Perhaps a candle to the sun. Nothing has effectively challenged autocad ever, doesn't mean it's awesome, it's just everything.
I worked at a tool and die shop and I recall that there was a program that we used in the late 90's that we considered superior. We used it as our main cad program and only had a few seats of autocad. The thing was that Autocad bought the software developer and shut them down as soon as they could.
So even if other people did not consider it superior software it must have been enough of a threat for Autocad to buy it and kill it off. I think they did that more then a few times.
Heck yeah - no more parallels. Well, actually, I guess that depends if they port over their other programs as well (I assume they would) - so, any news about Revit, Buzzsaw or Design Review? If so, then my whole firm will be upgrading ASAP.
Yes, "bunch of morons" that just happened to produce a product that defined a market --and that you seem to want on your Mac.
I hate to find myself agreeing with "OzExige" as they seem to spend most of their time complaining about everything, but they do have a point.
I haven't used AutoCAD since Windows 95 days, but it *was* a dinosaur in so many ways. Even when it finally went to a GUI environment, (many years after the last DOS user died of carpal tunnel syndrome), it was the thinnest of shells over what was still essentially a CLI product that relied on HotKeys and Menus for literally every function.
It's too bad that AppleInsider didn't take this opportunity to get us up to speed on what AutoCAD is like now. Since there are very few good drafting programs in general, and almost none of note on the Mac, it's tempting that the acknowledged classic program of this type is coming back. If on the other hand it's still all driven by the keyboard or at least designed around that fact, then its not going to be anything that the average computer user can use. In fact it would be of no interest to anyone who doesn't already use it in the Windows environment as you can see from the majority of the comments here.
Anyone care to fill in a bit of the background about what it's like to use AutoCAD today?
Well... The fact that Autocad never saw need to take a 'hiatus' from the windows platform is quite telling as to which is truly the more powerful computing environment.
I hate to find myself agreeing with "OzExige" as they seem to spend most of their time complaining about everything, but they do have a point.
I haven't used AutoCAD since Windows 95 days, but it *was* a dinosaur in so many ways. Even when it finally went to a GUI environment, (many years after the last DOS user died of carpal tunnel syndrome), it was the thinnest of shells over what was still essentially a CLI product that relied on HotKeys and Menus for literally every function.
Anyone care to fill in a bit of the background about what it's like to use AutoCAD today?
Yeah, I learned on AutoCAD 12 in DOS, so I know all about the hell that it was. Still, hot keys are great, and way faster than using endless menus. Basically, 12 was in DOS and Mac, and they killed MAC when they went to windows with version 13 (a slow version of the mac 12) and version 14 (more in line with what the mac version was).
Right now, AutoCAD is a pretty solid program, and it can do a lot of great drafting. Still though, a lot of the bugs in the program still haven't been worked out. Despite all of the development, I still get "lines not coplanar" notes despite both being at z = 0, it still crashes, and it still changes its own preferences randomly.
Basically, AutoCAD is a monster in the industry, Autodesk knows it, and they seem to be more interested in tweaking their own software to create reasons for clients to upgrade all the time rather than to win new users, which they don't actually have to do.
Between these issues, and the lack of Mac support, people did flee to other software. I use Vectorworks at my office for some projects, and it is a solid product. For somethings I prefer ACAD, but VW doers excel a lot. Also, ArchiCAD has a lot of supporters. Still though, you have to deal with consultants who all use ACAD.
I was one of the many people that thought that when Apple went with OS X on Intel we'd see CAD make a comeback, since it would be easy for them to do so. Their foot dragging has been pretty sad, and has led to even more adoption to alternatives. Seriously, I doubt that VW and ArchiCAD would be that well known, if even existent, if Autodesk stayed with MAC. They pretty much created the market for their own competition.
That said, CAD is seen as a product that will slowly die, as BIM is all the rage. VW and ArchiCAD have long had BIM functions, and Autodesk is working hard to push Revit as the future. Like AutoCAD, it has its own pains to working with it, so its not perfect, but I am curious to see if it will be ported over as well. One product at a time, I guess.
Well... The fact that Autocad never saw need to take a 'hiatus' from the windows platform is quite telling as to which is truly the more powerful computing environment.
I wouldn't say that it says much about the power of the platform (I know this due to the huge amount of CAD induced windows crashes I've had) - if anything it says a lot about how bad Apple's outlook was in the mid-90s before Jobs came back. The company was on the brink of bankruptcy, and Windows NT was winning the war for offices. It made sense for Autodesk back then to cannibalize their mac team and develop for Windows (their only other version was for DOS). Lets face it, I doubt that more than 2% of their users were on Mac at the time, and that's being generous, so it made business sense.
That's not saying that Windows has been great with CAD. Version 13 was painfully slow. People hated it. It wasn't until 14 that people liked it. And then 2000 came out, which was a pain, and actually "bricked" a lot of computers during installation (apparently NT 4.0 and 2000 mixed poorly).
So yeah, I wouldn't say that the "hiatus" has anything to do with either platforms abilities, just sales and user base in the 90s.
That said, CAD is seen as a product that will slowly die, as BIM is all the rage. VW and ArchiCAD have long had BIM functions, and Autodesk is working hard to push Revit as the future. Like AutoCAD, it has its own pains to working with it, so its not perfect, but I am curious to see if it will be ported over as well. One product at a time, I guess.
I 've been reading the literature on BIM adoption however, and even today it seems it's growing at a very slow pace. Plus BIM integrates a lot of functions that some companies or individuals couldn't care less about. Still, it is the future for sure, as you said.
I'm not an AutoCad user....but I certainly empathize with those who are down to only one program that keeps them either using bootcamp or Parallels!
I'm a realtor and my lock box key has to be updated via USB in Windows/Parallels every night. And it never works. I have to unplug it restart XP plug it back in and then run the program to update. What a mess.
I am going back to a land line (whatever that is?) to have it update...and then good riddance to Windows!
Well... The fact that Autocad never saw need to take a 'hiatus' from the windows platform is quite telling as to which is truly the more powerful computing environment.
No, but it does show which platform allowed incredibly lazy and sloppy coding to go on for decades.
I 've been reading the literature on BIM adoption however, and even today it seems it's growing at a very slow pace. Plus BIM integrates a lot of functions that some companies or individuals couldn't care less about. Still, it is the future for sure, as you said.
Yeah, I'm not totally sold on BIM. It looks promising, but I know all we keep doing around the office is trying to find "the right project" to try it out on, while CAD seems to work with everything. It seems like the whole industry needs to take the plunge, and no one wants to be the first one in.
Comments
Perhaps a candle to the sun. Nothing has effectively challenged autocad ever, doesn't mean it's awesome, it's just everything.
I worked at a tool and die shop and I recall that there was a program that we used in the late 90's that we considered superior. We used it as our main cad program and only had a few seats of autocad. The thing was that Autocad bought the software developer and shut them down as soon as they could.
So even if other people did not consider it superior software it must have been enough of a threat for Autocad to buy it and kill it off. I think they did that more then a few times.
Yes, "bunch of morons" that just happened to produce a product that defined a market --and that you seem to want on your Mac.
I hate to find myself agreeing with "OzExige" as they seem to spend most of their time complaining about everything, but they do have a point.
I haven't used AutoCAD since Windows 95 days, but it *was* a dinosaur in so many ways. Even when it finally went to a GUI environment, (many years after the last DOS user died of carpal tunnel syndrome), it was the thinnest of shells over what was still essentially a CLI product that relied on HotKeys and Menus for literally every function.
It's too bad that AppleInsider didn't take this opportunity to get us up to speed on what AutoCAD is like now. Since there are very few good drafting programs in general, and almost none of note on the Mac, it's tempting that the acknowledged classic program of this type is coming back. If on the other hand it's still all driven by the keyboard or at least designed around that fact, then its not going to be anything that the average computer user can use. In fact it would be of no interest to anyone who doesn't already use it in the Windows environment as you can see from the majority of the comments here.
Anyone care to fill in a bit of the background about what it's like to use AutoCAD today?
Lemon Bon Bon.
I hate to find myself agreeing with "OzExige" as they seem to spend most of their time complaining about everything, but they do have a point.
I haven't used AutoCAD since Windows 95 days, but it *was* a dinosaur in so many ways. Even when it finally went to a GUI environment, (many years after the last DOS user died of carpal tunnel syndrome), it was the thinnest of shells over what was still essentially a CLI product that relied on HotKeys and Menus for literally every function.
Anyone care to fill in a bit of the background about what it's like to use AutoCAD today?
Yeah, I learned on AutoCAD 12 in DOS, so I know all about the hell that it was. Still, hot keys are great, and way faster than using endless menus. Basically, 12 was in DOS and Mac, and they killed MAC when they went to windows with version 13 (a slow version of the mac 12) and version 14 (more in line with what the mac version was).
Right now, AutoCAD is a pretty solid program, and it can do a lot of great drafting. Still though, a lot of the bugs in the program still haven't been worked out. Despite all of the development, I still get "lines not coplanar" notes despite both being at z = 0, it still crashes, and it still changes its own preferences randomly.
Basically, AutoCAD is a monster in the industry, Autodesk knows it, and they seem to be more interested in tweaking their own software to create reasons for clients to upgrade all the time rather than to win new users, which they don't actually have to do.
Between these issues, and the lack of Mac support, people did flee to other software. I use Vectorworks at my office for some projects, and it is a solid product. For somethings I prefer ACAD, but VW doers excel a lot. Also, ArchiCAD has a lot of supporters. Still though, you have to deal with consultants who all use ACAD.
I was one of the many people that thought that when Apple went with OS X on Intel we'd see CAD make a comeback, since it would be easy for them to do so. Their foot dragging has been pretty sad, and has led to even more adoption to alternatives. Seriously, I doubt that VW and ArchiCAD would be that well known, if even existent, if Autodesk stayed with MAC. They pretty much created the market for their own competition.
That said, CAD is seen as a product that will slowly die, as BIM is all the rage. VW and ArchiCAD have long had BIM functions, and Autodesk is working hard to push Revit as the future. Like AutoCAD, it has its own pains to working with it, so its not perfect, but I am curious to see if it will be ported over as well. One product at a time, I guess.
Well... The fact that Autocad never saw need to take a 'hiatus' from the windows platform is quite telling as to which is truly the more powerful computing environment.
I wouldn't say that it says much about the power of the platform (I know this due to the huge amount of CAD induced windows crashes I've had) - if anything it says a lot about how bad Apple's outlook was in the mid-90s before Jobs came back. The company was on the brink of bankruptcy, and Windows NT was winning the war for offices. It made sense for Autodesk back then to cannibalize their mac team and develop for Windows (their only other version was for DOS). Lets face it, I doubt that more than 2% of their users were on Mac at the time, and that's being generous, so it made business sense.
That's not saying that Windows has been great with CAD. Version 13 was painfully slow. People hated it. It wasn't until 14 that people liked it. And then 2000 came out, which was a pain, and actually "bricked" a lot of computers during installation (apparently NT 4.0 and 2000 mixed poorly).
So yeah, I wouldn't say that the "hiatus" has anything to do with either platforms abilities, just sales and user base in the 90s.
That said, CAD is seen as a product that will slowly die, as BIM is all the rage. VW and ArchiCAD have long had BIM functions, and Autodesk is working hard to push Revit as the future. Like AutoCAD, it has its own pains to working with it, so its not perfect, but I am curious to see if it will be ported over as well. One product at a time, I guess.
I 've been reading the literature on BIM adoption however, and even today it seems it's growing at a very slow pace. Plus BIM integrates a lot of functions that some companies or individuals couldn't care less about. Still, it is the future for sure, as you said.
I'm a realtor and my lock box key has to be updated via USB in Windows/Parallels every night. And it never works. I have to unplug it restart XP plug it back in and then run the program to update. What a mess.
I am going back to a land line (whatever that is?) to have it update...and then good riddance to Windows!
Of course the industry is going to Revit now, just in time for AutoCad to come back to the Mac....
"AudoCAD appears headed back to the Mac"
What the heck is AudoCAD?
It's been so long out of the Mac market that no one remembers how to spell it!
so right now you haven't leave Windows completely..? You cheater you..
so in short; Windows for painful work and Mac for fun life..?
There's a VERY long list of folks who happen to do just that....
You should never look for a reason to give her one...
And there you go!
Marriage Counseling. Just another benefit of AppleInsider Forums.
Oh Thisp I remember coding in thisp
Thwat?
Well... The fact that Autocad never saw need to take a 'hiatus' from the windows platform is quite telling as to which is truly the more powerful computing environment.
No, but it does show which platform allowed incredibly lazy and sloppy coding to go on for decades.
I 've been reading the literature on BIM adoption however, and even today it seems it's growing at a very slow pace. Plus BIM integrates a lot of functions that some companies or individuals couldn't care less about. Still, it is the future for sure, as you said.
Yeah, I'm not totally sold on BIM. It looks promising, but I know all we keep doing around the office is trying to find "the right project" to try it out on, while CAD seems to work with everything. It seems like the whole industry needs to take the plunge, and no one wants to be the first one in.
YES!!!!!!
FINALLY!!!!
Now what about CATIA V5?
Ah, yes. Please.