AutoCAD comes back to the Mac

For those interested in specs and details, posted here are the official AutoCAD for Mac system requirements, FAQs, and detail brochure: http://bit.ly/b4S5Pf

I much prefer the user interface of Maya over Autocad, It's about time that 3D modeling software turns over to mac though.

Http://procleansegoldreview.net

No matter how you actually feel about this, you have to give BIG round of applause to the Fark.com headline about this story...

"AutoCAD coming to the Mac for the first time in 18 years, should finally give them the software to design a working antenna."

Now THAT is a funny take on a non-story.

Great news!!! especially to those engineers. AutoCAD to Apple Mac really made me excited really made me excited, I believe that for millions of design, engineering industry professionals, this would be a perfect combination!!!
Hmm, this made me one more reason love my iPad! It has almost completely replaced my personal computer. For the things I do... Is is perfect! Much nicer than any CPU I have ever owned. For work, all my other computers would do a lot of things I would never use it for, and do it painfully in the process (slow, buggy, etc.). When you get down to what you do most on you personal computer... the iPad does almost all of the things an average user needs, and with a much much nicer U/I. Easy of use, fast, and efficient. The other computer manufacturers could learn a thing or two from this, but even if they do... they will probably screw-up the one they come out with by adding all the crap back in again. For entertainment, now with one of the top features of iPad --- movie watching, Im totally sucked in enjoying kinds of videos and movies with iPad, though some times need in the help of iPad video converter from iFunia for lack of flash support. Ugggggg!!!!

I suppose it's because this is a US centric site, and I'm from the UK, but revit drawings, will get you nowhere here.

Some sub-contractors and most clients don't even have AutoCAD, PDF's are the way to go.

We use autocad, because a simple site survey, and standardised kit, is fastest in 2D. And yes I am and AutoCAD 3D user, and our company uses inventor for project visuals.

We have tried all the others, maya, 3DS, sketchup et all, and inventor gets the best results for the minimum fuss.

We design catering instalations, and bespoke counters designed in inventor can be tested for structural stability, and transportation issues, very simply, aswell as matching the clients visual design language in 3D visuals.

Our sales and pm's go to client meetings with iPads, and show off our designs (Great for case studies), and the drawings. I cannot tell you the ammount of times, drawings have been posted to our project management website minutes before the meeting starts, but that is with PDF.

AutoCAD on touch will not work, without a change in the UI.

As a technologically progressive company, we have even started a trial with pico projectors showing elevations from the CAD drawings, scaled to the wall, much simpler to mark off!

But paper drawings, and PDF's are the way to go for the time being.

As to AutoCAD on mac, I'm not sure, yeah prettier offices, but the pretentious mac fanboi's will be having a field day!

I would switch over from my current 3D program to 3D-studio when its available!

I never understood why they wouldn't make it available for the Mac market?
Cost to engineer is a BS excuse! they should be engineering it to perfection every year anyway ... thats why windows OS is the way it is!

I notice in the System Requirements that the minimum MacPro mentioned is a v4.1 or later - I have a 8-core Intel MacPro and it's model identifier is 3.1 so I guess I'm out of luck. Which MacPro is the 4.1? I have a MacBook Pro that is 6.1 so it will work there but I really am bummed if it really won't work on my tower - that is where all my heavy lifting is done. I guess I will keep running AutoCad 2000 in VM...

Its true that Autocad is obsolete. I havent touched autocad in three years. My structural firm has decided to do every job in REVIT no matter how big or small it is. Its the way things are going and about 75% of the Architects we work with are using REVIT. This is my second engineering firm in the last 6 years and we both used REVIT.

We had a big layoff a year ago.. if they didnt know REVIT they were the first to go. Sorry but thats the truth.

Wow. Anyone who thinks that using contract documents (aka "blueprints") on an iPad at a jobsite would work well really hasn't been involved with the construction of an actual building. In the real world, there's about a century/4 generations of "culture" built up around marking up (aka "writing on") the drawing set(s) as construction progresses. Someday there might be a huge "toughbook" that could be used on a jobsite, but an iPad won't cut it. Contractors' workflow is based around paper drawings and being able to write notes on them.

That said, I could see some applications for us architects and engineers, like during construction observation, taking a photo of a condition, tapping on a location on a drawing, and thus associating that image/notes/voice notes/time/date with that element on the drawing and logging all that info for future search/retrieval.

As far as I can tell, this announcement is only for AutoCAD, not Architecture. That's a bit odd - of all the user groups who might want an Autodesk app on Mac, I would think that they would be 3DS and Architecture users (in other words, people just like me.) We'll see where this goes...

It's technically off topic, but it seems like an underlying problem here is that Autodesk still has separate AutoCAD and REVIT products. When they acquired REVIT, they said they were going to integrate the two into one product. That was 8 years ago, and they haven't managed to do it. Using BIM-lite in Vectorworks is a good fit for me. I'm looking for a lot more "Apple like" artificial intelligence in a REVIT-type product to drastically speed up the information+3d modeling aspect of BIM for my types of projects. In the end, most contractors only care about getting a few sheets of paper with some critical lines and notes from which they can price and build the project. The amount of time it takes to 3d+information model a modest house in order to put an addition on it isn't covered by the fee that typical homeowners are willing to pay an architect for the project.

"Still, as the New York Times notes, carrying around blueprints on a svelte electronic device like an iPad beats schlepping big rolls of paper around on a job site."

But then you wouldn't have all the fun and excitement of something like this happening! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsMR3dW5SxI