Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com)

10 Sep 00

Netherlands report: Autocad on the way out...the Mac in?

Architosh received this report from an reader in late summer. Assistant Professor Hans Richters, a member of the Faculty of Industrial Design of Technical University of Delft, in the Netherlands, wrote:

"You might be interested to know that the Faculty of Industrial Design of the Technical University of Delft in The Netherlands is introducing Solid Works for CAD purposes, starting in September, as a replacement for AutoCad. This change is also taking place at other institutions. Some other faculties are opting for Pro Engineer as main cad package. It looks like AutoCad is on the way out."

Hans may typify the groundswell of users wishing for alternatives to Autocad, which Architosh readers sometimes and consistently refer to as "bloatware" or "overrated Windoz-crap".

Despite this anti-Autocad sentiment, our own Autocad for Mac OS X Petition has now gathered over 2800 signatures wishing to have it available on their favorite platform (or future favorite as OS X is not here yet).[Editor's note: Mac OS X Beta coming to a computer near you Sep 13th.]

SolidWorks and ProE for Macintosh

In recent correspondence to Apple, Architosh has notified key Apple employees of the growing importance of SolidWorks in the CAD/CAM world. While Autocad for OS X may legitimize the Mac for the AEC world, SolidWorks (and to some extent Pro Engineer) does the same for mechanical and industrial engineering and design.

While it's certainly good to see other CAD programs get their fair share of the market, the Mac platform needs certain key "anchor applications" to gain a larger foothold in the CAD world.

There has been some rumblings about ProE on Macintosh OS X, but no confirmation at this time.