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AutoCAD Coming to Mac, First Beta Screenshots

I don't know about architects moving 'away' from AutoCAD. Yeah there are some, but so few in comparison. AutoCAD is still the king of all.

It is like saying PC are dying and people are moving to MAC. Who knows what will happen in the future, but it won't be a quick process.

Same thing can be said for architect moving from PC to MAC due to this MAC adaptation. It will convert some firms to MAC, but a slow process.
 
I think that most of the comments here are very hopeful and a little naive.

1. AutoCAD will likely take a very long time to become usable on the Mac, and longer to be as good as it is on the PC (unless there is just some totally cool genius team working on this at AutoDesk).

2. There is not likely to be a significant conversion to Mac by architects. Those who have gone Mac have done it despite AutoCAD for their own reasons, often being antipathy to AutoCAD. See #1.

3. There are plenty of good CAD's on the Mac, but any compatibility with AutoCAD is variable. Again will this Mac AutoCAD itself be FULLY compatible? E.G. It's taken years for Word Mac and PC to be really usable cross-platform.

4. It will still be AutoCAD. Probably the most un-Mac like program still in use. OK, let's not start...

5. It would still be overpriced and overly complex.

6. Now if Revit could make it to the Mac that would be something!

Still this is interesting (it follows years of feelers and background work by AutoDesk--some of you,like me, were contacted by them?) and you gotta hand it to AutoDesk mixing it up in these difficult times (for the AEC industry). Note that they've beat many Mac firms in providing decent software for the iPhone.

Peter
 
kyleh613 said:
People aren't using 3D unless they need to. People are also not using 2D unless they need to. You pick the right tool for the job. AutoCAD is used almost exclusively used these days for architecture and civil drafting/engineering. You can't do that sort of work in 3D, and even if you could, you wouldn't want to.

For mechanical engineering, 3D CAD is a lot easier.
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Exactly. We've been using 3D CAD exclusively since 1984. Went directly from the board to Intergraph MDDS, then Intergraph EMS, then Intergraph/EDS/UGS/Siemens Solid Edge. I've never done 2D drawings that were not derived directly from a 3D model except labels, wiring diagrams, etc.

I even model things at home to get the drawing, such as garden boxes, room remodeling (for fitting cabinets, tub, etc) just because it is easier than 2D drawing.
 
billysea said:
I don't know about architects moving 'away' from AutoCAD. Yeah there are some, but so few in comparison. AutoCAD is still the king of all.
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Every office I've talked to lately is looking for Revit proficiency in their new hires. Sure, the small firms will still use AutoCad, likely for a long time; but the big boys are all heading towards the BIM model, of which Revit is king.
 
mactastic said:
Actually, I think there are plenty of architects who would love to ditch their PCs, if for no other reason than that they can lower their IT troubleshooting budget. Most of the companies I know who have made the transition cite that as one of their top two reasons, the other being the lower cost of entry for alternate CAD programs.
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I think there is a small migration already as you suggest, especially for smaller firms. They can do fine with alternate CAD programs, making DWG translations --but not full back-and-forth exchange--for consultants. I just think it will be quite a long haul for first: ACAD to really arrive as an option the Mac; and second: for those firms already using ACAD to decide that they would have lower costs and hassles etc. (which your PC brethren will argue) and buy all new systems and software.

I've only used Mac since '88 for architectural drawings, though I've trained on AutoCAD some. Mac's been OK for me.
 
For architecture, why does anyone need Autocad (or Revit for that matter) on the Mac? The original BIM application, ArchiCAD, has been around as long as the Mac, has a great dwg translator, and is years ahead of Revit.

http://www.graphisoft.com/products/archicad/

And now with direct compatibility between ArchiCAD and Revit there's really no good reason that architects should be using Autodesk (or Microsoft) products.

:apple:
 
pbacot said:
I think there is a small migration already as you suggest, especially for smaller firms. They can do fine with alternate CAD programs, making DWG translations --but not full back-and-forth exchange--for consultants. I just think it will be quite a long haul for first: ACAD to really arrive as an option the Mac; and second: for those firms already using ACAD to decide that they would have lower costs and hassles etc. (which your PC brethren will argue) and buy all new systems and software.
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From the sound of this news, it will indeed be a while before AutoCad shows up on OS X. From there, as you note, a lot will depend on the level of integration between the Window and OS X versions. If they are fully compatible -- or very close to fully compatible -- the migration can occur faster. If not, it could be a while.

As for low-level users of AutoCad, small offices, individual practitioners, etc., a $600 mini and their old keyboard, mouse, and monitor would suffice. If all you're doing is pushing lines around in 2D, that's plenty of horsepower.

Really, the biggest savings is in going with something other than AutoCad products if you can get away with it. Paying $800 for your software means you can afford to spend a lot more on hardware if you're not buying a $3,500 bit of AutoCad software.

I've only used Mac since '88 for architectural drawings, though I've trained on AutoCAD some. Mac's been OK for me.
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I've used both, but most of my production drawing experience has been in AutoCad. I used ADT briefly (boy was that a disaster), and I've used VectorWorks and TurboCad on the Mac.
 
Finally! Now college students everywhere can pirate a native version. Too late for me though :D
 
msubugzy said:
Sounds like you need to do a VW class than, as VW if is used right it can kick AutoCAD's ass around the play ground all day. Arch people currently are sticking with AutoCAD because most don't want to learn a new platform, which I understand, but VW is being taught in more and more schools now. The entertainment world has for the most part made the shift to VW due to its ability to render so much more and so much better. Most theatres I work with now have moved to VW for all of their plans, or are in the process of.

Saying that I'm glad to see AutoCAD back on Mac soon if only for the reason it will keep Nemetschek from getting lazy with their updates. Competition is always a good thing for us the users .
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I don't need a VW class. I used to teach VW classes, and I work in the entertainment industry. Like I said, VW is great for client presentations. Rendering is great, and it makes pretty drawings. You can't compare anything that happens inside of a theater to a large architectural project. When I collaborate on architectural projects, it would be a huge time saver to work natively in CAD.

In any event, CAD's arrival on the Mac platform is a big deal. We can agree on that.
 
CubusX said:
I wonder if his would push some drafting and design companies to buy Macs.
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Multi-touch support ... hell maybe even an iPad app with obvious limitations ~ yet still functional would make this happen in droves.

The REAL issue once this gets released and the first updates occur; is the learning curve for keyboard shortcuts, features (new & existing in the cross-over) and of course migrating existing designs.

This is INCREDIBLE news ... what took so long?!
 
Great, I was waiting for this so long. I am a student in Architecture and my faculty only uses AutoCAD, while there is VectorWorks, Archicad et cetera et cetera! I am using Maya as well, that is Autodesk as well these times. Just great! :cool:
 
NorCalLights said:
I don't need a VW class. I used to teach VW classes, and I work in the entertainment industry. Like I said, VW is great for client presentations. Rendering is great, and it makes pretty drawings. You can't compare anything that happens inside of a theater to a large architectural project. When I collaborate on architectural projects, it would be a huge time saver to work natively in CAD.

In any event, CAD's arrival on the Mac platform is a big deal. We can agree on that.
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Again I disagree. Your point is that VW is great for rendering and stuff to show clients and your pro is that AutoCAD is what Arch use. My point is that that won't be true of the generation that is coming from schools now. Autodesk should be focusing on competing with software like Solidworks.

And yes you can compare, as anything AutoCAD can do VW can pretty much do just as easily...so why go back and forth to "make it pretty" when you can just do it right the first time, and as long as a DWG is drawn right a Import is no big deal.
 
PLEASE BRING SOLIDWORKS TO MAC!!! I wouldn't have to use a windoze machine if it could get a mac version of SW. Rhino has been developing a mac version. I hope this means others will follow.
 
I'd like to see Intuit get their act together and bring all their Mac products up to parity with their Windows products. That is the only thing keeping me from ditching Windows all together.
 
But what about the hardware?

Even if AutoCAD ports the application(s), what would people run it on? iPad? iMac? Overpriced and outdated Mac Pro?
 
lilo777 said:
Even if AutoCAD ports the application(s), what would people run it on? iPad? iMac? Overpriced and outdated Mac Pro?
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Don't be silly. I've seen people run more expensive engineering software on less powerful laptops than what Apple offers.
 
great but not for engineering

It's great that Autocad is back for architects etc. However, until Pro/E or Catia is available for Mac, "serious" engineering work will always have to be done on PC :mad: Maybe if Solidworks came over some of the smaller stuff with less complexity could return to Mac (particularly engineering students trying to learn basic CAD), but it's really going to require Pro/E or Catia for the pro engineers to really be able to buy Macs for work.
 
wizard said:
Honestly this is plain stupid. Consider the effort that went into the latest iMac revisions or the MacBook Pro revisions and you will come to a completely different conclusion. Frankly Apple is the only company still innovating beyond intel reference designs.

If this is in reference to the Mac Pro I have to then chalk this comment up to immaturity. The Mac Pro is a low volume high performance computer that Apple simply can't update every three months. Besides real users of the device and the corresponding app developers wouldn't want a new rev coming out every other day.

In essence your posting is baseless crap.
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The latest Macbook Pro upgrade was extremely underwhelming, and very overdue. A lot of the tech media took note of Apple sitting on their hands then. OSX development has been stagnating. OSX will not even be mentioned at WWDC. Usually there should be at least an early preview of what they are working on. Nope... they're going to try to make the last service pack (10.6 - buggy as hell) last that much longer.

Mac Pro is an abandoned product. Plain and simple. We're not talking three months. The damn thing hasn't been updated for over a year. Why don't you go visit the Mac Pro section of the forum and see how people actually feel? Thankfully I have an early 09 Macbook Pro... right now I would not feel comfortable investing my hard earned money in the Mac space.

Apple is too focused on building idevices for the lowest common denominator...not pros or even prosumers. It's working very well for Apple now... but I'm really concerned that Google will pound Apple out of the mobile space (they're faster and have amazing engineers)...and Microsoft is going to start take its share of the computer space back (Windows 7 doesn't suck).

Having said that...i CANNOT wait to have AutoCAD natively on my system. Even looks so much sleeker on OSX
 
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