AutoCad on a Mac

[charlie.bauer341340]

Has anyone tried to run AutoCad on a Mac running xp? My company is talking about switching to Macs that have intel chip sets and running xp on them. Any information would be helpful.

Thanks

[Filipe Francisco]

See in this Thread

AutoCAD on Mac? (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=63418&highlight=mac)



Cheers :beer:

[cadtag]

R12.5 ran nicely on a Mac.....

[irneb]

Here's a poll of what users think AutoCAD should run on. It does need a lot more votes though before any useful info can be given to AutoDesk. I mean ... 22 votes just don't cut it.
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=77555

[jamesc]

I would like to see Autocad on Ubuntu, Autodesk, any chance?

[Filipe Francisco]

I would like to see Autocad on Ubuntu, Autodesk, any chance?

I don't think so... its just my opinion, I dont belive that autodesk do that.... :-(



Cheers :beer:

[cadtag]

With so much of autocad development, especially anything UI related, being done with dotNet managed code, it's impossible to believe that porting to a different OS would be anything other than a major undertaking. Portability of either code or data has not been an obvous characteristic of the Desker mentality since the John Walker days.

And if they did, I suspect that MS just might decide to get into the CAD business...

[dgorsman]

With so much of autocad development, especially anything UI related, being done with dotNet managed code, it's impossible to believe that porting to a different OS would be anything other than a major undertaking. Portability of either code or data has not been an obvous characteristic of the Desker mentality since the John Walker days.

And if they did, I suspect that MS just might decide to get into the CAD business...

Its not just the initial development either. New releases and updates would have to be "paralleled" across the different systems as well if they are to be compatible with each other.

[CADDmanVA]

Its not just the initial development either. New releases and updates would have to be "paralleled" across the different systems as well if they are to be compatible with each other.

...Add to that the increased cost of writing the software and supporting it, the move would prolly eat up what profits Autodesk makes. AutoCAD has a stranglehold on the CADD market the way Microsoft does in the microcomputer market. Not necessarily a bad thing (if they are doing their job properly), but it does stymie development and expansion.

[irneb]

It's definitely a big issue to try and keep several sets of code coordinated. There are some other methods (like OS independent libraries e.g. Delphi / Kylix), but usually that's not as efficient as writing directly for the particular OS using its native libraries instead. So any software firm, creating a graphics intensive product, will only write for the OS which most of its probable users are already using.

That's why it's only going to happen if most users move. And most users will only move if their software moves. But the software will only move if the users move .......

You see the problem? The only way I can see AutoCAD running on anything else than M$ is by other 3rd parties creating "interpreter" like add-ons to those OS's. Something like WINE for Linux. AutoDesk certainly ain't gonna "waste" their time with that.

[robindemey718655]

I would like to see Autocad on Ubuntu, Autodesk, any chance?

I say it in a lot of posts, but has nothing with the company or so, but try BricsCAD.
I tried it on Ubuntu (the linux and the windows with wine version). Both do very well. I like more the windows version with wine because it has more options. It's almost a perfect copy of AutoCAD.

[irneb]

I say it in a lot of posts, but has nothing with the company or so, but try BricsCAD.
I tried it on Ubuntu (the linux and the windows with wine version). Both do very well. I like more the windows version with wine because it has more options. It's almost a perfect copy of AutoCAD.Yes, I've tried that ... some features missing though (e.g. fields, dynamic blocks). And by now I use them so often I can't see myself going back to an earlier version of AutoCAD. I have asked them by when I can expect some results in these (and when they'll update their true Linux version as it's still a release behind). They said it was supposed to be at the start of this year, but ....

[pipedream345]

If you want to see how well it works go to You Tube there are a bunch of demo's of 3D Autodesk products running on Macs. They were very impressive.

[Wookiee]

I'm running Autodesk Revit MEP suite on a Macboook Pro via bootcamp with Windows Vista 64 bit installed. It runs just as well as on a PC computer. My only gripe is that there is a glich if you connect any external drive whilst Revit or MEP is open the licence fails. Anyone else had this problem?

[irneb]

If you want to see how well it works go to You Tube there are a bunch of demo's of 3D Autodesk products running on Macs. They were very impressive.


I'm running Autodesk Revit MEP suite on a Macboook Pro via bootcamp with Windows Vista 64 bit installed. It runs just as well as on a PC computer. My only gripe is that there is a glich if you connect any external drive whilst Revit or MEP is open the licence fails. Anyone else had this problem?
The problem with these are still that you need a M$ operating system, that's similar to a dual-boot scenario on a normal PC. You could also use something like VirtualBox to run the other OS inside your normal OS which gives better interoperability between different apps: you don't need to reboot to swap back & forth. Unfortunately this is not as efficient as a dual boot when it comes to performance, they're working on 3dAcceleration though & the 64bit Vista might soon be supported.

I'm supposing the real request in this thread is to run AC directly within OS-X and not have a need to install any M$ software. That, unfortunately is simply impossible until AutoDesk brings out a version compatible with OS-X libraries - or maybe compatible to run inside WINE, which could also work inside OSX (not just Linux) - see here (http://wiki.winehq.org/MacOSX). If they do this, then they basically have ACAD running inside nearly all OS's using the OS's own libraries, since WINE doesn't "emulate" Windows inside another OS - it's simply a wrapper to "translate" library calls to standard Windows libraries into the OS's native libraries. That's the whole reasoning behind WINE, which BTW stands for the recursive definition: "Wine Is Not an Emulator".

[Phil Read]

Hi All -

If you're experienced (or just really interested) in virtualized solutions for Autodesk's suite of design tools:

AU Unplugged - The AU Unconference:
Topic: "Autodesk and Virtualization: A Discussion of Best Practices and First Hand User Experiences"
Hosted by: Phil Read, Vice President | Director of Technology
HNTB Architecture
When:2pm-2.50pm, Thursday December, 4th
Where: Casanova 604

Details:
Recent advances in virtualization has legitimized our ability to run
Autodesk’s suite of design applications in virtual environments. And in
addition to Parallels and VM Ware, Sun has recently introduced their VirtualBox solution!

AU2007 introduced “Running Revit in Virtualization.” But it’s not just about Revit anymore. If you look at the AUGI forums it becomes obvious that many of Autodesk's solutions are being run in virtualization. So I’m suggesting that we put our heads together and figure it out for the benefit of each other and Autodesk:

* What industries are running Autodesk’s solutions in virtualization? AEC? Automotive? Manufacturing?
* Revit? Inventor? Max? AutoCAD?
* What are the Host OS's? Apple / Linux / Windows?
* VM Solutions? VMWare / Parallels / Sun
* Overall Pros and Cons?
* Settings / Hardware / Connectivity / Configurations
* Finally: Best Practices and real-world production experience from real end users.

Hope to see you all there!

Phil

[miguel.tinajero]

We've been on Macs, using VectorWorks for the past 8 years, and are now in the process of transitioning to AutoCAD. So we upgraded to the Intel PowerMacs and installed Parallels, XP, antivirus and AutoCAD Mech 2009. We are still working out the kinks of getting everything to operate smoothly (printing, mice and keyboards, files on the OSX server, etc). However, once you are on the XP side, AutoCAD seems to work fine.

I know this wasn't much help. Just remember, it's like having two computers that need IT support.