I'm surprised that I haven't heard very much discussion/coverage about the flaws that the new software has. I have a feeling that people are being prudent and refraining from making the platform switch with the understanding that both Autodesk and Apple have a long history of releasing products that haven't been fully tested- unfortunately, I didn't have a choice in the matter.
I'm wondering, though, if anyone HAS actually made the switch- preferably, someone with a better knowledge of computer engineering than I have- and whether there are any user-generated workarounds to restore some of the interface improvements that have appeared in 2010 and 2011 for the Windows platform (but were stripped away from the Mac release in an insulting assumption that Mac-users weren't capable of using the full program).
After having reviewed the chintzy tutorials that came with the program, and the far-superior platform-transition lessons on Lynda.com, I'm worried that I'm stuck using a Playskool machine to run what I can only describe as the inbred offspring of Autocad and Illustrator, until I reach the point where I flip out and quit my job.
I have to disagree. The ribbon made a huge difference in workflow between 2006 (I believe that was our previous edition) and 2010. The drag-down menus are tiresome, and have always been a frustration for me in Adobe software and with the first CAD program I used, Vectorworks.
Being able to customize the interface, period, has been an issue. I'm sure it's fine for the casual user, or someone who isn't jumping between 10 files at once, but even shifting between open files or layout spaces is met with a lagging spinning wheel of doom. Reference and Image underlay manipulation has been its own special hell, especially since it won't recognize PDFs, as the last few editions of the Windows version have been able to do.
the most annoying thing about working in mac is that you cannot embed the toolbars into the window. it's like that with all apps - all the windows are just floating around because it's about working in the OS instead of just in the app environment. windows seems better for really intensive apps, like autocad (rhino, etc...) because it stays out of the way.
that said i hated the ribbon interface - i always switch it back to classic - but I'm also a hard-core command-line operator...
mac version isn't too bad (better than nothing), but I am definitely slower in it that on the windows side.
unfortunately. i've been forcibly drafted into beta-testing, despite my protestations as the only intensive user in my department. at this point it's about sanity-maintenance until i can work for someone who bases IT decisions on facts rather than superficial appearance.
"has been its own special hell" --- what a great quote
i recently used autocad on a PC after having not used it much in two years....i was kind of excited, given all of the improvements they've touted with the last few releases.....but it was an underwhelming experience, felt like the same old autocad, as much bad as good.....so for the experience of autocad on a mac to be several rings of hell lower than the experience on a PC is shocking, especially after all of the build up
I got a 3 year license though Autodesk Assist, for Acadd on Mac, cant complain about the price it was free, but i havenet used Acadd since 2008, it seems to be about the same except they are making it look more familiar to Revit users with the similar layout. The marketing video on you tube showed everyone in the office standing around the one guy who was drafting I've never seen that much fanfare around someone completing construction documents, pretty funny.
as the initiator of this discussion, i'm mortified to realize that it should have been titled 'autocad 2011 for mac is a nightmare,' considering, that, um, there was no 2010 mac version. excuse my mistake as a function of frustration.
that said...
it's nothing like revit. and, in an added slight, we had to give up our revit licenses (that we'd received for free as an incentive when upgrading to 2010 from 2006) when migrating to the mac version, which is only slightly cheaper than the full 2011 Windows license- for a program that functions at an LT quality level (or below, but with supposed 3D functionality absent from LT).
I've had problems with sudden crashes on MacCAD (as we cal it around school) but I actually prefer the MAc interface to the Windows one. However, I've not yt used in the professional world, so don't know how it would function there. I only draft in Model Space and plot PDF for my presentation boards, so I don't know hoe it works for setting up construction documents and viewports. I know it lacks the sheet set manager and I loved using that in my last few firms.
cuervo..
how do you get it to print out quality pdfs? every pdf i've printed out of autocad for mac has looked like crap...and i didn't find a solution on any of the forums..what's your secret?
autocad is a nightmare wrapped inside of a natural disaster smushed into the shape of an anal probe folded into the ass-crack of Inefficiency and Poor GUI design
When I took my AutoCAD class in college, my 'professor' (e.g., a TA) discovered that I was actually doing all of my work in SketchUp and then exporting it to AutoCAD.
I got a stern talking to about the situation.
Later, because of a stipulation in the syllabus regarding grading, I free hand drew all of the require drawings. They looked exactly like the drawings in the book as long as you didn't change views at all whatsoever.
The syllabus stated that we would be graded based on the comparison of our drawings to the example drawings.
He originally gave me a D- because of failure to comply. It technically wasn't an AutoCAD class as the class title was "Engineering Drafting I." I complained to the dean repeatedly. The TA almost lost his free ride and my grade was bumped up to a B-.
The drafting class now allows people to use alternatives to AutoCAD provided they're fine with not being able to follow the course material.
I guess I'm in the minority here, but i haven't had any of the issues that others have had with it. Either that, or I ignore them because I remember doing a studio project over the summer with the beta version.
The only issue I've really had with it is sometimes on startup, when you open a drawing it will freeze immediately, but a force quit and reopen application does the trick.
Also Square/Rectangle, that TA sounds like a total douche. Its not about the programs, its about the end result and getting the desired look/readability.
I can't provide an opinion on ArchiCAD yet, as I haven't used it too much but have taken it upon myself to learn in the most likely event I leave the US for a couple years or more.
I have been using autocad 2011 a bit at work, on a couple projects outside of Revit... And is it me, or does it feel clunkier than older versions of CAD like 2002 / 2004 ADT, etc...?
The think I liked about autocad outside of revit's advanced capabilities is that it was "seamlessly fast" for drafting... type commands, instant, polar tracking, etc... you can open a bunch of files at the same time, never have to deal with too much lag... navigate quickly, basically little load issues... I've only worked in 2011 a bit, but so far I get the impression it is a little slower to load, and operate in numerous files open at the same time... Sometimes I feel like added features or interfaces or popups are annoying... Trying to be "smart software" only to make it more complicated and if it means I need one more mouseclick to make my command go through is annoying... And any lag makes me think: if I wanted lag I may as well draft in Revit... At least then I can take advantage of time saving aspects of BIM... If I wanted autocad to be more revit like, I would just *use revit*... The advantage of autocad has always been that it is fast and easy to quickly draft something...
i think i need to reemphasize the reasons i started this discussion- while i appreciate the suggestions for other software, my own personal situation requires that i use the software that my company has saddled me with, which is autocad 2011 for mac.
what i'm really looking for is knowledge on how to manipulate the software to function more like the newer windows versions, which i actually find superior in terms of precision and workflow management to any other product on the market, at least for the requirements of my office.
i was hoping that perhaps someone with a knowledge of scripting or programming might have some solutions to offer, or perhaps suggest some sort of 3rd-party add-ons that autodesk is unwilling to provide information about.
so, please, keep the following in mind-
1. i'm stuck with autocad 2011 for mac
2. i work for a company that requires legitimate licenses for this software, and is unwilling to provide alternative licenses
3. i'd like to alter the existing software, not switch altogether.
also, maybe someone has knowledge of forthcoming improvement packages that can help ease my anxiety? autodesk isn't offering any information regarding updates or upgrades through its subscription service, unfortunately.
"The only issue I've really had with it is sometimes on startup, when you open a drawing it will freeze immediately, but a force quit and reopen application does the trick."
Yep, that's the exact same issue I always have. I installed a patch Autodesk provided and that has helped things somewhat.
"cuervo..
how do you get it to print out quality pdfs? every pdf i've printed out of autocad for mac has looked like crap...and i didn't find a solution on any of the forums..what's your secret?"
It all depends on the scale. Anything smaller than 1/8" scale will look like crap. 1/16" looks ok but never as good as I would want it too. I've started plotting things out at double the scale, and then making them half scale in InDesign in order for them to look better. But it's just something you have to deal with. Again, this isn't such an issue with mid sized project in a design studio, but it would drive me crazy if I was trying to do CD sets.
I have started using Mac Autocad in a professional setting. I was never particularly good on the PC version so I am not able to comment on advanced features, but it works ok for simple drafting. We have had a lot more trouble than one would expect of a $4000 piece of software, however, mostly with the program just becoming intolerably slow about once a day. If you don't have to switch or are not really devoted to your mac, I would not switch.
Things we have noticed that might be causing problems:
-locked layers
-lots of xlines
-nested x-refs
As noted above, 3-d does not appear to be worth much.
The patch causes a complete crash when trying to print with imported ctb's, and the printing interface in general is a drag - little annoyances like there seems to be no way to change the default printer, so every time i go to print i have to click away a warning that the printer can't be found.
My only suggestion for making the work more tolerable is to use ACAD only for geometry and use other tools for presentation etc. I have had useable, though not great results bringing pdf's into indesign.
Spruce, if you are having issues with printing you should look at saving what you want to print as a dxf and taking it into Illustrator. If you have all of your lineweights set in the Layer Manager, all you will have to do is scale the dxf when you place it (for instance if you want a 1/8" drawing you would scale it to 96 drawing units = 1 inch), change all the lines to black (or however you want them), and modify the dashed lines (it brings them in correctly, but not to the right scale to appear dashes/dotted/phantom/etc... without changing it manually). I've been using this work flow for years now on presentation drawings and always get positive comments.
i've realized that i only have funky lineweights when i use the 'save as pdf' option under the pdf pull-down- when, instead, i use the 'preview' button in the print dialogue box, it opens a pdf with acrobat (my default pdf printer) with some bizarre temp location and temp name. doing a 'save as' with this file, though, seems to yield more accurate, more attractive results.
This program seems like a complete disaster. At $4K.
So best way to print is to use illustrator as a plot manager? Do you even understand how absurd that sounds?
I dream of one day seeing Autodesk go out of business. They've done everything in their power to screw their users, yet are still somehow dominating the industry. No other industry except architecture would tolerate this. 10 years before they go belly up?
What will probably happen rusty is that Google will finally fucking fix their version of xrefs and paperspace [oh god, do I hate you Layout] for SketchUp.
People will switch over to that... or at least talk about how it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
It will scare the pants off Autodesk. Autodesk will then immediately have a 'technological breakthrough' and release an easier-to-use version of AutoCAD with most of the features that people have been bitching about for 15 years. AutoCAD will then be the biggest thing ever and people will forget that for the 10 years previous to it it was the biggest pile of over used steaming shit.
It happened with Max and Maya. Well, technically, Autodesk couldn't think of anything on their own and just bought the ideas for other companies.
But after programs like blender and sketchup became big in the world of amateur, hobbyist and professional modelers and gamers... Autodesk just somehow reinvented their modeling programs making them much easier to use and more intuitive in a matter of months.
I'm no programmer but it seems to me that it takes a little bit longer than that to rewrite a complex program.
They've just done this with their knockoff of SketchUp -- Project Vasari.
To one up it, they just took plugins (that are available for free that you can find anywhere on the internet for sketchup) and bundled them in with the program.
"We'll just take SketchUp, make it fucking impossible to draw with in perspective, throw in some splines and some NURBs and then tell people that they can calculate lightbounces with it!"
hmm, i looked up project vasari, and it looks like maybe it's more geared toward environmental analysis. thanks for the mention, though, mr. square (sorry, not sure how to properly reproduce your handle)- it inspired me to dig through all the labs, and it looks like there's some interesting stuff in production. unfortunately, considering my current predicament, it's all for the windows version.
i've tried to maintain an amicable perspective, considering that i have actually grown to love the newer versions of autocad (despite heavy initial reticence), but after looking at all of these application developments and seeing NOT A SINGLE ONE geared toward the improvement of their paltry mac offering, i'm enraged that they're clearly just dumping a product on the market that they have no intention of improving. what a lazy, pathetic lack of business strategy.
i think this has inspired me to learn more about writing my own software. i hear processing is a good starter for this- has anyone tried it?
mcneel has the open nurbs platform. you might want to program your custom cad using their source code.
rhino has some interesting things going on, if you watch the recent webinar on rhinobim. what is impressive is that the people developing it were instrumental in Gehry's early efforts with using catia for architectural modeling and documentation --- which gives me some reassurance that they will succeed with rhinobim, even as lofty as their goals are. in addition, the developers of rhinobim are coordinating with asuni, the developers of visual arq, the fledgling architectural package for rhino --- so it sounds like they are working toward a comprehensive architectural design platform built on rhino, including bim functionality, with competent developers.
you would probably not program a cad application in processing
there is also the narocad project, which is attempting to make a truly open source solids modeler --- they have a clean, functioning, nice little application going already --- you might try contributing to that project and in the process gaining access to the collective knowledge of the other developers
or go with Dassault's Draftsight
or IMSI's DoubleCAD, both of which are free and do an admirable job for 2D drafting in support of your design work
The lengths people will go to avoid Autodesk is just amazing. People get all emotional on this topic. Then the rhino fan boys who endlessly talked about Rhino and mr Mcneal their Messiah gosh in these treads to promote the product without getting any commission. Well that is the nature of architects anyhow.
While Frank Gehry is pretty iconic for Rhino, most of us are stuck detailing toilet partitions. So do we really need grasshopper to design a brick colonial?
yick. hope i'm never forced to design a brick colonial.
for me, it's a combination of practicality and continuing education. i personally love the newer editions of autocad, other than the aberrant mac release. i actually spent most of yesterday sifting through the autodesk discussion topics (http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-for-Mac/bd-p/520) to try to find solutions to the problems that are most problematic and hair-pull-inducing for my everyday work needs (designing relatively small-scale retail stores, both freestanding and interior, as well as some nightmarishly complicated flagship retails). these mostly concern file management and manipulation, quicker workflow from initial sketch to clear, accurate, and professional output, and constant compilation of square footage calculation.
as far as using rhino and other more complicated programs- that interest is both admitted personal nerdiness and a desire to imbue my own personal projects (artistic as well as architectural) with all of the advantages that the newer technologies provide. i think working in firm settings has given me an even greater desire to use any tool possible to break away from quotidian methods. there's so much more to learn than i can fit into a day, unfortunately.
rhino is not an exotic tool only useful for blobs and parametric design. it is used in many other industries for very practical, efficient design, and can be used that way in architecture as well.
rhino is just as good for designing "toilet partitions and brick colonials," as autocad, plus much, much more, and it costs less than autocad lt. rhino is also fast and easy to learn if you know autocad, since its developers have a long history with autocad, supporting many of the same commands
rhino plus draftsight or doublecad, both of which are free, provides all needed design and drafting tools at a price less than autocad lt.
add flamingo nxt, vray, maxwell render, octane render, thea render or any of several other render engines and it altogether still costs about the same, +/-, as autocad lt. with this toolset, you can do everything from fancy form finding to photorealistic renderings to straightforward, common design to drafting and construction documents, for about $1000 to $1600.
all without the frequent, at times mystifying performance slow downs that plague even the latest releases of autocad and autocad architecture
Mar 24, 11 11:40 am ·
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Autocad 2010 for Mac is a nightmare.
I'm surprised that I haven't heard very much discussion/coverage about the flaws that the new software has. I have a feeling that people are being prudent and refraining from making the platform switch with the understanding that both Autodesk and Apple have a long history of releasing products that haven't been fully tested- unfortunately, I didn't have a choice in the matter.
I'm wondering, though, if anyone HAS actually made the switch- preferably, someone with a better knowledge of computer engineering than I have- and whether there are any user-generated workarounds to restore some of the interface improvements that have appeared in 2010 and 2011 for the Windows platform (but were stripped away from the Mac release in an insulting assumption that Mac-users weren't capable of using the full program).
After having reviewed the chintzy tutorials that came with the program, and the far-superior platform-transition lessons on Lynda.com, I'm worried that I'm stuck using a Playskool machine to run what I can only describe as the inbred offspring of Autocad and Illustrator, until I reach the point where I flip out and quit my job.
Any suggestions?
haha
I haven't used autoCAD on a mac yet, but the windows version isn't exactly beacon of stability either.
I too would love to hear feedback from users who switched...
It works pretty well. The 3-d doesn't work as well as opening the object in Rhino but I use the Mac version to teach an Autocad class.
The interface makes a lot more sense to me than the ribbon one.
I have to disagree. The ribbon made a huge difference in workflow between 2006 (I believe that was our previous edition) and 2010. The drag-down menus are tiresome, and have always been a frustration for me in Adobe software and with the first CAD program I used, Vectorworks.
Being able to customize the interface, period, has been an issue. I'm sure it's fine for the casual user, or someone who isn't jumping between 10 files at once, but even shifting between open files or layout spaces is met with a lagging spinning wheel of doom. Reference and Image underlay manipulation has been its own special hell, especially since it won't recognize PDFs, as the last few editions of the Windows version have been able to do.
the most annoying thing about working in mac is that you cannot embed the toolbars into the window. it's like that with all apps - all the windows are just floating around because it's about working in the OS instead of just in the app environment. windows seems better for really intensive apps, like autocad (rhino, etc...) because it stays out of the way.
that said i hated the ribbon interface - i always switch it back to classic - but I'm also a hard-core command-line operator...
mac version isn't too bad (better than nothing), but I am definitely slower in it that on the windows side.
Save yourself the frustration and use parallels or bootcamp while the "beta testers" do the dirtywork for the rest of us.
unfortunately. i've been forcibly drafted into beta-testing, despite my protestations as the only intensive user in my department. at this point it's about sanity-maintenance until i can work for someone who bases IT decisions on facts rather than superficial appearance.
"has been its own special hell" --- what a great quote
i recently used autocad on a PC after having not used it much in two years....i was kind of excited, given all of the improvements they've touted with the last few releases.....but it was an underwhelming experience, felt like the same old autocad, as much bad as good.....so for the experience of autocad on a mac to be several rings of hell lower than the experience on a PC is shocking, especially after all of the build up
Autocad has changed very little in 15 years...
OK, they charge a lot more for it with the subscription now.
I got a 3 year license though Autodesk Assist, for Acadd on Mac, cant complain about the price it was free, but i havenet used Acadd since 2008, it seems to be about the same except they are making it look more familiar to Revit users with the similar layout. The marketing video on you tube showed everyone in the office standing around the one guy who was drafting I've never seen that much fanfare around someone completing construction documents, pretty funny.
Use draftsight
what is your assessment of draftsight?
as the initiator of this discussion, i'm mortified to realize that it should have been titled 'autocad 2011 for mac is a nightmare,' considering, that, um, there was no 2010 mac version. excuse my mistake as a function of frustration.
that said...
it's nothing like revit. and, in an added slight, we had to give up our revit licenses (that we'd received for free as an incentive when upgrading to 2010 from 2006) when migrating to the mac version, which is only slightly cheaper than the full 2011 Windows license- for a program that functions at an LT quality level (or below, but with supposed 3D functionality absent from LT).
Use ArchiCAD (on a MAC).
I've had problems with sudden crashes on MacCAD (as we cal it around school) but I actually prefer the MAc interface to the Windows one. However, I've not yt used in the professional world, so don't know how it would function there. I only draft in Model Space and plot PDF for my presentation boards, so I don't know hoe it works for setting up construction documents and viewports. I know it lacks the sheet set manager and I loved using that in my last few firms.
cuervo..
how do you get it to print out quality pdfs? every pdf i've printed out of autocad for mac has looked like crap...and i didn't find a solution on any of the forums..what's your secret?
i've also had pretty bad luck with printing PDFs, especially when I've printed with the CTBs that I loaded (but can't alter on the mac).
USE ARCHICAD!!!
if i may summarize.......
autocad is a nightmare wrapped inside of a natural disaster smushed into the shape of an anal probe folded into the ass-crack of Inefficiency and Poor GUI design
does that about do it?
oh, and i forgot that it hates kittens, too
avoid at all costs
it will drink your milk shake! drink it up!!!
When I took my AutoCAD class in college, my 'professor' (e.g., a TA) discovered that I was actually doing all of my work in SketchUp and then exporting it to AutoCAD.
I got a stern talking to about the situation.
Later, because of a stipulation in the syllabus regarding grading, I free hand drew all of the require drawings. They looked exactly like the drawings in the book as long as you didn't change views at all whatsoever.
The syllabus stated that we would be graded based on the comparison of our drawings to the example drawings.
He originally gave me a D- because of failure to comply. It technically wasn't an AutoCAD class as the class title was "Engineering Drafting I." I complained to the dean repeatedly. The TA almost lost his free ride and my grade was bumped up to a B-.
The drafting class now allows people to use alternatives to AutoCAD provided they're fine with not being able to follow the course material.
I guess I'm in the minority here, but i haven't had any of the issues that others have had with it. Either that, or I ignore them because I remember doing a studio project over the summer with the beta version.
The only issue I've really had with it is sometimes on startup, when you open a drawing it will freeze immediately, but a force quit and reopen application does the trick.
Also Square/Rectangle, that TA sounds like a total douche. Its not about the programs, its about the end result and getting the desired look/readability.
I can't provide an opinion on ArchiCAD yet, as I haven't used it too much but have taken it upon myself to learn in the most likely event I leave the US for a couple years or more.
I have been using autocad 2011 a bit at work, on a couple projects outside of Revit... And is it me, or does it feel clunkier than older versions of CAD like 2002 / 2004 ADT, etc...?
The think I liked about autocad outside of revit's advanced capabilities is that it was "seamlessly fast" for drafting... type commands, instant, polar tracking, etc... you can open a bunch of files at the same time, never have to deal with too much lag... navigate quickly, basically little load issues... I've only worked in 2011 a bit, but so far I get the impression it is a little slower to load, and operate in numerous files open at the same time... Sometimes I feel like added features or interfaces or popups are annoying... Trying to be "smart software" only to make it more complicated and if it means I need one more mouseclick to make my command go through is annoying... And any lag makes me think: if I wanted lag I may as well draft in Revit... At least then I can take advantage of time saving aspects of BIM... If I wanted autocad to be more revit like, I would just *use revit*... The advantage of autocad has always been that it is fast and easy to quickly draft something...
K.I.S.S autocad...?
i think i need to reemphasize the reasons i started this discussion- while i appreciate the suggestions for other software, my own personal situation requires that i use the software that my company has saddled me with, which is autocad 2011 for mac.
what i'm really looking for is knowledge on how to manipulate the software to function more like the newer windows versions, which i actually find superior in terms of precision and workflow management to any other product on the market, at least for the requirements of my office.
i was hoping that perhaps someone with a knowledge of scripting or programming might have some solutions to offer, or perhaps suggest some sort of 3rd-party add-ons that autodesk is unwilling to provide information about.
so, please, keep the following in mind-
1. i'm stuck with autocad 2011 for mac
2. i work for a company that requires legitimate licenses for this software, and is unwilling to provide alternative licenses
3. i'd like to alter the existing software, not switch altogether.
also, maybe someone has knowledge of forthcoming improvement packages that can help ease my anxiety? autodesk isn't offering any information regarding updates or upgrades through its subscription service, unfortunately.
"The only issue I've really had with it is sometimes on startup, when you open a drawing it will freeze immediately, but a force quit and reopen application does the trick."
Yep, that's the exact same issue I always have. I installed a patch Autodesk provided and that has helped things somewhat.
"cuervo..
how do you get it to print out quality pdfs? every pdf i've printed out of autocad for mac has looked like crap...and i didn't find a solution on any of the forums..what's your secret?"
It all depends on the scale. Anything smaller than 1/8" scale will look like crap. 1/16" looks ok but never as good as I would want it too. I've started plotting things out at double the scale, and then making them half scale in InDesign in order for them to look better. But it's just something you have to deal with. Again, this isn't such an issue with mid sized project in a design studio, but it would drive me crazy if I was trying to do CD sets.
@Cuervo Is that patch available on the Autodesk website? I looked last night and all the was posted was Update 1, which I already have.
I have started using Mac Autocad in a professional setting. I was never particularly good on the PC version so I am not able to comment on advanced features, but it works ok for simple drafting. We have had a lot more trouble than one would expect of a $4000 piece of software, however, mostly with the program just becoming intolerably slow about once a day. If you don't have to switch or are not really devoted to your mac, I would not switch.
Things we have noticed that might be causing problems:
-locked layers
-lots of xlines
-nested x-refs
As noted above, 3-d does not appear to be worth much.
The patch causes a complete crash when trying to print with imported ctb's, and the printing interface in general is a drag - little annoyances like there seems to be no way to change the default printer, so every time i go to print i have to click away a warning that the printer can't be found.
My only suggestion for making the work more tolerable is to use ACAD only for geometry and use other tools for presentation etc. I have had useable, though not great results bringing pdf's into indesign.
Spruce, if you are having issues with printing you should look at saving what you want to print as a dxf and taking it into Illustrator. If you have all of your lineweights set in the Layer Manager, all you will have to do is scale the dxf when you place it (for instance if you want a 1/8" drawing you would scale it to 96 drawing units = 1 inch), change all the lines to black (or however you want them), and modify the dashed lines (it brings them in correctly, but not to the right scale to appear dashes/dotted/phantom/etc... without changing it manually). I've been using this work flow for years now on presentation drawings and always get positive comments.
i've realized that i only have funky lineweights when i use the 'save as pdf' option under the pdf pull-down- when, instead, i use the 'preview' button in the print dialogue box, it opens a pdf with acrobat (my default pdf printer) with some bizarre temp location and temp name. doing a 'save as' with this file, though, seems to yield more accurate, more attractive results.
This program seems like a complete disaster. At $4K.
So best way to print is to use illustrator as a plot manager? Do you even understand how absurd that sounds?
I dream of one day seeing Autodesk go out of business. They've done everything in their power to screw their users, yet are still somehow dominating the industry. No other industry except architecture would tolerate this. 10 years before they go belly up?
Haha.
What will probably happen rusty is that Google will finally fucking fix their version of xrefs and paperspace [oh god, do I hate you Layout] for SketchUp.
People will switch over to that... or at least talk about how it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.
It will scare the pants off Autodesk. Autodesk will then immediately have a 'technological breakthrough' and release an easier-to-use version of AutoCAD with most of the features that people have been bitching about for 15 years. AutoCAD will then be the biggest thing ever and people will forget that for the 10 years previous to it it was the biggest pile of over used steaming shit.
It happened with Max and Maya. Well, technically, Autodesk couldn't think of anything on their own and just bought the ideas for other companies.
But after programs like blender and sketchup became big in the world of amateur, hobbyist and professional modelers and gamers... Autodesk just somehow reinvented their modeling programs making them much easier to use and more intuitive in a matter of months.
I'm no programmer but it seems to me that it takes a little bit longer than that to rewrite a complex program.
They've just done this with their knockoff of SketchUp -- Project Vasari.
To one up it, they just took plugins (that are available for free that you can find anywhere on the internet for sketchup) and bundled them in with the program.
"We'll just take SketchUp, make it fucking impossible to draw with in perspective, throw in some splines and some NURBs and then tell people that they can calculate lightbounces with it!"
There is a coolvideo showing solidworks used for architectural design.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9yC9sqChc0
hmm, i looked up project vasari, and it looks like maybe it's more geared toward environmental analysis. thanks for the mention, though, mr. square (sorry, not sure how to properly reproduce your handle)- it inspired me to dig through all the labs, and it looks like there's some interesting stuff in production. unfortunately, considering my current predicament, it's all for the windows version.
i've tried to maintain an amicable perspective, considering that i have actually grown to love the newer versions of autocad (despite heavy initial reticence), but after looking at all of these application developments and seeing NOT A SINGLE ONE geared toward the improvement of their paltry mac offering, i'm enraged that they're clearly just dumping a product on the market that they have no intention of improving. what a lazy, pathetic lack of business strategy.
i think this has inspired me to learn more about writing my own software. i hear processing is a good starter for this- has anyone tried it?
mcneel has the open nurbs platform. you might want to program your custom cad using their source code.
rhino has some interesting things going on, if you watch the recent webinar on rhinobim. what is impressive is that the people developing it were instrumental in Gehry's early efforts with using catia for architectural modeling and documentation --- which gives me some reassurance that they will succeed with rhinobim, even as lofty as their goals are. in addition, the developers of rhinobim are coordinating with asuni, the developers of visual arq, the fledgling architectural package for rhino --- so it sounds like they are working toward a comprehensive architectural design platform built on rhino, including bim functionality, with competent developers.
you would probably not program a cad application in processing
there is also the narocad project, which is attempting to make a truly open source solids modeler --- they have a clean, functioning, nice little application going already --- you might try contributing to that project and in the process gaining access to the collective knowledge of the other developers
or go with Dassault's Draftsight
or IMSI's DoubleCAD, both of which are free and do an admirable job for 2D drafting in support of your design work
The lengths people will go to avoid Autodesk is just amazing. People get all emotional on this topic. Then the rhino fan boys who endlessly talked about Rhino and mr Mcneal their Messiah gosh in these treads to promote the product without getting any commission. Well that is the nature of architects anyhow.
While Frank Gehry is pretty iconic for Rhino, most of us are stuck detailing toilet partitions. So do we really need grasshopper to design a brick colonial?
yick. hope i'm never forced to design a brick colonial.
for me, it's a combination of practicality and continuing education. i personally love the newer editions of autocad, other than the aberrant mac release. i actually spent most of yesterday sifting through the autodesk discussion topics (http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-for-Mac/bd-p/520) to try to find solutions to the problems that are most problematic and hair-pull-inducing for my everyday work needs (designing relatively small-scale retail stores, both freestanding and interior, as well as some nightmarishly complicated flagship retails). these mostly concern file management and manipulation, quicker workflow from initial sketch to clear, accurate, and professional output, and constant compilation of square footage calculation.
as far as using rhino and other more complicated programs- that interest is both admitted personal nerdiness and a desire to imbue my own personal projects (artistic as well as architectural) with all of the advantages that the newer technologies provide. i think working in firm settings has given me an even greater desire to use any tool possible to break away from quotidian methods. there's so much more to learn than i can fit into a day, unfortunately.
rhino is not an exotic tool only useful for blobs and parametric design. it is used in many other industries for very practical, efficient design, and can be used that way in architecture as well.
rhino is just as good for designing "toilet partitions and brick colonials," as autocad, plus much, much more, and it costs less than autocad lt. rhino is also fast and easy to learn if you know autocad, since its developers have a long history with autocad, supporting many of the same commands
rhino plus draftsight or doublecad, both of which are free, provides all needed design and drafting tools at a price less than autocad lt.
add flamingo nxt, vray, maxwell render, octane render, thea render or any of several other render engines and it altogether still costs about the same, +/-, as autocad lt. with this toolset, you can do everything from fancy form finding to photorealistic renderings to straightforward, common design to drafting and construction documents, for about $1000 to $1600.
all without the frequent, at times mystifying performance slow downs that plague even the latest releases of autocad and autocad architecture
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