Architosh News: MacCAD News: Autocad and ProE for Mac OS X efforts

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	Architosh Staff ([email protected])

MacCAD News: Autocad and ProE for Mac OS X efforts

23 May 00

Maya for OS X has gotten Mac users into 'petition fever'!

What new applications may come our way as a result of voicing our concerns and the excitement of the upcoming Mac OS X operating system?

Petitions Get Mac Applications: It Works

So by now you know that Maya is coming to OS X next January for sure -- due almost entirely to users request for the program on the upcoming Mac OS X. What next?

Many many readers are asking for Autocad and some for ProEngineer as well. Some even want SolidWorks for OS X. Architosh has asked about ProE on the Macintosh recently and an active forum on the issue has been set up at DemandMac.com (go to Software to Discuss or Demand and scroll down to ProEngineer on Macintosh).

The Autocad on Mac OS X Petition Questionnaire

Architosh has put together a petition questionnaire to help gather user request data for Autocad. Go there now if you want to get Autocad or some viewer application for Mac OS X.

We have received some great feedback. It looks like a lot of people would get at least one copy of Autocad for OS X if it was made available. Currently from looking at the petitions we have received many users would be new to the Macintosh platform or reenter the Macintosh market IF there was a Mac version of Autocad. There are a great many university students and instructors who would prefer to get rid of their NT boxes and run Autocad on OS X. Here are some quotes below:

"We would probably buy Autocad full [versions] for the draftsmen and Autocad LT for the engineers. Whether Apple should pay for part of the port or whether Autodesk should invest in Apple are business decisions only they can make. Bring on Autocad for X so that I can dump those NT machines before they have to be upgraded. Thanx" -- MIS Dept. Kubota Metal Corp.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!, I am a first year student at the School of Architecture at Oklahoma State University, and I use a Mac. I have set my eyes on a G4 with an OrangePC card so that I could run Autocad on the G4, BUT if they pursue this endeavor then I won't have to purchase the extra $1,000 PC card.

I also have talked to some of the people up here as OSU and most of the people that use Mac's would like to see Autocad on the Mac OS. This would definitely be a good opportunity for Apple to get back into the CAD environment." -- A. Brister Oklahoma State University

"If apple is to be a serious cad/3d platform we want max, pro-e and solidworks too." -- K. Kroyer

"I believe AutoCAD and other 3D applications is as important to Apple as the announcement of Alias|Wavefront's Maya being ported to Mac OS X." -- J. Mangus

"I had ACAD 11 on Mac. It was great for the time. It gave me a leg up on all the nerds sticking with R10 & 12 when Autodesk made the jump to Windows. ADesk is progressively screwing itself with it's Gates Only strategy. Dropped Mac & now Unix. They've missed the turn and are heading for a cliff as Linux and soon OS X will continue to thump the Redmond Monopolists." -- A. M. Fares

"This is a very good way to get Apple into the business market. By supporting Autodesk, other companies would also be led to the Macintosh platform. For many people there is no equal to AutoCAD, so a Mac version would open new opportunities." -- B. Parker

"I am a senior designer / project manager in a large Architecture firm in DC and I have been using AutoCAD for almost 10 years. AutoCAD is NOT a good piece of software. It is user unfriendly, the user interface counter intuitive, expensive and bad at 3D but it is used by most of the Architects, Interior Designer and Engineers in the US (I heard 75%)

... Having AutoCAD on Mac OS X would allow me to work at home and share files with my office via internet (my firm has an FTP server).

So I say yes to AutoCAD on the Mac (I really dislike NT)" -- B. Grinwis

We have a lot more where this came from

So far this petition effort has surprised us. Despite the fact that many architects work in PC-based offices and have standardized on Autocad on NT (mostly in larger offices) quite a few of these individuals have Macs at home for a couple of reasons. One is, they started on Macs long ago and still love them. Many were introduced to computing in architecture on Macs back in the late 80's and early 90's. And two, many have Macs at home for their kids because they feel they are better at home computing than anything else. This is the story of the iMac boom. So having Autocad on OS X makes sense for this crowd.

Also we are surprised at the sheer number of Autocad lovers who have experience with Macs -- mostly from the past (but some fit in the category above) -- and yet would love to dump their troublesome Windows NT boxes at work in lieu of more manageable Macintoshes. This crowd wont make for many more new Autocad licenses but will add many more Power Mac G4's.

So Mac CAD vendors have little to fear from Autodesk if there was to be a Mac OS X version of Autocad.

Also of interest is the large group of users currently on Macs who want Autocad for OS X for compatibility reasons. From the data so far this group prefers a full version of Autocad for OS X for this purpose rather than a lite version or a special "viewer/printer" application for Autocad. And this group doesn't necessarily want to replace their favorite Macintosh CAD application for AEC -- which is predominantly either VectorWorks, PowerCADD or ArchiCAD -- but complement it in an office/studio environment. So Mac CAD vendors have little to fear from Autodesk if there was to be a Mac OS X version of Autocad.

In fact, it may be that Autocad may grow Macintosh CAD market share up? How? Because with Autocad on OS X it will bring many more new users to the platform who will get introduced to Macintosh software. Once introduced to programs that are common on Mac machines they may find themselves wanting them.

Updates

We will be updating you on the progress with this effort. Also if you haven't completed the 'petition' please do so now -- weather you want Autocad on OS X or not. Thanks.

Other Architosh News Stories & Related Info

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