AutoCAD for Mac, iPad and iPhone

[Eduardo Rolon]

http://www.macworld.com/article/153761/2010/08/autodesk.html

[rm]

Finally, now for the Mac devoted, we have another serious professional choice. My hope is that THIS will finally get GS development into HIGH GEAR.

Quick suggestion list:

Update the library
Improve both drafting tools and modeling tools.....enough with buying a dozen add-ons for what should be in the software
A schematic design tool ala Sketch-up
A real site modeling tool - BTW GS buildings are actually built on soil not air
did I mention update the library?!?!?
lower your price......you will have to in order to keep market share.

This announcement is probably going to have the biggest impact on their Mac loyal customers and cause many to take a much closer look at AutoDesk....I can only assume Revit for Mac is on its way as well, because AutoCAD alone won't replace ArchiCAD.

[Anonymous]

This poses a bigger threat to vectorworks than archicad, although I agree that revit on the mac is looking more and more inevitable ... once again an opportunity for me to play my broken record about Nemetschek's lack of broad strategic vision.

[Thomas Holm]

Autocad on the Mac isn't a big threat to Graphisoft. It will leverage the Mac platform and that's good. But Autocad in itself is still primarily used as a 2D drawing program, and is very dependant on third-party applications, that will take time to get to the Mac. Revit would be the real threat, and is probably in the works too, but no betas have surfaced yet.

I'm finding this is the most important announcement:

AutoCAD for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch
Autodesk also announced the AutoCAD WS mobile application, a new free app that will be available from Apple’s App Store. The AutoCAD WS mobile application will let AutoCAD users edit and share AutoCAD files on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch for real-time collaboration while on the go.

I'm thinking this will make the iPad spread on building sites like a grassland fire. iPads work even ruggedized in plastic bags, you know! I've no idea if ACWS uses ordinary DWG files, but I think Graphisoft needs to make it the highest priority to give Archicad output/import file compatibility for this iOS viewer ASAP. Builders won't bother to have several viewers. If GS has something in their pocket, it needs to be much better - and must distribute now!

And sadly, I have to agree with amonie. Nemetschek needs to consolidate its development efforts. The competition isn't Vectorworks or Allplan OR Autocad, or Revit. It's Autodesk! Can't you hear?

[Anonymous]

rm wrote:
Quick suggestion list:

Update the library
Improve both drafting tools and modeling tools.....enough with buying a dozen add-ons for what should be in the software
A schematic design tool ala Sketch-up
A real site modeling tool - BTW GS buildings are actually built on soil not air
did I mention update the library?!?!?
lower your price......you will have to in order to keep market share.

I suggest you to see Vectorworks 2010. You'll find all that inside it...
For Vectorworks (AutoCAD) not a big problem, you still think that Vectorworks is drawing tool and not BIM (lol)...

[Anonymous]

Autodesk has done enough research to know that autocad will be a problem for somebody on the mac - either stealing clients directly from the likes of VW or stealing growth that would have otherwise gone to VW.
As to whether VW is BIM software - of course it is! ... but should so much effort go into marketing it as such if a superior (BIM) AC is under your umbrella and not exactly a world beater numbers-wise? The bulk of BIM mindshare, growth, cash and therefore development firepower has gone to Revit - in large part because of relentless and focussed marketing by autodesk.
Autocad is robust and extensible and could be marketed as a BIM tool if autodesk wanted to - perhaps it is somewhere - but it is no accident that 'BIM' and 'revit' are used interchangeably by so many people.
Anyway Thomas is right - the iOS application is the killer app and will spread the autodesk mindset far and wide .... wait, I can see the halo already

[Thomas Holm]

Yes. Doing nothing at all for two or more years, the guy/girl managing Nemetschek's assets is an [moderated]. Pure and simple.

[Anonymous]

http://frombulator.com/2009/10/cad-marketshare-bim-marketshare-installed-seats-installed-base-bim-ca...

I think Vectorworks people are the only ones that decided to make the transition from CAD to BIM (Don't know, maybe Microstation) in the real meaning... Not the same to Autocad. It's natural the marketing of Vectorworks as BIM, and Nemetschek can do it because it had Allplan, already (different to Autodesk that hasn't a BIM app), ArchiCAD came later to Nemetschek, and came with economical issues.

Curious that Vectorworks has walls, windows, worksheets, annotations tools, sections, terrain modeler, parking tools, space planing tools, high geometric capacity... and things that some others applications lacks, maybe they are in the right track... don't think Nemetschek doing nothing in Vectorworks side, but can understand what's happening in the Archicad side.

All this buzz won't produce many of the things that you think. It will benefit the Mac Platform. We, the users of CAD/BIM alternatives to AutocCAD already made our choice, and many are PC users (that already decided, too). The iPad application is interesting, but not a difficult approach... See coming ArchiViewer, AllViewer or Vectorviewer to iPad... is a matter of time, or more interesting SolibriPAD... something everyone can talk, something really tuned for the future not the past (dwg).

[vistasp]

I'm running Windows but found this post on how Acad for iPad might actually work.

Also, on the same blog, I read that DraftSight (a free AutoCAD clone) running natively on Mac is expected to be made available within 2 weeks. Having tried the Windows version of DS, I find it quite adequate for my occasional regression to flatland.

[Anonymous]

The official site for the mobile

http://butterfly.autodesk.com/mobile/

You can also edit the files.
And it will be FREE.