Autodesk Talks to Architosh about AutoCAD for Mac 2015—Features, Parity and Market Segments

Earlier this fall I had a chance to talk to Micah Dickerson, product manager at Autodesk for the AutoCAD for Mac product line. As usual, Mr. Dickerson had many interesting things to talk about, as the company was preparing for its release and announcement of AutoCAD for Mac 2015. You can read the details at the MORE link below.

MORE: Autodesk announces AutoCAD for Mac 2015 and AutoCAD LT for Mac 2015

In this feature Micah Dickerson explains to Architosh the rationale for the latest features in AutoCAD for Mac 2015 and its sibling version LT for Mac 2015. We learn why Autodesk considers this release the biggest and most important release since the product’s debut back on the Mac platform in 2010.

Of particular importance, Mr. Dickerson also explains interesting details about who is using the Mac version of AutoCAD—a continuation of a discussion we have been having with the company since our earliest talks. Why is this question about who is using the Mac version of AutoCAD so important? Well, two reasons. Firstly, it demonstrates the degree to which Autodesk is willing to take risks in the pursuit of new markets. Secondly, and just as important, it cancels out naysayers—some of them CAD journalists—who believe Autodesk’s interest in the Mac CAD market is another sign of undisciplined focus and potential folly.¹ And moreover, that the Mac CAD market is already won by its existing two large incumbents.

This is a Growth Story

While it may surprise some, Autodesk’s Micah Dickerson tells us that his product line is seeing lots of growth—just not in areas that some might imagine. And to be sure, yes, some of it is because Apple is actually doing as well, with the Mac, as some of its rivals don’t want you to believe.

“We have seen significant growth,” states Dickerson, “because the Mac has now grown to 80 million active users.” He adds, “estimates we’ve seen for the CAD market on Mac range anywhere from 1 to 3 percent of total Mac users.” Importantly, as we will learn in a moment, CAD users today are coming into the market from parts of industries where they didn’t really exist before. And believe it or not, some people are still making transitions from analog methodology to digital processes.

Just one percent of 10 million new Mac users is 100,000 new CAD users. Apple’s Mac installed base is aggregating steadily, the company recently broke a quarterly Mac shipment record with 5.5 million units shipped. We could debate and go over all this math six ways to Sunday but the bottom line is still the same—Mac share is rising, Mac CAD is growing, and Autodesk is intent on establishing a firm beachhead in this market, even if at the far end of the beach.

Dickerson also cited Apple’s latest partnership with IBM as more evidence of interest and growth in enterprise industries, not just for iOS but for the Mac too.

AEC and the Broad Base

While recently Architosh has been touching on cases of renewed interest in the Mac in the MCAD market—especially product design—Dickerson reiterated that it is non-MCAD markets, and other areas, where they are presently finding more success for AutoCAD on Mac. “Certainly we are seeing some interest there but we’re finding that AEC folks tend to be the biggest fans,” states Dickerson. Yet it’s not directly success with architecture firms, though there is certainly some penetration in that segment of the AEC market.

Dickerson adds, “the Mac product has a really broad user base. There is not a single group that dominates the majority of its success. I will say, though, that AutoCAD for Mac seems to be pretty popular among large retailers for store design and a variety of other uses.”

Dickerson went onto explain that AutoCAD for Mac has gone on to capture a high percentage of the retail mall store design market. Most of the major retail brands that people are familiar with in malls around the world—many of those companies—it’s common for them to have ‘in-house’ store design professionals who often work in conjunction with external designers and architects. He explained that ‘in-house’ corporate designers do a lot of continuous evolving of layouts and look-and-feel work continuously throughout the year.

“In a furnishings retailer case they do this work on the computers in the stores themselves,” says Dickerson. “We asked the in-store designers why they use Macs…and the answer was ‘they just look really good in our stores,’ ” he adds. Dickerson continued to say that in-house corporate designers use AutoCAD on Mac to design anything from seasonal display items to complete store layouts. There is often a lot of back-and-forth between these groups and outside consultants.

next page: The Biggest Update Since Coming Back

The Biggest Update Since Coming Back

“AutoCAD for Mac 2015 is the biggest update since its return to the platform,” states Dickerson. Part of the rationale for what drove the four main big areas of improvements is explained in the growth story itself. If the Mac version of AutoCAD is finding new adherents in areas like retail company in-house design groups, and these folks need to communicate with teams of external architects, engineers and facility management professionals—many of them utilizing AutoCAD in Windows environments—it only stands to reason that an increasing number of these folks will need more of and better interoperability with the Windows version of AutoCAD.

And that’s exactly what the main focus of AutoCAD for Mac 2015 is. Dickerson explained there are four big areas of improvement. “As we are seeing more and more Mac offices…we see the need to make sure the Windows and Mac versions work better together.”

AutoCAD for Mac 2015 users get for the first time Dynamic Blocks support. “Mac users could see them but not edit or make them,” states Dickerson. Now in version 2015 there is feature parity with Dynamic Blocks, which enable users to create objects and collections of objects with parametric capacity and adjustability. He demonstrated an example with a conference room table during our talk. As the table was adjusted in size the number of chairs arranged around it would decrease and increase as needed. (see image 01, previous page) 

Dickerson said the user interface on the Dynamic Blocks took the “bulk of time” in its development of this release. “We wanted to get it just right,” he said. In fact, Dynamic Blocks functionality on the Mac has been a few years in the making. Another major feature missing from the Mac version was Layer States. This was important to large organizations that had mixed Mac and Windows teams on AutoCAD. “It becomes a workflow compatibility issue. Layer states can save things like transparency. Then on the Mac side without this feature one might not be able to see the same thing.” (see image 03)

The third key feature in this release was about data links outside the program to Excel. Dickerson said it took much effort and discovery of a third-party code library allowing the linkage for these features to come to fruition. Now users can link AutoCAD table data to spreadsheet data in Excel for Mac. “If you are in an AutoCAD file you can change a table and it will update an excel spreadsheet.” (see image 02)

And finally, there is a new Quick Select—a powerful object query tool that allows users to select items based on a simple or complex query. This feature also comes with a visual preview so a user has that to witness prior to committing to the selection. (see image 04)

While those are the four big features that add much more parity with the Windows version of AutoCAD, Dickerson reminded me that the Mac team gains much from all the other Autodesk teams and many times jumps ahead in areas of the program that the Windows team then emulates or copies. This Mac release of AutoCAD is synced more with Apple’s release cycle so users shouldn’t expect, necessarily, news about the Mac version when the Windows version of AutoCAD gets announced. Aside from the typical bug fixes you can also toggle between model and paper space, select an object inside an Xref and copy and paste it into model space. And the graphics have improved…though Dickerson could not provide much more detail on that.

Closing Arguments

It shouldn’t be surprising that some critics of the company’s foray into the Mac CAD market are dyed-in-the-wool, salty Windows CAD vets. It was that era that came up with the wisdom that the best CAD system on the market is the one you already know.

Today’s CAD market is different and getting more so at a quicker pace. Autodesk’s Kevin Schneider gave evidence of the company’s understanding of the market when he stated “today’s 18-year olds and their expectations are radically different when they come into the workforce because their world of computing is conceptually different than 45-year olds.”

We have also heard recently that young engineers come out of college expert at 3D platforms like SolidWorks but have a lesser view of, need of, and experience with 2D oriented CAD systems like the venerable AutoCAD. Yet, the reality is the world still relies on 2D CAD.

As Apple continues to win the hearts and minds of the next generation, Autodesk has made the investment to capture a percentage of these Gen-Y users…without necessitating a direct bout with the Mac CAD market’s leaders.

 

Notes

1—Often thrown into that group with the decision to make a Mac version of AutoCAD is the degree to which the company has invested in Apple’s iOS app platform. Autodesk, indeed, has invested quite a bit into mobile apps, but the market area is nascent; to call it folly seems premature. Intel’s recent round of CPUs (Haswell) made extremely modest performance gains compared to historical standards. Yet, in comparison, ARMs and Apple’s mobile chips are increasing in performance at an astounding rate. Let’s give the mobile market more time before we evaluate the potential folly of companies pushing into mobile. These devices are going to grow tremendously in their capabilities and those with experience in maturing products will benefit most.