Tag Archive for Mac

Architecture, CAD, Design, English

The Unix, the Mac or the Android? or “Up sxxt creek with only a Pad”

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I received very good comments on the Mac post before – thanks!

There is of course interesting to follow if there will be readers for smartphones analogue to the AutoCAD WS for iPhone. Will there be readers for the other platforms too? Windows Phone and Android….
Perhaps!

But now there is perhaps another item hotter for a CAD reader – the PAD! Note that there are not only iPads out there – almost every brand is trying to get a market share here. There will be a “pad invasion”! As we in Sweden call a toad a “padda”, the obvious nickname for those items are “paddor”, getting almost a Biblical Egytptian connotation to them. If we are now infested with pads we must wait for the mosquitoes next.  Seems there will be a hardware war on the pads.

It all reminds me of the Spaghetti Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”.

But who is really the Good here? We know that the former mayor of Carmel-by-the Sea Clint Eastwood was the Good in the Western, but how to choose between pads?

A crucial element would of course be, for us CAD nerds, if the Pad can handle our CAD viewing needs! And a crucial thing for BENTLEY would be to get Microstation working for nore than one platform too.

As the smartphone really is too messy to really see and a laptop to heavy to bring out into the field – a pad might have its place for us cadders.
But they are not yet strong enough to really work with in regards to MicroStation – but to read dgn files YES!

So my answer to the question in the title is not to choose one – but to choose ALL! Users should not be forced to choose hardware or platform based on software limitations!

As Bentley have splendid developers – Go for Gold!

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Architecture, CAD, Design, English

Finally AutoCAD for Mac!

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We have been waiting, waiting and then waiting some more. For soon twenty years we have been expecting that Autodesk will finally see that architects and designers love to use well designed tools too. We do not want to be restricted to the regular ugly black or silvery grey box that PCs (desktops or laptops) usually are contained in. Just putting a color or a fancy design on the laptop lid does not do the trick – when we work we don’t see  that side anyway! And when we do not work we keep that laptop in its case…Think it through…We have never understood the logic of trying to design beauty using ugly tools. We have always glanced enviously at the graphic designers  who could use the sleek Macs in their work. The only exception in the architect world has been ArchiCAD and thank God for that exception. I guess a part of that software’s success among architects can be attributed to the Mac version. There even was a Mac version of MicroStation at one time but then Bentley gave up that idea for some reason. But now the Autodesk Giant has awakened! Two things on the horizon – AutoCAD for Mac and an AutoCAD App for iPhone. Starting with the App – yes it i working! You can actually upload a drawing and see it on your iPhone. The app is called AutoCAD WS if you want to check it out. Just tried it myself. So already there… And according to Autodesk the AutoCAD 2011 for Mac is in the pipeline. And then we will be better off to choose which tools we want to use right?

But now interesting questions arise – if Autodesk goes Mac and ArchiCAD has been Mac all the time – What will Bentley Systems do? Get back on the Mac wagon with MicroStation or get permanently lost? Or all the other basically PC based software systems out there? And as there is an iPhone app for DWG already there – can we expect Graphisoft and Bentley to create apps for ArchiCAD and MicroStation too?

The future is a great place – starting in a moment……

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