CAD Application for Mac OS X

[City of Glass]

Hey guys,

I'm an Architect in the San Francisco Bay Area, and over the years have become familiar with various versions of AutoCAD -- on mostly Windows-based machines -- to produce pre-renderings of my building designs (mostly corporate trophies).

However, since my recent switch to Macintosh (that is, supplanting all the Dell Dimensions which used to dominate my firm with "twin-turbo" G4 towers), I've not yet been able to find a decent incarnation of the AutoCAD system --designed exclusively with OSX in mind. Instead, I've had to cope with overly-expensive, often-unreliable Virtual PC 6, coupled by Win2000, which, though reliable, is as aesthetically pleasing as a burnt-out Soviet missile silo.

Anyone out there aware of a good CAD application, "Built 4 Mac"? It would save me a lot of pain . . .


Sincerely Yours,


City of Glass

 

[waynepixel]

If I was you I would have a look at

http://www.formz.com/

Great 3D APP for Mac OS X and Architect.

 

[Cecret]

www.architosh.com

 

[gbojim]

I don't use these myself, but I have a couple of clients - one archtiectural/structural and one industrial design - that swear by ashlar-vellum products.

I think the web site is www.ashlar-vellum.com

 

[mactastic]

You might also look into vector works. I have been using that on my mac in design lab here for a while, and I know several Arch. offices that are exclusively mac that use it, espescially with render works for presentation images. I feel your pain as I have to use VPC with autocad and it is a very slow, and VPC won't support dual monitor work, so i have to do it all on my 15" TiBook screen if i use autocad. Ugh!
Good Luck
Brendan
http://www.nemetschek.net/architect/index.html

 

[conceptdev]

I worked with a firm last year that was MAYA for this sort of thing as well as concept design - the results were absolutely stunning! I also had a conversation over easter with an Arch proffesor from Texas - he is loving this type of stuff as well. You should really try it out - if you want MAYA has a free personal learning edition you can play with.

BTW this a very visual tool which inherently lends itself to the aesthetic as opposed to the engineering aspect of things which would probably lend it self to "corporate trophies" (oh and don't say that like its a bad thing - how many people would kill for the potential in projects like that).

 

[dabirdwell]

My fiance, an artist and architecture student has had great results from the VectorWorks 10 suite. She finds it much more intuitive to use than AutoCAD, and pricing is great also.