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John Bion
01-12-2015, 10:10 AM
Hi All,

Thought I might look at an iMac compatible CAD package, so, since I use CorelDraw, I took a look at Corel Cad. Priced at $699 (£462). Gave Corel a call (Indian call centre) to see if I could get a sort-of-up-grade price which he told me I could not. I was then informed that the UK (England) price was £696 ($1052). I explained that that is more than the on-line US$ price, and did they not want to keep loyal customers; I was then offered (after some key bashing and being put on hold by him) a bottom price of £600, now that works out at $908! I informed him that this was simply unacceptable. He told me that the difference was down to tax, it does not take much to add 20% VAT to the original US online price and come up with £544 ($824) which is less than I am being quoted. I was then told that it is because of different development levies for different countries. Now I understand, I told him, we in England have a superior product to those in USA because we pay exorbitant ‘development levies’: no, no, no, he said: that was not the case, the product was the same.
Oh well, Corel has probably just lost me, on principle, not price.

What CAD software do other iMac users use (direct on Mac not via a virtual machine)?

Kind Regards, John

PS: I have just found that CorelCAD is £550 ($833) on the Apple App Store

alan corder
01-12-2015, 3:07 PM
Draftsight. Free here, http://www.3ds.com/products-services/draftsight-cad-software/

John Bion
01-12-2015, 3:25 PM
Thanks Alan,
I will try this link you have given, hopefully it will prove better than previous attempts; each time I have tried the mac version, previously, I have not been able to get it to work and I have seen similar complaints from other users.
Kind Regards, John

alan corder
01-12-2015, 4:11 PM
I've installed it on my mac and it works just fine. I, on the other hand, can't get my head around it at all. Photoshop, illustrator, Indesign, 2D design, no problem, I suppose it's too CAD, if that makes sense. I did have a great deal of difficulty setting it up, even following the Youtube videos. They tell you to go to tools then options If I remember correctly and it doesn't exist and that's because you have to go to preferences instead.

Inge Palmar
01-12-2015, 4:22 PM
I also have iMac and work with illustrator.
So sad there are no software that can be used in mac for engraving or cutting that I know of.

John Bion
01-12-2015, 4:30 PM
Thanks Alan and Inge,
I have just got the draftsight installed and working - sort of! It is not quite the same as microsoft based draftsight though. Thanks for that link. I also have a 30 day trial of Corel Cad running, will see how that goes too. I know what you mean about the difference between Corel/AI and CAD programs, the former are much more “friendly” :)
I don’t mind about programs not directly controlling machinery as I export all my files as dxf and import into the control software in any case.
Kind Regards,
John

Bill George
01-12-2015, 4:58 PM
If you have used AutoCAD the real deal or even AutoCAD LT the Draftsight program is so close its scary. Surprised Autodesk lets them go on, but perhaps since Solidworks is from the same company they don't want to rattle the cage. I don't know anyone who does CAD work on a Mac.

Phil Thien
01-12-2015, 5:05 PM
Are you sure you were calling the real Corel? I'm surprised they'd hire their sales out to India.

Rich Harman
01-12-2015, 5:14 PM
It's not clear to me what you want to do with CAD, knowing that would be helpful in making a recommendation.

Sketchup (http://www.sketchup.com/download/all) is free and works well on the Mac. Unfortunately, if you want to export dxfs you will need the pro version (see below for free alternative).

Another free Mac program is 123D Make, available on the App Store, as is AutoDesk Inventor Fusion.

The older versions of Sketchup (http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/60107) (2008 and earlier I think) had a free plugin available for exporting svg's called "Flight of Design (https://code.google.com/p/sketchup-svg-outline-plugin/)" which I used a lot - a quick search shows that it has been updated to work with Sketchup 2014.

Of course if you are using Sketchup for commercial purposes you are required to purchase the pro version.

William Adams
01-12-2015, 6:48 PM
Other CAD or 3D modeling options for the Mac (open source/free)

http://www.cenon.info/
http://www.k-3d.org/
http://www.artofillusion.org/
http://www.autoq3d.com/
http://www.blender3d.org/
http://brlcad.org/

John Bion
01-12-2015, 7:33 PM
Thanks everyone. I was looking for an alternative to windows based CAD software to use on my iMac; skipping the need for bootcamp/parallels. This is for all sorts of different drawings/plans for the laser and router.

Thank you for all the links/advice. I am sinking my teeth into Draftsight now.

Kind Regards, John

Doug Griffith
01-12-2015, 11:43 PM
I do CAD work on a Mac. I use Ashlar Cobalt. It's parametric, powerful, quick, and very intuitive. From there though, I have to jump over to the dark side to do CAM work. Usually with a quick trip to Solidworks in between. If you are just doing 2D work, Ashlar Graphite would be a good choice.

Mike Troncalli
01-13-2015, 10:13 AM
I know that you want an solution that doesn't involve Parallels or boot camp, BUT... Just to add to the conversation here this is what my setup is like..

My laser has a windows machine with Win8 (yuck) and my laser software. I also have Corel Draw and dropbox as well. Most of my simple work is done sitting at the laser PC. However I do have my iMac 27" with Parallels and corel draw installed. I create my file and save it to dropbox. This helps when I have a lot of different files to create and especially if they are very detailed and I need the larger screen to zoom in and out with...

Before anyone replies with "GET A BIGGER SCREEN" let me say that my current setup wasn't planned. I already had my copy of Corel Draw and I needed to run Parallels anyway on my Mac since I have 1 windows specific software that I need for my daily business use. It just made sense to me to utilize my Mac when I can....

Oh, I lied a little. I have 2 windows programs that I need... Quickbooks and Freecell.. (I'm kinda addicted to Freecell... Guess I could have a worse addiction.....

Kim Vellore
01-13-2015, 1:03 PM
Is there any reason you have not tried vmware I go back and forth all the time without having to reboot or store data remotely. You can drag and drop files from PC to MAC and during idle you can suspend Vmware, if you want to use the last few % of your CPU cycles.
I know that you want an solution that doesn't involve Parallels or boot camp, BUT... Just to add to the conversation here this is what my setup is like.. -snip- However I do have my iMac 27" with Parallels and corel draw installed. I create my file and save it to dropbox. This helps when I have a lot of different files to create and especially if they are very detailed and I need the larger screen to zoom in and out with... -snip- .

Mike Troncalli
01-13-2015, 1:15 PM
Is there any reason you have not tried vmware I go back and forth all the time without having to reboot or store data remotely. You can drag and drop files from PC to MAC and during idle you can suspend Vmware, if you want to use the last few % of your CPU cycles.

Not really. When I got my mac a few years back I looked at online reviews and Parallels at the time has the best reviews. I can easily move files around on my machine between OS and Win... I have enough memory on board to handle both OS easily enough. My laser uses USB and it is across the room so it wouldn't work out well for me to use my mac... I also like having a dedicated PC for my laser anyway. I like dropbox because it gives me free cloud storage backup and I can access any file anywhere I am...