

AutoCAD appears headed back to the Mac - evo_9
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/05/22/audocad_appears_headed_back_to_the_mac.html

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ComputerGuru
For me, this is the last product for Mac that I need in order to convince _a
lot_ of people to make the switch.

As an engineer (well, computer engineer), CAD programs are an absolute must
for a lot of the people I know, and for better or for worse, AutoCAD is the
golden standard. Most engineers I know just need web browsing + office +
AutoCAD... and now they (hopefully!) have it.

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weaksauce
What do you use autocad for? Electrical drawings or something else? I am very
happy about this coming to the Mac as it might make the other engineering
packages come to the Mac as well if it is a success. At my work we use
solidworks for models and autocad for electrical drawings.

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krschultz
I'm a mechanical engineer, my personal preference for 2D drawings is AutoCAD
but 3D CAE is Solidworks. I'm not sure I could personally make the switch
until Solidworks was availble because I spend about 90% of my time in
Solidworks but only 10% in AutoCAD, but if Inventor went to Mac that's pretty
close to Solidworks.

(Is Pro/E on Mac? I know it is available on Linux)

My brother is an architect and his primary tool is AutoCAD, he could
absolutely make the switch to a mac if that were available, in fact having to
boot into Windows most of the time anyway is the reason he did not spend extra
and get a Macbook Pro last time he bought a laptop.

~~~
pingswept
I've been waiting for Solidworks on anything but Windows since approximately
1997. I've been considering switching to Autodesk Inventor recently, and this
might push me over the edge. The last piece of software holding me to Windows
then would be PCB layout software.

Also, I believe that Pro/E doesn't support Linux anymore. I believe the most
recent release, Wildfire 5, only runs on Windows and, strangely, 64-bit
Solaris.

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aw3c2
I do not care about Apple but this might make a Linux port possible which
would make my life a magnitude easier.

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stuntmouse
Steam, AutoCAD, possibly Rhino. Why are all these companies doing their ports
_now_ , when Apple is so focused on mobile computing?

Are they just slow to react? Making a bet on the halo effect from iPhone/iPad?

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glhaynes
Mac sales are on a big upswing regardless of Apple's mobile devices (which are
on an even bigger upswing).

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motters
I remember probably a decade ago being told by CAD people how much companies
pay to run AutoCAD, and being completely shocked. I never realised there was
any software so expensive. Based upon my observations in several engineering
companies I'd say that Autodesk is one of the worst organisations when it
comes to selling of software, very aggressively locking users in using strong-
arm tactics.

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wwortiz
Pretty much all engineering software tends to come out to about $2k-$6k a seat
which may seem quite expensive but when you get to modeling systems with a
huge number of parts and such this software is invaluable and these
engineering companies know this and therefore can charge this price.

These companies are more than just autodesk, there is PTC and solidworks and
MSCsoftware, I've heard from my professors that MSC's Adams software is
something like $20k a seat and getting an educational discount or deal is
extremely hard to come by.

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motters
It was a long time ago, but I remember having a conversation with the chief
draughtsman at one company and him explaining with a tone of weary resignation
how he needed to spend a large amount of money buying upgrades for AutoCAD
even though his department didn't require any of the features it contained.
The way that the software was being marketed was basically forcing him into
paying Autodesk whether he wanted to or not - almost like the medieval
practice of paying tribute to the local baron.

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wwortiz
I'm guessing someone at the company he worked for deciding a reason for
upgrading and whether or not it was a good reason I doubt it was completely
forced, more probably the person who decided they needed to upgrade was found
with a really good salesman or there was a legitimate reason for an upgrade.

Either way I can't see the difference between upgrading engineering software
and say upgrading an entire point of sales system for some new features or
because of a good salesman.

This kind of thing just seems to happen in business no matter the type, but a
large portion of Autodesk software is sold through resellers and this is
probably where the marketing issue comes into play.

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gibsonf1
This is ironic as AutoCad is now a completely obsolete program based on
decades old technology. The industry is moving to Building Information
Modeling (BIM) and Autodesk was smart enough to see the writing on the wall,
and bought Revit. What I would love is Revit on linux.

~~~
krschultz
AutoCAD is used for more than just architecture.

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sfall
I have bought hardware just to run autocad, when i see that they make it to
run autocad add-ons to run then this will work for me.

autocad $3k add-on software $5k laptop $2k

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nexneo
That was only reason to keep windows partition on Mac. Good, I will get 15GB
back.

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brudgers
It's a nice thought, but it's hard to see the business case for
Autodesk...support for two platfroms in order to cannibalize their own sales
doesn't make a lot of sense.

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dagw
Also, in my experience, most engineers who use AutoCAD use at least on third
party domain specific plugin. If those plugins aren't also ported then they
still won't be able to move to Apple. In fact I know many people who would be
happy to give up AutoCAD for something else, but can't because they need
certain plugins.

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pclark
Rhino is coming too.

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rodh257
be interested to see what they do about the .NET API... I guess no add-ins
will be supported on mac version?

