Bricscad coming to Mac – smaller companies look to Apple

Ralph Grabowski’s venerable CAD blog reported back in late November that Bricscad has spent the last four years re-writing their code base to make it more portable between operating systems. The post reports that smaller CAD (computer-aided design) software developers are prepping code bases for operating systems (OSs’) other than Windows — with Linux and Mac as key targets. 

Bricscad is marketed as the “real alternative for AutoCAD” which is a product long gone on the Mac since version 13. 

Autodesk is Huge: Smaller Competitors Scramble, Embracing Apple

Earlier this year Architosh reported on Swedish-based StreamSpace as a key new smaller CAD company that released StreamCAD beta for Mac. The motivation for some of the smaller CAD companies to embrace Mac in particular is based wholly on a sense that both Apple and Autodesk are trending towards much larger status within their respective industries. Apple now owns the tech zeitgeist and is the darling of most college students with their ever-popular iPods, MacBooks and now the huge success of the iPhone. Autodesk too has grown substantially both organically and with serial strategic acquisitions of innovative companies. 

Autodesk’s juggernaut status, reports one smaller CAD company president who requested anomity, puts them in an “enviable position of cross-industry network effects” with formats and interoperability. Yet the company is legend for its tight relationship with Apple’s nemesis Microsoft Corporation. To smaller rivals of Autodesk, Apple’s surging market share, cultural popularity and newfound billions make it an attractive target for product differentiation and strategic growth since Autodesk’s dominate CAD products do not run on Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. 

Bricscad on the Mac would be a true index of change. The product has a worldwide base operating in 70 countries and the product has grown each year by 35-percent for the past four years. For customers looking for Autodesk on the Mac and finding it frustrating that the company has not ported their flagship product after all these years, Bricscad for Mac would be seen as a positive signal that the CAD market is changing to address new OS demographics.