Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AutoCAD Coming to Mac, First Beta Screenshots

WinAndMac43 said:
Hi nice too see, Apple Community are Help =)
So before i posted news i want only say this, More website posting this is a yours Exclusive not!!!
I just upload mine screen and other (Thanks to a friend)
So i just posted on ItaliaMac a demo video on Welcome Screen.
You found this Here and (just upload youtube damn:mad:)
The only real news u found Here
Thanks.

Also this beta is leaked on the web, maybe a hours or day u found but attention
for trojans.
Also i just try to enter on official beta testing if this works i posted how enter on official beta testing. Thanks and sorry for my bad english :)
Click to expand...

Drat, this is some really bad English. I didn't understand squat and I ain't even a native speaker.
 
oivindwaa said:
Seems to me a lot of students are answering here. I too thought Catia and Inventor was the future and AutoCad was a dinosaur. Later when I started working as a naval architect and marine engineer I realized that all my fancy 3D models sooner or later was converted into 2D drawings for approval or manufacturing. Those drawings where always made in AutoCad. The drawings in Catia and Inventor are more than good enough for parts modeling but try to put a vessel into that and see who your drawings look...
Vessels are typically designed in NAPA or Tribon, where NAPA is the best for the calculations and Tribon for steel and pipes modeling.
But then you have to make everything else like fire and safety plan, field of vision etc and 3D modeling tools cant do it fast enough.
Using AutoCad with layers is great!. I just exported the bulkheads and hull shape from NAPA to a layer and everybody good update their drawings from that layer. Very fast and made sure we all worked on the same revision.
AutoCad will not day for many years. Its just too good.
I too hope to see Revit for mac. Its been a number one question on Autodesk forums for the last couple of years. Will just have to cross our fingers
Click to expand...

Im not a student and have worked in the AEC industry for over 10 years. I can tell you teh reason why we still have to produce 2D drawings is due to the dinosaurs who refuse to adapt or change. That is the reason why BIM is not reality today. The same was said by those desingers and drafters using pen and paper when CAD was introduced in the 80s. Why do we need CAD?

To me the biggest thing to happen to BIM and 3D design since AutoCAD is the iPad. In 2 years time there will be no paper or 2D drawings. The cosultant and GC will be on site using an ipad and be able to rotate zoom and check for RFI's in 3D in real time. The iPad is potentially huge for the BIM and the AEC industry.
 
The real question is why would anyone want to buy AutoCAD for OS X when everything Autodesk is pumping out these days is bloatware.
 
Prom1 said:
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?!
Click to expand...

WooHooo! I was right on the money; now the added video in the front page article shows how gestures and keyboad shortcuts can be implemented; if vague.
 
tslewis said:
Agreed, RHINO is far more useful than Acad. This is the big news. Plus the rhino API will be multi platform so scripts/GH components written will be able to be run on rhino running windows or OS.

REVIT or CATIA would be bigger news. However, i was liuck to see confidential screen shots and WIP images of the sledgehammer version of AutocAD. It is a souped up version of AutoCAD that was supposed to include paramteric and generative design tools, as well as being able to manipulate NURBS geometry which so far AutoCAD cannot do, unlike rhino and catia.

Plus, Im really starting to hate AutoCAD what with their buying of every single CAD platform out there and being tied to their ecosystem for API development. Rhino is the way to go...........................

OH and for anyone who is expereinced aith Autodsesks anti privacy activation processss, i can tell you it suz big time and if they implement it on the MAC then it will be a disaster. Plus, are we going to be abel to run a purchased version of AutoCAD on OS/Windows on teh same work station or will we have to buy two versions? Hoping that it wont matter for Rhino
Click to expand...

Speaking of NURBS, I have always got SolidThinking

http://www.solidthinking.com/Navigation.aspx?top_nav_name=Support&item_name=tutorials
 
tslewis said:
Im not a student and have worked in the AEC industry for over 10 years. I can tell you teh reason why we still have to produce 2D drawings is due to the dinosaurs who refuse to adapt or change. That is the reason why BIM is not reality today. The same was said by those desingers and drafters using pen and paper when CAD was introduced in the 80s. Why do we need CAD?

To me the biggest thing to happen to BIM and 3D design since AutoCAD is the iPad. In 2 years time there will be no paper or 2D drawings. The cosultant and GC will be on site using an ipad and be able to rotate zoom and check for RFI's in 3D in real time. The iPad is potentially huge for the BIM and the AEC industry.
Click to expand...

I am an Electrical Engineer and design protection systems for high voltage power grids. I can tell you that AutoCAD is necessary in our line of business, there is even a version of AutoCAD specifically tailored to our needs (AutoCAD Electrical). Electrical wiring schematics are exclusively 2D and the program contains all the standards, panel layout mapping, terminal design tools, and plc tools to name a few. There is an absurd amount of detail in the program for our work and I have not seen any other program that comes even close.
 
As a regular AutoCAD user, I think I'll toss in my thoughts...

First, I'm glad it's coming to OS X. At work, my system isn't the fastest and I sometimes run into issues were my system runs insanely slow. Having AutoCAD on my MacBook Pro means I can pull it out of my bag and get things done a little faster, in theory.

Second, I watched the video demonstrating the 'gesture' input and couldn't help but laugh. One-finger click has always selected an object. Two finger clicks that register as a right-click always bring up a contextual menu. Scrolling has always zoomed (or panned, depends what you like). Shift+scrolling has always done the 3D rotating (which SUCKS sometimes on a large set of 2D drawings, one of those cases where my system can crash).

So yeah, neat that it's coming to Mac, but it's nothing special. Oh, and AutoCAD 2010 on a 64-bit Windows 7 Machine with 8GB of RAM runs like a dream (home computer, ironic, eh?). I'm interested to see what the performance is like.
 
ltcol266845 said:
So yeah, neat that it's coming to Mac, but it's nothing special. Oh, and AutoCAD 2010 on a 64-bit Windows 7 Machine with 8GB of RAM runs like a dream (home computer, ironic, eh?). I'm interested to see what the performance is like.
Click to expand...

8GBs of RAM to run AutoCAD.....
Its time to explore alternatives.
 
ptysell said:
8GBs of RAM to run AutoCAD.....
Its time to explore alternatives.
Click to expand...

Never heard of this program until yesterday, but from what I can tell I imagine it's the type of program that deals with really large files. But again, I could be wrong since I've never worked with these things.
 
primmstereo said:
True, but unfortunately the move form 2d CAD to BIM is proving difficult and slow for firms of all sizes...and the smaller guys are getting eaten up in the process...not to mention the fact that a lot of consultants aren't even considering BIM at this point, which is a real bummer!

I'm glad they're starting with Autocad because it is the lowest common denominator in the architecture profession, but I have high hopes for a multi-touch BIM package in the coming years and this seems like a good first step!
Click to expand...

Yes definitely. I have been wishing for hand gesture control since the late nineties and looks like it's finally happening.
 
ptysell said:
8GBs of RAM to run AutoCAD.....
Its time to explore alternatives.
Click to expand...

I lol'd.

He didn't say AutoCAD actually utilized all that RAM, that was merely the amount installed in his system. And even if it did...would that be bad? 64-bit applications can utilize far more than 8 GB if it's available. More gigglebites available to the application = does stuff faster.

I run 64-bit Photoshop on Windows and I've allocated to it a generous 5 GB of my available 8. It's pretty awesome when applications have virtually unlimited resources, instead of being put on a measly "diet"...it's almost like some people expect hardware requirements to stay at Windows 3.1 levels forever.
 
NoSmokingBandit said:
Sure. Macs are the future because they finally have a program that has been running on windows since the dawn of CAD. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I'm sorry, how old are you? CAD itself is at least 40 years old by now, and AutoDesk has been around for 25 years now. They developed for CP/M, DOS PC's and Mac's for years. It was only around 1995 when they started on Windows while still supporting DOS and Mac.

In my experience I don't think the software licensing or the system migrations will be any issue for companies. Nor the designers will have problems with a switch. As with all migrations, the only people that have (non-)issues with the migration are the sales-department and management of the company. They usually are way too much set in their ways, and don't want any change which they haven't thought of themselves in the first place.
 
Compile 'em all said:
Drat, this is some really bad English. I didn't understand squat and I ain't even a native speaker.
Click to expand...

Sorry I just wanted to say that some sites have taken my screenshots and reported that is their exclusive.
So I wanted to say ItaliaMac read because all the screenshots are from there.


Beta as I said yesterday is over torrent, many have tried and it works.
But still be careful.
 
oivindwaa said:
Seems to me a lot of students are answering here. I too thought Catia and Inventor was the future and AutoCad was a dinosaur. Later when I started working as a naval architect and marine engineer I realized that all my fancy 3D models sooner or later was converted into 2D drawings for approval or manufacturing. Those drawings where always made in AutoCad. The drawings in Catia and Inventor are more than good enough for parts modeling but try to put a vessel into that and see who your drawings look...
Vessels are typically designed in NAPA or Tribon, where NAPA is the best for the calculations and Tribon for steel and pipes modeling.
But then you have to make everything else like fire and safety plan, field of vision etc and 3D modeling tools cant do it fast enough.
Using AutoCad with layers is great!. I just exported the bulkheads and hull shape from NAPA to a layer and everybody good update their drawings from that layer. Very fast and made sure we all worked on the same revision.
AutoCad will not day for many years. Its just too good.
I too hope to see Revit for mac. Its been a number one question on Autodesk forums for the last couple of years. Will just have to cross our fingers
Click to expand...
Although it may seem to some that AutoCAD CAD application may appear to be a standard that is an incorrect assumption.
The file format has actually been pretty prolific but it too is by no means a standard.
Working on the basis of layers too, as a means or basis of the design construct is lurching on redundancy, with a move to objects and object identity with associative features.
A 2D drawing is more becoming a product of a 3D model. It's just adding a few more features and reverse functionality with the 3D model of which it was derived.
BIM is the future in design of pretty much everything. All inclusive from materials, lifecycle management, identity, testing, fabrication and assembly and deconstruction amongst other things.There are other vendors with rgeat CAD products. AutoCAD is OK but they don't really put much effort in their labs... they'd rather buy-burry competitiion and adopt other peoples ideas, patents... but that's nothing new anyway.
 
kapps said:
I agree with Psykx. AutoCAD is nice but completely outdated for anything but simple 2D drawing and architectural design. Now if something like Solidworks, Catia, or Pro/E were ported to Mac (preferably Solidworks), that'd be something I'd be ecstatic about.
Click to expand...

You realize it's industry standard, right? This isn't geared towards the casual kid in their room designing awesome things. It's exciting because this has been a long time coming and will now give professionals a choice.
 
jessica. said:
You realize it's industry standard, right? This isn't geared towards the casual kid in their room designing awesome things. It's exciting because this has been a long time coming and will now give professionals a choice.
Click to expand...

+1

Lots of Architecture student replies
 
As the positive/negative ratio suggests, this is big news for the platform. AutoCAD might not be the best, but as has been noted, it's a big player in the market.

As a mechanical engineering student, I have more experience in CATIA, not so much in AutoCAD. Our university teaches mostly CATIA for us, because it's CAD/CAM possibilities and generative design. AutoCAD is a decent package anyway.

Concerning computer specs, yes, we've been waiting for a Mac Pro refresh for ages, and we're in the market for one as soon as there's a refresh, but on a slower system you can always turn the fancy stuff off. Of course with more complex modeling, and for presentations you need to have all the materials show correctly and that can take a lot of power.

At school we use 3.0 GHz P4 machines, with 1GB of RAM and a 128MB mid-range ATI graphics card. This is sometimes a pain, when viewing complex systems with shading and material on, but it's still doable. And those machines are like 5 years old...at least.
 
RT2020 said:
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.
Click to expand...
If WWDC comes and goes without a new Mac Pro announcement, I may be inclined to agree with you.

But right now, it's about as long as it's been since the previous major refresh (processor bumps aside). Too long, yes; but "abandoned" seems a bit hasty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back