Architosh Staff ([email protected])

25 Jan 2005 [edited: 25 Jan 05 - 2:40pm EST]

 

Five affordable CAD programs for your new Mac mini

Five CAD programs that come at a mini price -- all for Mac OS X

So are you new to the Mac? Maybe you just bought a new Mac mini computer and you're thinking: "Hey! I wonder if there are any affordable CAD or technical drawing programs that will run on it?"

Maybe you just realized that your new Mac mini just put you on the "designer's platform" and you're starting to feel a bit creative -- ready to tackle that backyard deck project! Well if this sounds like you...or you're just interested to know if there are any CAD programs that come at a mini price for your new Mac mini take note -- there are!

Five CADs at a mini's mini price

CADintosh. Since you bought a new Mac mini price is probably pretty darn important to you. If you really don't want to pay too much for a good CAD program and plan on using it only sporatically then CADintosh by the German software developer, Lemkesoft, is a perfect choice. At only $33.US it is the most affordable Mac OS X CAD program on the planet.

CADintosh (...no relation to our site Architosh, BTW!) has been around for years and is quite mature as a simple CAD application. Like all the CAD programs mentioned here, CADintosh is strickly a 2D program. It is good for technical or architectural drawing. CADintosh has all of the basic tools for lines, arcs, splines, dimensions and hatching of course. It supports up to 1024 different layers and items can be grouped into 32,000 groups in a single file. The maximum number of elements in your CADintosh file is only limited by your available memory. It supports both metric and English units like inches. CADintosh can also import and export HPGL, DXF and PICT files. It doesn't, however, support Autocad DWG via import/export.

Again, at only $33.US CADintosh -- with CAD file size only limited by your available memory and support for over 1000 layers -- is a pretty good value proposition.

RealCADD. Coming up a bit in price is the French-developed RealCADD, a 2D computer assisted drawing program created by French engineers which is available on multi-platforms, including Mac OS X. RealCADD is so called because it is developed using the REALBasic programming environment.

RealCADD like CADintosh features a broad array of 2D drafting tools, though more extensive. The program works a lot like the now legendary MacDraw but if you are new to the Mac platform that doesn't mean too much to you. What it should mean to you is this: these early Mac programs like MacDraw set the gold standard for windowed-based software design, and references to them commonly denote elegance and simplicity of use. RealCADD supports assisted or automatic snapping of objects. This eases the burden of accuracy with the mouse as you draw but you can turn the feature on or off as you see fit. Such technology is standard for today's CAD programs. RealCADD supports layers with naming, default colors and scale. Like CADintosh, RealCADD's layers can be turned on or off in various combinations easing the management of CAD data in a drawing. RealCADD also supports some basic scripting and custom tools creation using REALBasic. This is a superb feature for a CAD tool at this price range.

RealCADD Professional enables you to import and export Autocad files. If you don't need to import and export Autocad files you can save some money and get the Standard edition for $95.US. Also, if you might need to use the same files on a PC then RealCADD is a great choice for that as well, since it runs on multiple platforms.

MacDraft Personal Edition. Developed exlusively for Apple's Mac OS X, MacDraft PE (Personal Edition) is based on the same code base as MacDraft 5.5. Personal Edition is a great choice for its price range. It offers an elegant and mature Mac interface and some notable features beyond the common 2D drafting tools found in the two previous CAD options.

MacDraft PE has essentially all of RealCADD's 2D drafting tools plus a number of others. The program supports custom fill colors and patterns. It also supports transparency of fills, transparency of parallel line fills, and transparent lines. And the program supports 100 levels of undo -- an important consideration when we mention a bit later what it doesn't support.

MacDraft PE is a full-scaled environment drawing tool supporting both metric and English units. It also supports real-world size/units with ruler display. With this program you can also import many picture formats such as PICT, TIFF, GIF, JPEG/JFIF and Windows BMP files. And most importantly you can produce PDFs from MacDraft PE. While this product's box might suggest that it is an ideal CAD program for kids -- and that is true -- the program's strong broad feature set and excellent graphics support make it a good choice for beginner CAD users of all ages. MacDraft PE, by Microspot, of the United Kingdom, is part of a large family of design software from one of the oldest and most respected Macintosh CAD developers in the world. One of the nice things about MacDraft PE is that you can move up to the full MacDraft program if you need to expand your capabilities or even add to your skills with 3D CAD with Modeler.

For those who might get serious with CAD and like the look of MacDraft (both versions) be aware that Personal Edition doesn't support multiple layers. Nor does it support import/export of Autocad DWG or industry standard DXF files. If you want those features -- and more -- you must pay for MacDraft itself or buy the DWG Viewer application. MacDraft PE starts at $129.US.

MacroEnter is the US distributor for MacDraft and other Microspot products. You can conveniently purchase their products via their online store here.

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