocad? It would mainly be vector lines and not so much rasters in the drawings.
 
derickdub said:
Does anyone here use their MBP for CAD at all?

I normally use my PC for it but ever since Autodesk released it on OSX I've been trying to use my MBP as much as possible. The problem is it's the top end 13" model from mid 2009.

I'm mostly using it for 3D modeling, which it does alright if I don't use realistic styles or try to render. I do however encounter occasional beachballs and crashes, which I can only assume are from the graphic incapability, since my CPU usage isn't all that high.

I am considering an upgrade, if it will be worth it. I'm looking into the 15" model because the upgraded graphics, but can't really decide between the lower-end and higher-end model.

Does anyone use either model for any sort of CAD? I'd like to know if that $400 would be worth the extra GPU memory.
Click to expand...

Using AutoCAD for 3D? You like torture eh?

You may have better luck running the windows version until Autodesk irons out the last kinks in the software, it is still relatively new after all.
 
I have used AutoCAD on my MBP for... I think well over half a year now.

I had a lot more beach balls on my MBP 13" 2010 compared to my base MBP 15" 2011. I also had a lot more crashes with 4GB compared to 8GB, and then 8GB still crashes sometimes. It wasn't until I put 16GB of RAM in that things settled down.

I also found that the quad-core Core i7 in the 2011 15" helped a lot more with beach balls than the Core 2 in the 2010 13". It turned out that certain commands were stalling the CPU hard (especially instancing and copy commands), and on more complex 3D models, it would seem that the CPU had to constantly re-render the wireframe, causing a lot of slow down. It would stall my 13" Pro quite often.

Compared to Bootcamp, it's quite a step backward in terms of performance. But I prefer the non-ribbon interface of the Mac version, as well as the multitouch gestures, which help a lot with modeling. I actually enjoy using the Mac version better than the Windows version.

That's also to note that the Mac version has dodgy plot style support for me. I had to create and modify plot style in Bootcamp before sending the plot style back to Mac for printing.
 
I run AutoCAD (2009/2011 Civil 3D and Land) on my Early 2001 high-end 15" MBP (via Bootcamp) and I haven't had any problems. My MBP is actually a lot better than my crappy Dell that I use at work. I am trying to convince the IT director to purchase a 27" iMac for me.
 
Last edited:
AutoCADD crashes and hangs on me occasionally on my 15" 2010 MBP. I think the fault lies with the software; it runs very nicely when everything isn't crashing.
 
I have the 2010 model and it runs ACAD2012 extremely smoothly. ACAD doesn't use a whole lot of graphics power necessarily, but that could certainly be part of your problem especially if you doing 3d work.
 
I'm running ACAD on both sides of my 17''MBP i7Q 2.3GHz 8GB RAM 256 SSD 128 MacOS: AutoCAD 2012 for Mac /128 BootCamp Win7Ultx64: Autodesk Building Design Suite Premium. No need for virtualization: transition time between MacOS/Win7 and vice versa is about 30 seconds. However, with recent experience I strongly recommend 512 GB SSD. The machine is slightly warmer running ACAD on Win7 than ACAD on MacOSXSnL.
 
skier777 said:
I have the 2010 model and it runs ACAD2012 extremely smoothly. ACAD doesn't use a whole lot of graphics power necessarily, but that could certainly be part of your problem especially if you doing 3d work.
Click to expand...

I use Autocad 2012 for Mac sometimes, when I'm on MacOS, but normally I use Autocad in Windows (Bootcamp), because:

-sometimes beachballs (Only using Autocad I got beachballs)
-produces some hfs+ failures (can be read in Console)
-panning and zooming doesnt work very well (sometimes some lines doesnt get zoomed, some do.... O_O)
-after some time of working, when selecting something I cannot deselect some objects... very strange...

Installed the SP1

Bahh, I am very disappointed, as the availability of Autocad on the Mac was one big point, why I finally became a Mac-User..... If I have to use Windows all the time for working, where is the point having a Mac... I should have bought some Lenovo thinkpad thing or something else... At the moment my macbook is nothing better than some other laptop.... -.-

And now at office, we are changing to Revit, very nice, that there is no version for MacOS... >_> Yay, using windows again!
 
snaky69 said:
Using AutoCAD for 3D? You like torture eh?

You may have better luck running the windows version until Autodesk irons out the last kinks in the software, it is still relatively new after all.
Click to expand...

I was actually using the Windows version via bootcamp when I posted this (don't think OS X version was out). It runs fine but lags when getting into extensive 3D models. The OS X version won't even launch on my MBP since I've upgraded to Lion. I'm just waiting for Ivy Bridge and I'll get the high-end 15" MBP.

As far as using AutoCAD for 3D, I have no other options. It's the only software I can get for free being a student. I actually hate Inventor, but at the same time don't really know how to use it.

I'm actually amazed at how many people hate AutoCAD for 3D. I love it. I can finish drawings a lot faster than anyone I've seen do in Inventor. I've also noticed that most people who swear by Inventor don't know a thing about AutoCAD's 3D modeling features.

But, from all my experience with software for 3D I like Solidworks the best, and I have hardly any experience with it.
 
derickdub said:
I was actually using the Windows version via bootcamp when I posted this (don't think OS X version was out). It runs fine but lags when getting into extensive 3D models. The OS X version won't even launch on my MBP since I've upgraded to Lion. I'm just waiting for Ivy Bridge and I'll get the high-end 15" MBP.

As far as using AutoCAD for 3D, I have no other options. It's the only software I can get for free being a student. I actually hate Inventor, but at the same time don't really know how to use it.

I'm actually amazed at how many people hate AutoCAD for 3D. I love it. I can finish drawings a lot faster than anyone I've seen do in Inventor. I've also noticed that most people who swear by Inventor don't know a thing about AutoCAD's 3D modeling features.

But, from all my experience with software for 3D I like Solidworks the best, and I have hardly any experience with it.
Click to expand...

AutoCAD is about the crappiest CAD software you can use for 3D modelling in my opinion. It takes forever and a half, is not very efficient and doesn't like large assemblies.

I've got experience on SolidWorks, SolidEdge, Pro/Engineer and AutoCAD. And AutoCAD is really bottom of the barrel when it comes to 3D. The 3D modelling was very obviously added as an afterthought and really isn't up to today's standards.

It really depends on what you want to do, each software has it's own unique capabilities. AutoCAD is probably the best software out there for 2D modelling, the kind civil engineers would do, or architects for floor plans, it's also great for electrical diagrams and the like. In short, AutoCAD rocks for anything that will be eventually printed as used as a plan. That's about all it's good at in my opinion.

The student pricing is, I admit, very tempting. I have yet to try the Mac OS X version, though I probably should. Inventor's coming out for OS X soon, I'll probably download a trial, I'm curious how well it will run.
 
I've used it AutoCAD 2010 and 2011 on my 17" 2009 mbp (and mac pro) with no real issues other than the aforementioned ones. I find the performance comparable with windows, although windows releases seem more stable (yet also more bloated every year).

As an alternative to autocad you could always look into rhinoceros, I think they are still doing the beta testing which you can get in on for free, much better surface modeller than autocad, plus most of the keyboard commands are the same.
 
galstaph said:
As an alternative to autocad you could always look into rhinoceros, I think they are still doing the beta testing which you can get in on for free, much better surface modeller than autocad, plus most of the keyboard commands are the same.
Click to expand...

yeah i use it - again in windows - because of grasshopper3d plugin.....

anyone uses vectorworks - architecture?
 
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