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AutoCAD Returning to Mac?

AutoCAD is available to students for free, Im pretty sure its the full version too. AutoCAD is the only reason I have windows on this thing, so this would make me happy. I haven't really used any other CAD programs so I can't compare...
 
Ashmanspice said:
AutoCAD is available to students for free, Im pretty sure its the full version too. AutoCAD is the only reason I have windows on this thing, so this would make me happy. I haven't really used any other CAD programs so I can't compare...
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How do you go about getting it free? I currently have to treck into uni everytime I need to use it. Would be handy if I had it
 
Sadly, I think AutoCad is the software of the past. They are likely trying to save themselves from becoming the amateur CAD software, which is really what they are now. Most people who use or used CAD drafting software, learned it on AutoCad. But now almost all professional CAD drafting is done automatically by the 3D design software after the modeling is done. And it's done very poorly, I might add. Too bad, but I see no niche left for AutoCad other than the one it occupies now - amateur 3D and drafting for home.

Rich 😎
 
adrianblaine said:
I'm pretty sure they were referring to the fact that Boot Camp is unsupported by Apple.
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Boot Camp is a supported feature of Leopard and the main reason why the Intel Macs sell so well. Apple just does not support Windows (which is rather problematic, because without Windows there cannot be Boot Camp).
 
adrianblaine said:
I'm pretty sure they were referring to the fact that Boot Camp is unsupported by Apple.
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no they mean that autodesk does not support any of their products, besides the ones for mac, that are run under a bootcamp or virtualization environment. In addition to autocad, i would like to see them put out an osx version of 3d studio max
 
RichardI said:
Sadly, I think AutoCad is the software of the past. They are likely trying to save themselves from becoming the amateur CAD software, which is really what they are now. Most people who use or used CAD drafting software, learned it on AutoCad. But now almost all professional CAD drafting is done automatically by the 3D design software after the modeling is done. And it's done very poorly, I might add. Too bad, but I see no niche left for AutoCad other than the one it occupies now - amateur 3D and drafting for home.

Rich 😎
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Seems like AutoCAD has a continuing foothold in Civil Engineering/Land Development. Architecture looks to be going to packages more in line with Revit(which, if my recollection is right, was started by some ex PTC folks).

For those of us in the manufacturing world, NX 6 looks to have the first manufacturing package on the mac since GibbsCAM ceased development of Virtual Gibbs years ago. That in itself is quite a feat. Analysis and such is planned for NX 7.
 
It is really odd that AutoCAD is for Windows and not Macs anyways. Windows is for playing/viewing content and not creating it.
 
well I guess i wasn't the only one to hear about this then. i posted about this survey at 10:44 yesterday in the windows on mac forum and no-one noticed...
but it sounds good to me
 
I had a CAD class in high school that used AutoCAD. I didn't do anything after that, but it was fun. It would be really good if AutoCAD were ported, and ported WELL, to Macs. And not just the basic, "amateur"/"Lite" version (I don't know too much about the versions), but ALL versions or else it'll be a joke. It also needs to be ported well to Macs. I've used too many apps where the developers did the bare minimum to make it run and they were awful!
 
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Bring it on. This would make me very happy.
 
fleshman03 said:
Not to mention I bet it would run smoother.
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I seriously doubt it will run any smoother. Have you used AutoCAD?

adrianblaine said:
As an architect I'm very excited about this, but this has been a rumor for a very, very long time now. Though now that Macs have made more inroads into architecture offices, I can see how they'd want to sell a native version.

I've tried using other programs like ArchiCAD for Mac, but nothing seems quite as good as AutoCAD.
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Very true. Autodesk claimed they were working on it when Architectural Desktop first launched. That was many moons ago.
 
I would buy 11 licenses for our design studio the day its released...

Its not that I like AutoCad... but the rest of the Architecture world uses it... and I have to integrate with them (rightly or wrongly)

I bet Mac sales would get a massive boost from AutoCad coming back to Mac.... I know no end of Architects that hate using a PC... but have to due to AutoCad being PeeCee only...
 
this is awesome news. I really thought development of OS X native programs like this would completely halt with the advent of Intel macs.
 
The other problem is Windows 7 x64, which is going to be a polished, solid OS when it is released. It's Vista Fixed, and should stem the tide of XP frustration and compare well to OS X in terms of performance and capability.
 
NewSc2 said:
Doubt it. A lot of ported PC programs end up being a joke on OSX.
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Please name a couple of well known peecee programs that have been ported to Mac that are jokes. Please don't include games.

It would be easier currently to port Acad to Macs since they use the same intel designed processor. This would be one less hump to overcome.

I believe that Acad 2009 allows the user to choose the new interface or the legacy interface.

ps this is my first post here.
 
Another survey

I recall a similar survey that was done about 7 years ago. It appears that there wasn't enough interest in bringing AutoCAD to the Mac back then. Hopefully with Apple's success in the past few years, that might be enough to help encourage Autodesk to bring AutoCAD.

Considering that they own Cleaner, that does mean there is at least some Mac influence within the company already, so that might be an encouraging sign.
 
Give me Solidworks any day

Hopefully this will have the potential to convince the powers-that-be to port Solidworks to the Mac. There's a CAD tool that rules.
 
RogueWarrior65 said:
Hopefully this will have the potential to convince the powers-that-be to port Solidworks to the Mac. There's a CAD tool that rules.
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Thats why Autodesk should get the full Inventor suite ported over so they can get a head start on Solidworks with Mac users. I use Inventor and prefer it to Solidworks because it does include AutoCAD for a bit of old fashioned 2d drafting
 
sadarryl said:
The only real innovation would be Revit for Mac...autoCAD, despite its so-called 3D features, is quickly becoming obsolete.
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here here, autocad is what you install "just to have" after you've put revit on your machine which is what you use everyday
 
X38 said:
In fact, last I read about it, Apple uses Unigraphics to do their mechanical design work, which means that all Apples are probably designed using Windows. Sad that Apple hasn't done more to lure the CAD industry.
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More likely UNIX, I think, but that's just a guess. Designing Macs on a Windows machine just seems... wrong.
 
Blast from the past. I remember taking 'computer aiding drafting' in highschool, and using autocad on the Macintosh SE.

If this happens I hope they don't change a thing from the System 7 version.
 
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