CAD/CAM/CAE
I am wondering if there is any interest in bringing a good mechanical design app to X that actually includes features such as finite analysis, piping tools and possibilities of CAM output. What applications would everyone like to see come to the Mac; Solidworks, AutoCAD, ProE-Mechanica, CATIA?
Comments
<a href="http://www.architosh.com/"; target="_blank">Architosh</a> featured an AutoCAD for X petition a while ago. I am ambivalent about AutoCAD for X. One one hand AutoCAD is so widespread on the Wintel side that it would be nice to have it on OS X for the easiest possible file exchange. On the other hand, AutoCAD is really a junky piece of software, from what little I understand. So I would rather not see it on the Mac.
CATIA is heavy duty workstation software, but with OS X's BSD UNIX underpinnings, it may be a great candidate for porting. I imaginge Altivec-enhanced CATIA for X on a dual-Gig G4 Power Mac would attract some serious engineers, even though they have traditionally stuck with workstations and Windows.
In my dreams, there would be a CAD package for OS X that is just like VectorWorks but would also include fininte element analysis that is easy to use for non-scientific types like me. CAM output would be nice. But at least for my purposes (balloon building) a DXF that I can feed to the cutting plotter would be just fine.
Escher
(wannabe Engineer)
[ 02-27-2002: Message edited by: papilio ]
[ 02-27-2002: Message edited by: papilio ]</p>
I believe that VectorWorks might be making an attempt in going after the mechanical/engineering market.
Escher
It's not that I love the program, but it would definitely increase the desirability of the platform.
A lot like Microsoft Office: the good with the bad.
<a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/SWonMac/petition.html"; target="_blank">http://www.petitiononline.com/SWonMac/petition.html</a>;
I'm a big SW fan!
Edit: OK, seems like the link may not be up right now. So if it doesn't work for you right now, try again tomorrow or something.
[ 03-14-2002: Message edited by: Randycat99 ]</p>
What I would like to see is 3dsMax, AutoCad and Rhino for Mac.
Chris
Hmm, finite analysis and stuff? Can't think of anything. Sorry to flog a dead horse, but was there the possibility of Autocad for mac? I was under the impression that there were lots of juicy CAE plug-ins available for it.
Who knows maybe one day we'll see finite analysis and piping tools 'for the rest of us"
Anywho, I still think CAD/CAE apps would do well on the Mac, particularly with the dual G5 systems and the available graphic options being priced competitively to dual Opteron/Itanium systems.
I picked up Cobalt about two months ago, haven't got a shot to work on it at all yet, too busy, but I will say I'm a Mechanical Designer at a company that is converting from CATIA V4 on IBM AIX UNIX boxes to V5 on Windows boxes and it sure would be nice to have the ability to use CATIA V5 on a Mac box. The new Macs sure would be able to handle it well, unfortunately they will be able to just get by with Pentium 4 systems making that more cost effective for the time being.
Although I haven't had the time to use Cobalt since I'm on a computer all day at work, from everything I've seen it should be pretty nice to use.