AutoCAD is coming back to the Mac, AND going mobile!
In the New York Times Technology section there is a story about Autodesk reintroducing it’s AutoCAD software to the Mac. Autodesk makes software that is used by architects, interior designers, and engineers just to name a few. I work at an architecture firm and this has been one of the constant complaints of architects and architecture students alike, because AutoCAD didn’t have a Mac version. The Mac was once a popular platform for the software but as it’s share of the computing markets decreased in the 90s Autodesk decided to pull away making it’s last version for the Mac in 1992 and ending support for the Mac in 1994. The head office of the architecture firm I work for has about 90 employees, with only 10 users on Macs and 1 of those users being me while the others all work in other departments but none are architects. In Canada many universities endorse Apple, most of the students in the architecture program I’ve met all used Macs, and most of them hated the fact they had to run Windows in parallel just to run one piece of software. The fact that the one piece of software was the main software used for their program meant that it was an absolute necessity.
Well Autodesk plans to announce Tuesday that it is bringing the AutoCAD software back to the Mac after nearly two decades. They estimate 10 million people use the AutoCAD software around the world, and have been asking for a Mac version more and more. I can definitely believe that, over the years I’ve had co-workers who use Macs at home ask over and over if I knew of any version of AutoCAD for the Mac. “This is an endorsement from our side that design and engineering customers are taking the Macintosh seriously again,” said Amar Hanspal, senior vice president for platform solutions at Autodesk. Now that Apple has dramatically increased it’s market share of the PC market compared to a few years ago I guess Autodesk just can’t ignore all those possibly new users. The Mac version of the software will cost $3,995, same as the PC version and is set to be released in October. Now on the Apple side of things in the most recent quarter, Apple sold nearly 3.5 million Mac computers, a 33 percent increase from the same quarter a year earlier and alot of potential new users to the AutoCAD software adding up to alot of profit. In a news release, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president for worldwide product marketing, said his company was thrilled that Autodesk was bringing AutoCAD back to the Mac. “We think it’s the perfect combination for millions of design and engineering professionals,” he said.
The best part of the announcement in my opinion however, is that soon after the release of the Mac version Autodesk plans to introduce a free mobile version to run on iPad, Iphone and iPod Touch. The mobile version will have more limited capabilities than the full blown version. However Mr. Hanspal got it exactly right when he said “But with it, an engineer, for example, could bring drawings to a job site on an iPad, rather than on a big roll of paper, and make annotations on them.” and let me tell you working in an architecture office I fully agree. I think the mobile version will make collaboration, changes etc. alot easier and quicker. The mobile version will also be able to read any AutoCAD files, whether created on a PC or a Macintosh. I know alot of architecture students are going to be overjoyed about not having to run Windows in parallel on their Macs. Are you an architect, designer, engineer or student in an architecture program? Do you currently run Windows on your Mac just for AutoCAD? or maybe it’s the only reason you’re using a Window PC. Well sound off in our comments section, tell us what you think, have you been asking for this for years?
