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Jack Young
07-25-2004, 1:47 PM
Hey, some of you guys out there surely have a Mac. I have seen but two CAD programs listed recently for McIntosh, and dozens, it seems, for PCs. Is someone missing something, or is that the crop?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Jack Young

Todd Burch
07-25-2004, 1:53 PM
It's not CAD, but it is a WHOLE LOT easier to use: www.sketchup.com

Todd.

Jack Young
07-25-2004, 2:43 PM
Todd-

Checked it out briefly. WOW!!! I can see how my next evening or so is going to be spent. Thanks ever so much. It's pricey, but if you need something intuitive, as I do, you often have to pay more.

Jack

Jamie Buxton
07-25-2004, 3:13 PM
Hey, some of you guys out there surely have a Mac. I have seen but two CAD programs listed recently for McIntosh, and dozens, it seems, for PCs. Is someone missing something, or is that the crop?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Jack Young

I designed lots of furniture on a Mac using MacDraw. It was a prefectly acceptable 2D CAD program. I'm not sure it is still available, but I'd search with a phrase like "MacDraw-like" and see what pops up. It wasn't Sketchup, but it came free with the OS --- instead of costing $500.

Jim Taylor
08-06-2004, 6:32 PM
I had asked this question to a Mac freind recently (also an architect), his recommendations where:

http://www.architosh.com (mac architecture and CAD site, hit and miss
content)

MacDraft, $350, http://www.macdraft.com
Good curves and dimensioning support, a solid entry level CAD package.

Sketchup, $475, http://www.sketchup.com
Everyone who uses this app is hooked -- it rocks. Not much complex curve
support however since it is geared toward architects (buildings must be
square!). Version 4.0 is due out at the show and may have better curve
tools, we'll see. If so, this would be my highest recommendation. $400 at
the show (and via the web during the show).

High Design, $150, http://www.ilexsoft.com/
Tried this out a while back but wasn't that impressed. Very MacOS X friendly
app, though and with the past few updates could be practical.

Design Intuition, $150, http://www.gizmolab.com/software/
MacOS X CAD software for woodworkers! I don't know any more about it.

Form*Z, $1500 - $2500, http://www.formz.com
Had to through this in. :) This is the best modeler on the Mac platform,
used extensively at the highest levels of almost every creative profession.
Also does drafting, dimensioning, sheet layout, etc.


Sketchup looks cool, but I am not ready to fork out the dough...

Good to see there are more Mac folks out there... OSX, so much nicer than windoze.

-Jim

Jim Becker
08-06-2004, 7:51 PM
Jim, I've had SketchUp 4.0 for about a month now...is the MAC version released at different times than the Windows version? At any rate, excellent program, although I wouldn't necessarily consider it "CAD" in the traditional sense. I still like to go to my "real" CAD program for some things that are easier for me to deal with in 2D, but I use SketchUp more and more for my project ideas when I feel I can skip some of the really intricate dimensional detail that I've yet to be able to halfway master in SketchUp.

Todd Burch
08-06-2004, 10:54 PM
I threw this together today. Took about an hour. I used Sketchup 4.0. With this new release there is scripting capability (Ruby Scripting Language) and I wrote a script to generate the cabinet bases that you see. (I added the doors, countertop and bookcases manually. The chairs are samples that come with SU). SU for Mac releases are on the same release schedule as the PC.

Jack Young
08-07-2004, 7:59 AM
Guys-

I have been unable to try Sketchup because I have all the OS updates, but haven't yet broken for the Panther package, which, itself, costs $130 or so.

A seemingly important feature for me would be the ability to sketch something, then have the dimensions reflected, or use dimensions as the basis/control for entering a line, if I make any sense. In other words, I am vulnerable to missing little nuances around measurements and dimension. The right calculator might help alot with that, I know.

McDraft may have such a capacity, and though I've played around with it some and find it more intuitive than I had expected, haven't gotten to that feature as yet. Which ones have that, I wonder? Of course. The high end ones.

The more complete listing is a big help. And thanks for that. Makes me wonder how reliable some of the magazine articles really are.

Jack

Jack Young
09-06-2004, 3:28 PM
All-

Jim Taylor mentioned several programs for the Mac, including Design Intuition, with which he was not familiar.

I have been engaging with DI as a demo and conducting a tutorial with the designer. So far, I see this program as a real sleeper. It has 3D, much in the same way as Sketchup, but not yet fully designed with a completion target of December '04. The 2D is a real advance from the other fare I've seen. It does (and shows) dimensions automatically, adjusts them as any component is changed, works on a huge array of scales which can be changed at will, and is far more precise than the McDraw-based programs.

The designer is, himself, a woodworker, so the features are what cabinetmakers want to see and use.

You might want to check this out for yourself. Check the website in Jim's post, above. As the design is different from the typical CAD program, it takes a bit of reorientation, or did for me, anyway, but once onto that, it opens up quite nicely and is quite intuitive.

Jack