Architosh Staff ([email protected])

4 Dec 2002 [Edited: 9 Dec 2002]

 

New and Legendary Mac Apps Sweep CADENCE Editor Awards

CADENCE Magazine, one of the world's leading CAD publications, published their second edition of the Editor's Choice Awards in the end-of-the-year December issue. Surprisingly, the editors of CADENCE—who rarely mention Apple Computer or the Mac—awarded a number of applications which grew up on the Mac or are new on the Mac.

Legendary Mac Apps Impress PC-Oriented Editors

It has been said many times by those in the PC industry that many of today's hottest Windows programs were first created on the Macintosh way back in the 80's. Quark, Photoshop, and Excel are just a few of them. In the AEC market, two legendary Mac applications continue to dominate their peers: ArchiCAD and form-Z.

Both ArchiCAD 8 and the upcoming form-Z 4.0 won Editor's Choice Awards for very strong reasons. ArchiCAD 8 is arguably one of the best upgrades Graphisoft has ever produced, while the 4.0 release of form-Z is destined to be a must-upgrade for all users. Of particular note for form-Z 4.0 is the new extensible programming functionality which will hopefully draw the attention of some brilliant and creative Macintosh programmers.

New Mac Kids On the Block

Of special note was the attention CADENCE gave to new nex-gen 3D architectural CAD product BOA (sponsor) . BOA-Research, while supporting Windows too, is really a very Mac-centric developer. So we were surprised and delighted to see CADENCE editors pay attention to this promising 3D CAD program. Editors were correct in pointing out BOA's unique strengths, such as its impressive "Workplane" technology and its single object entity (or "block") structure, which arguably endows the program with more flexibility than Revit (which didn't make the list and surprised us for it).

Perhaps one other innovative feature of BOA that they should have mentioned was its geometric dependency technologies.

Another new Mac kid on the block is SketchUp, by @Last Software. While not a Mac-first application, the SketchUp folks have really taken an interest in the platform and they have praised Apple's OpenGL implementation. SketchUp is a creative new entry in the architectural modeling and rendering category and has a fully native Mac OS X version. To learn more about SketchUp visit them at: www.sketchup.com

Additionally, Piranesi won an award as well. While not available for the Mac yet, the company is rumored to be working on a Mac OS X version in their 4.0 release. If you are interested in this application coming to the Mac then go here.

Closing Comments

While not truly a full "sweep", when you consider the fact that this magazine hardly ever mentions the Macintosh, this much of a nod to such great Mac apps might as well be called a sweep! To learn more visit CADENCE online at: www.cadenceweb.com

Architosh Marketplace

MacroEnter. is a CAD/AEC/Design, networking and large format printing solutions integrator, serving business, government and education customers. Reseller of VectorWorks, Microspot, HP and Encad product lines.

CAD Garage. is an online store dedicated to Architects, Engineers, Builders, Designers and Mac enthusiasts featuring ArchiCAD, formZ, Piranesi, Cinema 4D, HP and more product lines.

Lim Consultants, Inc. provides creative architects with practical solutions while incorporating cutting edge technology, pushing the art of structural engineering to new levels of excellence.

Place your text ad here and reach thousands of professionals each month for very affordable prices. (contact: [email protected])