I’ve used Autodesk products for years on PC and they’ve never been that great in the stability stakes, anyone use Mechanical Desktop Release 3? That crashed three of four times a day in our office and there were only three of us.

I’ve since moved to Mac and I only very occasionally need to use AutoCAD. I’ve tried the Mac version and even when its patched its terrible. It doesn’t feel right and it crashes as soon as you look at it.

In fact I can’t even get it to run anymore I just get the crash report dialogue.

Total waste of time. I’m currently installing a version for Windows.

This is like a BETA release, Autodesk shouldn’t even be selling it IMO.

Interestingly, though, this does predict the evolution of a non Autodesk alternative which is superior for Mac and Linux, as those platforms are commercially viable for a company with relevant development experience. Following this idea, if Mac and Linux ever do begin to ursurp the general engineering market (which is not as far fetched as the idea of them ursurping the gaming platform/home PC market in the short term) then the Linux/Mac AutoCAD alternatives would have a major leg-up and mind&market share over an Autodesk company effort which would be playing catch up — both technically and in the market.

So… if Mac and Linux ever do show signs of creeping into the engineering field more heavily (depending on the sort of design, actually, Linux is already dominant — but only on government funded deep engineering projects such as advanced missile guidance and whatnot) then Autodesk would suddenly not be able to afford to not cultivate Linux expertise. Weird quandry.

Autodesk has consistently maintained that the reason for this is that government accounting regulations forbid the provision of new features in free updates. Autodesk has also consistently ignored my requests for more information about these allegedly restrictive regulations. So if AutoCAD for Mac 2011 Update 1 really will include new features, that would be “interesting”.

In any case, if you are aware of the contents of Update 1, you’re probably not supposed to discuss it in public…

Digital Convergence is here, don’t fight the change . . . embrace it and use it for the good of mankind!

Macs computers are virus free & require minimal maintenance. What this means is good-bye to “mystical” Windows tech support and IT services.

AutoCAD for Mac is a lean mean drafting machine!

Daniel Maldonado AIA

I’m particularly impressed and intrigued by the iPad/iPhone apps.

Hopefully other CAD vendors will sit up and take notice.

SolidWorks? Pro/E?

And I’d really like to see a iPad version of eDrawings.

I like your level of confidence in someone else’s inabilities.

I think it’s going to be a big deal, more than anyone so far has indicated on this forum. It probably won’t be feature complete like the Windows version out-of-the-gate.

If I were a developer, I would leave out the esoteric features used by only a narrow slice of users and focus on the majority, particularly if they aimed the first release at a market segment. That allows them to deliver a product with high satisfaction and success and then add other features that matter to other markets.

As with most corporations, I presume, we are about 7 to 1, PCs to Macs. The Macs are used by the Creative Services department and in Store Design.

When I saw that there were rumblings about AutoCAD for the Mac, I asked a couple of the store designers, who have used both AutoCAD and now VectorWorks, if they were excited about AutoCAD coming to the department’s computer of choice.

They were pointedly unimpressed and uninterested.

Microsoft really shot themselves in the foot with Vista, and I think their stupid decision to keep flogging that dead horse for so long will have long-lasting consequences for them. With Vista having left a real bad taste in many peoples mouths, it’s inevitable that Apple will gain more market share.

I don’t know enough about programming to opine about whether it will be easy, difficult or disastrous to make a Mac version of AutoCAD, but I do know that Autodesk would be stupid not to seriously consider a Mac version at this stage. If they don’t, they run a large risk of losing considerable market-share.

Ask any company man or shareholder whether they’d prefer to lose market share or get some bad rep about a less than perfect product. I think 99% would rather have large market share and a little bit of bad publicity any day.

One final comment for all the Windows die-hards out there: Yes, it was irritating learning a new operating system having been a Win user for so long, but it’s really been worth it. Macs just work better.

The best solution for users of every other CAD application on the planet would be if AutoDesk played good citizen and made their COMPLETE file format specifications available so other CAD apps could seamlessly import and export to AutoCAD. I’m sure AutoDesk has no interest in supporting a mass exodus from their flagship application, which I have little doubt would occur.

As a 20 year MiniCAD/Vectorworks user and trainer, AutoCAD translations have improved tremendously over the years, especially since Nemetschek acquired Diehl Graphsoft (the original MiniCAD/Vectorworks developer), but more could be done.

Autodesk is not going to start from scratch to write a Mac version of AutoCAD. It’s going to keep as much common code as it possibly can, for obvious reasons. Any new Mac version is going to have to be generated at the same time that the Windows code is being developed into the next release, so it’s going to be a moving target. The core AutoCAD code will be done in Windows and OS X will be an offshoot, and it will likely remain that way for at least as long as Windows remains the dominant OS. Yes, I made an assumption, but it’s really the only reasonable one that can be made.