Architosh Staff ([email protected])

18 Dec 2002

 

TidBits: Mac 3D/CAD/AEC News Around the Web, and more...

Accounting for Architects and Other AEC Pros

For those who have not yet heard, Intuit is bring back QuickBooks Pro for Macintosh. Built more or less for Mac OS X, the application that many design professionals rely upon hasn't been updated for the Mac platform in over five years. Now with QuickBooks Pro Edition 5.0 for Mac OS X, architects and other design professionals can utilize a tool that has become a favorite of the design services industries.

Additionally, Intuit is always looking for feedback. The company makes a specialized version of QuickBooks Pro for the construction industry professional (currently only available for Windows only) and has said that they are open to making such versions available on the Mac as well. So all of you Mac contractors out there should give these folks a call. To learn more go here. To purchase go here.

Revit 5 Out

It looks like Autodesk has been busy at its Revit subsidiary. The company has launched Revit 5, its building design and documentation system. The new acquired company and product has caused quite a stir within the Autodesk Architectural Desktop community, as users wonder and doubt Autodesk's true intentions and directions with Revit versus Autocad technology.

While Revit 5 is not available for the Mac, the Macintosh platform is hardly without its targeted architectural CAD solutions. ArchiCAD 8, recently released, is arguably the product which Revit 5 is actually chasing, while a number of other architectural CAD products like VectorWorks ARCHITECT, BOA, and PowerCADD offer rival platforms with hundreds of thousands of dedicated users. Nevertheless, some readers have written in asking for us to run a Revit for Mac petition. We currently do not have any plans for such a petition at this time and would rather users check out existing products on the market, all of which have much larger marketshare than the newbie Revit.

Form Z 4.0

Autodessys Inc. is expected to show off, if not officially unveil, the latest version of Form Z, version 4.0. This latest version is native to Mac OS X and offers some compelling reasons to upgrade or even switch over to this product if you are not using it already. MacWorld Expo runs from Jan 6 - 10th, and FormZ's booth is number 1743, according to their website. To learn more visit them at: http://www.formz.com

IBM's PowerPC 970 Product Schedule Details

Jesse Stein and Peter Sandon have written a news article about the upcoming PowerPC 970 processor from IBM. The article states that IBM chose the POWER4 chip for the architectural basis of the PowerPC 970 because it gave the new chip in essence the high performance of a single POWER4 processor core. Note, the POWER4 processor is a dual-core chip, which means it has two processors on one piece of silicon.

One of the nicest things about the 970 is that is starting at the 0.13 micron technology standard and thus will likely ramp up very nicely in processor chip frequency when IBM scales it eventually to smaller processes. The article has a very nice picture which shows it in relation to an IBM POWER4 processor. It is approximately less than 1/3 the size of the POWER4 processor.

In terms of schedule, the chip is slated to sample in the second quarter of 2003 in IBM's new state-of-the-art 300-mm facility in East Fiskhill, New York, with production in the second half of the year. If all goes well, Apple would be able to test new units with the PowerPC 970 starting early in 2003, which puts the normal six to 9 month testing phase far into 2003. Mac users shouldn't expect any PowerPC 970-based Macs until October 2003 at the earliest.

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