Product Review: AutoCAD for Mac 2013

In version  2011–it’s debut version–the program lacked a few items that made it a deal-breaker for many users. Chief among these were enterprise-level customization capabilities and support for the vast array of 3rd-party AutoCAD extensions. Although AutoCAD for Mac was entirely written from scratch (versus a Windows port) for the advanced OS X platform, Autodesk states that AutoCAD in its present state was based on much of the same source code as the Windows version. As such there is true compatibility between both the Mac and Windows versions. And AutoCAD for Mac 2013 can open (read) files from AutoCAD version 14 to the present.

One of the nice things about AutoCAD for Mac 2013 is that it can play nice in a mixed AutoCAD setting. The program supports both network and standalone licensing as well as cross-platform licensing. This makes it easy for IT and CAD managers to try to mix in a blend of Mac-based AutoCAD workstations into a design or engineering studio. Of course, while other Windows-only issues may still prevail, the licensing simplification is a headache eliminated.

What’s In – What’s Still Not

Before we head into taking a more detailed look at AutoCAD for Mac 2013, we should scan various other features that are not supported in the Mac version of AutoCAD yet. Let’s start with customization. AutoCAD for Mac 2013 doesn’t support many areas of customization that are typical to the Windows version. The argument here is Mac users, by-and-large, don’t care about such things and are more than happy with or even desire the pre-packaging and control that typically comes with Apple’s platforms, (see, “Autocad’s Fateful Return to the Mac–The Full Story,” Architosh, 17 Dec 2010).

Interestingly, Autodesk list Ribbon Customization as a feature that the Mac does not have. That’s quite okay with us Mac CAD and 3D users–as Apple users we don’t tend to think much of Microsoft’s user-interface creations and we are well aware of the debacle associated with the adoption of the MS Ribbon user-interface feature in many a CAD application.

While AutoCAD for Mac 2013 supports CUI files, Command Aliases, ObjectARX and LISP, it doesn’t support some customization features which end users and third-party developers may wish to have. For instance, users cannot do things like password protect drawings or digital signatures. There is no workspaces and CAD standards tools. Perhaps in later versions some of these items will make their way over.

Workflow connectivity is decently robust in AutoCAD for Mac 2013 with key items like SAT import and export and Autodesk WS and 360 Connectivity. Because many landscape architects, architects and civil engineering professionals use Microstation it would be nice to see DGN underlay support added like it exist in Windows. Another missing key piece of interoperability is AutoCAD FBX.

What’s New and Cool in 2013

There are a lot of new features in AutoCAD for Mac 2013 and most follow along what is new on the Windows version. This is equally true of the most important new features. For example Context Sensitive PressPull is a new capability with modeling and is common to both platforms. On the other hand, sometimes a new feature actually debuted on the Mac version, like Surface Curve Extraction, which is only new to AutoCAD 2013 for Windows this year as it was present in the 2012 version on the Mac.

Context Sensitive PressPull

We think the new Context Sensitive PressPull features are cool updates and so let’s review them here a bit in detail. A new feature is the Control key modification of a pull or push surface at an angle associated with a shape. The default function of the presspull tool extrudes a face straight out; the control-key option pulls the face in offset mode relative to another angle. (see comparison in the images below, images 01 – 02). And further updates to the presspull tool allow it to act on open 2D shapes like a spline.

New Project Manager

While not as interesting from a design perspective as the modeling improvements noted above, the Project Manager (or Sheet Set Manager) is an important big new feature.

For those new to AutoCAD on any platform, a Project in AutoCAD is an organized collection of layouts from several drawing files. Another term in this program for a Project is a Sheet Set. Same thing. As we all know, sets of drawings are the primary deliverable from architects and engineers and managing these sets of drawings at the CAD-organization level can be complicated and tedious. Autodesk’s new Project Manager palette (see images 03 – 05) allows you to create a project from scratch or use an existing project to define properties.

From the main Project Manager palette you can open up recently opened projects, create new projects, create new groups and layouts, associate files and layouts with a particular project and eliminate items as well. You can also publish your projects (sheet sets) in addition to use the Project Manager palette to locate and reveal files (in the Finder) used in layouts and sets. In our example project, named “New_2013_test,” we added a Way Finding group and created a new file and layout based on standard templates. (see images 04 – 05).

Key to this review of AutoCAD for Mac 2013, it is important to note that one can use the Projects feature in a multiple operating system environment. For all releases of AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT that support the Sheet Set Manager on Windows and AutoCAD for Mac that support the new Project Manager on OS X, a multi-platform environment can be fully configured in an office, utilizing the benefits of Projects to orchestrate team work. The Project (DST) file that gets created is an XML-based file which allows files to be used between both platforms. The one key ingredient is to make sure all drawing files (DWGs) referenced by the layouts in the Project Manager (Sheet Set Manager on Windows) are located in a network location (i.e.: server) that is accessible to both Windows and Mac OS X. A Mac OS X Lion Server would be ideal since OS X Server fully supports mixed operating systems.

Next page: PDF Underlayment Feature and more

PDF Underlayment Feature

A new feature in AutoCAD for Mac 2013 is the ability to attach PDF files as underlays. Such a feature has great use and practicality. Sometimes, PDF files are all that are available from product manufacturers. Other times, AEC firms themselves archive older projects via binding drawings into multi-page PDF files. These files can often be useful for reference later on.

PDF underlays act like normal references (e.g.: XREFs) and any file with a PDF underlay will acknowledge that PDF file as an intelligent linked (referenced) file. Any changes to the PDF itself will automatically be displayed the next time the AutoCAD file itself is opened or reloaded. With the PDF underlay you can crop what you see by editing the clipping boundary via the PDF underlay visor settings. You can also make it monochrome, select layers in the PDF to view or not view, alter transparency or opacity and a few more things. (see images 06 – 08)

Although you can snap to PDF underlays–and in our tests this worked very well consistently–PDF underlays are in fact reproductions of their source drawing data and therefore not as precise as the original drawing file. This should be heralded as a word of caution for anyone doing very precise “trace” work over a PDF underlay. A couple more things about PDF underlays. You can attach multi-page PDFs but only one page at a time. Furthermore, you can attach a DWG file which contains a PDF underlay as an XREF in a drawing and the PDF underlay data is present.

Path Array and other Improvements

The Path Array feature has been improved with new functionality which is quite useful. In AutoCAD for Mac 2013 you can now add more elements which are following a path by simply altering the length of a path by grabbing and moving the vertices of the path. (see image 09)

The new Measure option complements the existing Divide option for how an element is repeated in array along a path. Unlike Divide, which divides elements evenly along the length of a path, the Measure feature distributes elements at a set interval distance along the path, increasing or decreasing their number based on the path object.

A Brief Tour

Although this is the third release of AutoCAD for Mac since the program came back to Apple’s Mac platform after a 16 year absence, this is the first time Architosh has reviewed the software. With that in mind, we thought it would be beneficial to provide a brief tour and general description. We’ll start with the user-interface (UI), which back in 2010, we noted in a positive light, allows the user to adjust its two-toned color approach.

Next page: The User-Interface

The user-interface

Overall, what Autodesk did with the UI on AutoCAD for the Mac is simultaneously root it in “classic Macintosh” UI principles (for an informed discussion on this matter see: “Viewpoint: The evolution of CAD on Macintosh”, Architosh, 28 Jan 2013) yet modernize it with available functionality and aesthetic look-and-feel. On the far left is a “classic Mac” vertical tool palette, the center is the document work area or canvas, and the far right is the inspector and element property palettes. Autodesk placed the command line and status bar across the bottom and, of course, the program’s menu system is standard Mac fare. There are “simple to remember” keyboard shortcuts for turning the various UI elements on or off (eg: Cmd-1 turns the Tool sets palette on/off). (see image 10)

Some small details in the AutoCAD for Mac 2013 interface worth mentioning include even little things like the following. All working windows (canvas areas) include a simple viewport label menu system which allows you to set or change the overall UI viewport configuration, say from one window to two over one, set each with its own viewport orientation and set each one with its own rendering mode  (e.g.: wireframe, shaded, hidden line, etc). Of course other niceties worth mentioning include Autodesk’s ViewCube which we find excellent to utilize.

The “visors” that come up for different tools are also a strong element in the user-interface we enjoyed using. (see images 11 – 13)

Two spaces

AutoCAD is famous for its concept of “model-space” and “paper-space.” Some of you may not be familiar with this concept, depending on your CAD background. It is not entirely unique to AutoCAD or even Autodesk software products. In essence, there is a system for viewing the CAD geometric data within a 3D physical world that is free of reference to the world of printed drawings. This world is the world of the data itself within the CAD software and is called “model-space”, the space where you create your CAD data.

The space in which you create your drawings is called “paper-space” and this world is a place where you place “viewport” views of your 2D or 3D CAD data that exists in “model-space.” To produce and create drawings or sheets (same thing) you utilize “viewports” (think looking through a camera at 2/3D cartesian CAD data to create views into the “model-space.”

A Modeling Tool

While AutoCAD is famous as the world’s most popular CAD drafting software, it has long been a 3D CAD modeling program as well. Ever since the invention of the very popular SketchUp, a dedicated conceptual modeling tool, the world of 3D CAD and modeling software has been bi-furcated into two distinct directions: the previously dominant direction of the industrial-grade advanced modeling package (of which formZ and Rhino 3D call home) and the new populist direction of the pro-sumer grade conceptual modeling package (of which SketchUp helped popularize and today symbolizes mass-adoption, relative ease-of-use and low cost.).

Today’s modeling tools still array themselves into either “dedicated” modeling packages or CAD/CAM/BIM packages but within both there has been a concerted effort by the more industrial-grade packages to come down-market to the level of the pro-sumer’s toolset and provide direct-modeling in easier to use commands.

AutoCAD 2013 is an industrial-grade 2/3D CAD package, whether for Mac or Windows. (see images 14 – 15). And the tool’s modeling toolset arsenal is deep. At the same time, it offers users pro-sumer level simplicity and direction in several of its tools, most notably its PressPull contextually sensitive tool mentioned above. (see images 01 – 02).

AutoCAD 2013 utilizes an Autodesk-developed modeling kernel known as Autodesk Shape Manager that descends from Spatial’s ACIS modeling kernel. The geometry engine under the hood is deep and what is offered to the user includes all of the following: Solids modeling, Surface modeling and Mesh modeling. For architects using AutoCAD for modeling they will likely stick with Solids for the vast majority of their work. However, as Rob Maguire, Product Manager, AutoCAD for Mac, told us back in 2010 (see, “Autocad’s Fateful Return to the Mac–The Full Story,” Architosh, 17 Dec 2010) industrial designers are now an important segment on the Mac platform. For these users AutoCAD’s abilities with Surface modeling and Mesh modeling matter greatly, often with the end goal being a class-A NURBS based form.

Next page: A Rendering Tool

A Rendering Tool

AutoCAD for Mac 2013 is also a capable photographic rendering tool. In fact it utilizes the mental ray rendering engine, which is considered by many one of the best in the world. With AutoCAD for Mac 2013 a user can create photo-realistic renders with physically correct simulations of lighting effects, utilizing both ray-tracing and global illumination (GI).

There is also support for setting up environmental effects and backgrounds. (see image 16). These include fog and depth cue effects. Of course AutoCAD for Mac 2013 also features a solid materials library accessible from the Materials Browser. With this you can search for and apply textures, including tiled textures to your objects in your model. There are also handy commands that let you see just the materials applied in your file or just the materials that are not applied. (see image 17).

There is also a thumbnail view which many users will find more useful. And the thumbnail image sizes can be adjusted between 16×16 pixels up to 64×64 pixels. While AutoCAD for Mac 2013 comes with many material textures to apply to your models for rendering, advanced options for modifying these materials is not to be found in this program. It is clear that AutoCAD, despite having the mental ray rendering engine built-in, is not meant to be your final high-quality renderer. For this users may want to export out to other tools but again here the options are very limited.

What We Like

We thought before we wrap-up our review we’d quickly go over the things we like in Autodesk’s AutoCAD for Mac 2013. Right from the start the thing that surprised and impressed us–and this goes back to the return of AutoCAD on the Mac in version 2011–is the user-interface. Simply put it’s sleek and sexy and very professional looking. It has more in common with Apple’s Pro apps–like Aperture and Final Cut Pro–than many of the more longstanding native Mac CAD and 3D applications on the market today. Is this necessarily good or better, to match Apple’s Pro apps’ look-and-feel?

We can answer this question one of two key ways. In a new feature article (see: “Viewpoint: The Evolution of CAD on the Macintosh,” Architosh, 28 Jan 2013) by veteran Mac CAD developer Sauro Agostini of Italy’s Interstudio, Agostini makes the critical point that CAD on Mac and CAD on Windows grew out of very distinct origins, where nearly all CADs on Mac essentially grew out of MacDraw, the Mac’s original vectorial drawing program. As such they included a mouse for a pointing device and were Select-Command oriented. Whereas, Windows CADs descended from CAD on workstations with command-line interfaces and the tablet for a pointing device.

Here we have a new, native AutoCAD on Mac program (since version 2011 – 2013) by an Autodesk who has worked hard to root this new AutoCAD firmly in the UI-history of both today’s and yesterday’s Apple Mac. Yet at the same time make it familiar to veteran AutoCAD Windows users as well. That is no small task. While we may end up with a black-dark user interface (which is not like paper) we also have WYSIWYG line thickness and Aqua compliant UI palettes and UI elements very similar to Apple’s own professional applications. A critic may say that Autodesk should have firmly stuck to its own view of what a CAD UI should be like; and while that may be an acceptable line of thinking we would not endorse it.

Despite the generalities, other things we strongly like in AutoCAD for Mac 2013 include its 3D navigation cube (box) and its visor interface technique. And we find the program to be quick in both 2D and 3D views and definitely applaud the mental ray rendering engine integration.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Our criticisms of AutoCAD for Mac 2013 include both our constructive comments at the start of this article and items like its its built-in learning features. Those long-time readers of Architosh know full well we applaud programs which provide deep material in a learning video format. Autodesk did not meet this high standard. We would like to see a complete video tutorial for learning the program’s range of features built-in via the install or accessible online directly from Autodesk.

We also would like to see a more capable materials browser and generally more rendering abilities, including perhaps the ability to make a basic animation fly-thru. We like Autodesk’s 2013 Welcome screen on the Windows version–which breaks into a Work, Learn and Extend areas–and wish something similar was available on the Mac version.

Overall we like AutoCAD for Mac 2013. We have been waiting to review AutoCAD on the Mac since it came out but waited to see a more complete version. AutoCAD for Mac 2013 is a very worthy full-featured, industrial-grade 2D/3D CAD application, capable of competing with many of its rivals on the Mac platform. While many architects have moved on to full BIM (Building Information Modeling) programs, which AutoCAD for Mac 2013 is not, many are still primarily using AutoCAD as its primary 2D production drafting package while relying on other programs for conceptual or final 3D modeling. AutoCAD for Mac 2013 does not have the third-party eco-system of apps and extensions that exist on the Windows side. Until that time comes some users will have limits in its adoption. But many will not. If you are a veteran AutoCAD user and a new Mac convert, this program is likely for you. If you are new to CAD in general and perhaps new to Mac as well, you will likely want to compare this program alongside veteran Mac CAD stalwarts. —- Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, LEED AP

To learn more about Autodesk AutoCAD for Mac 2013 visit Autodesk online here.

Pros: very fast CAD program with multi-viewport capability, built-in rendering options including realistic photographic rendering via the mental ray engine; strong Mac-compliant user-interface with novel user-interface elements; cross-platform format and licensing including network licensing; CUI files, Command Aliases, ObjectARX, LISP and mixed network support at the Project Manager level; Autodesk 360 and AutoCAD WS connectivity: very good modeling toolsets.

Cons: while there are no major missing items in what Autodesk positions this program on the Mac platform to be, what needs to happen is the generation of third-party applications and extensions; DNG underlay support and FBX compliments to its PDF support; a more complete materials browser, enhanced rendering options and the ability to do a basic animation; and included video instruction would improve this application.

Advice: Anyone who uses AutoCAD today on Windows but loves being on the Mac platform should surely give AutoCAD for Mac 2013 a spin. For those who an industrial-grade 2D/3D CAD program on the Mac, AutoCAD for Mac 2013 should be in your review set. Those doing industrial or product design on the Mac who need a complete CAD package to compliment their modeling tools will also find AutoCAD for Mac 2013 worthy of consideration.

Cost: 4,195.USD for new license, upgrades available and there is an LT version on the Mac as well which we did not review.

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