Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com)

10 Oct 2001

Reader Q: What CAD best can bridge the Autocad gap?

Architosh from time to time likes to publish reader questions which either address unique issues or very common ones. Alice writes in with this very common question, with an uncommon twist:

Q: I work on Autocad (on PC) during the day and a Mac by night. What program can you recommend to bridge the gap and allow me to work (as similarly as possible) like I do in the day on my Mac during the night? I do not want to have a learning curve, etc..

Depending on how strict a definition is applied to the term "learning curve" the answer can vary. But here is a crack at it:

A: This answer breaks down into two separate paths. In path one, if you want absolutely no or minimal learning curve the best solution is to run Autocad itself under VirtualPC on the Macintosh. With the prices of RAM being what they are today (all time lows) this is a very reasonable proposition, especially if you have a pretty current Mac. The best scenario is:

Power Mac G4 Dual 800, 512 MB RAM or more, Nvidia GeForce 3 graphics card, Mac OS X v10.1, running VirtualPC for Mac OS X Test Drive Beta with Autocad running inside.

A: The second path assumes varies degrees of acceptable learning curves. In terms of a Mac CAD program that behaves like Autocad itself, there really isn't one. And the best Mac CAD programs that offer the best Autocad compatibility are truthfully far superior to Autocad, in many cases, precisely because they are NOT like Autocad. This isn't to say that everything about Autocad sucks and that other CAD's don't have similar or identical features.

Here are recommended CAD programs with proven records of working well with Autocad files:

• < $500 - MacDraft 5 by Microspot (also has very easy learning curve)

• < $1000 - VectorWorks 9 (works well with both DWG and DXF files)

• < $4500 - ArchiCAD 7 (arguably best Autocad compatibility out there)

We wish there was something between the cost of ArchiCAD and the one grand price point, but very little exist there in terms of CAD. In terms of learning curves and solid and/or improving Autocad support, the following programs should also be considered:

• DenebaCAD 2 (very full featured program, solid Autocad support)

• BOA (revolutionary 3D CAD with solid Autocad support)

• Ashlar's Graphite (venerable advanced Mac CAD)

So in final answer to the question of which CAD can best bridge the Autocad gap on the Mac, the answer is really a toss-up and depends largely on the degree in which you will be willing to learn new programs with different paradigms.

Learning More

To learn more about these products you can find links to them in our Digital Practice Guide and indexes to stories on them in our Find Indexes. For Ashlar's new renamed Graphite product click here.