[Radiance-general] AutoCAD back on the Mac?

[Gregory J. Ward]

Just thought this was interesting:

Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:06:05 -0400
From: Craig Birkmaier <craig at pcube.com>
Subject: [opendtv] News: Autodesk Will Reintroduce Its AutoCAD Design Software 

For nearly two decades, if you wanted to run AutoCAD you have had to 
use a PC. Today Autodesk is announcing that they are reintroducing 
AutoCAD for the Mac and will be introducing free apps that will read 
AutoCAD files for the iPAD and iPhone.

There are many engineers in the TV business who rely on AutoCAD for 
plant engineering tasks. It will be nice to have access to all your 
drawings on an iPAD...

Regards
Craig

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/technology/31autodesk.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Autodesk Will Reintroduce Its AutoCAD Design Software for Macs
By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: August 30, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - When it comes to Apple products, the iPad and the 
iPhone get all the headlines.

But in recent years, the company's Macintosh line of computers has 
enjoyed a remarkable revival that has been vital to Apple's emergence 
as the most valued technology company on Wall Street.
In the latest sign of that comeback, Autodesk plans to announce on 
Tuesday that it is bringing its flagship AutoCAD design and 
engineering software to the Mac for the first time in nearly two 
decades.

The return of AutoCAD to the Mac could help Apple sustain its 
momentum in the competitive market for personal computers, especially 
with business customers, where Apple has made significant inroads 
recently. Autodesk estimates that 10 million people use the AutoCAD 
software around the world, and the company said that its customers 
had been asking for a Mac version with growing frequency.

"This is an endorsement from our side that design and engineering 
customers are taking the Macintosh seriously again," said Amar 
Hanspal, senior vice president for platform solutions at Autodesk.

The Mac was once a popular platform for AutoCAD. But Apple's share of 
the personal computer market dwindled in the early 1990s, so Autodesk 
made its last version of AutoCAD for the Mac in 1992, and stopped 
supporting it in 1994. The company continued to make other products 
for the Mac, including software used in the entertainment industry.

Autodesk could no longer ignore Mac's comeback, Mr. Hanspal said.

The Mac accounted for nearly 10 percent of all PCs sold around the 
world in the first quarter, according to Gartner, or more than double 
its share just a few years ago. In the most recent quarter, Apple 
sold nearly 3.5 million Mac computers, a 33 percent increase from the 
same quarter a year earlier. That rate of growth far exceeded the 
overall PC market.

In a news release, Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president for 
worldwide product marketing, said his company was thrilled that 
Autodesk was bringing AutoCAD back to the Mac. "We think it's the 
perfect combination for millions of design and engineering 
professionals," he said.

The Mac version will cost $3,995, the same as the PC version, and 
will be released in October. AutoDesk will soon introduce a free 
mobile version of the software that will run on the iPad, iPhone and 
iPod Touch. That version has more limited capabilities, Mr. Hanspal 
said. But with it, an engineer, for example, could bring drawings to 
a job site on an iPad, rather than on a big roll of paper, and make 
annotations on them.

The mobile version will be able to read any AutoCAD files, whether 
they were created on a PC or a Macintosh.

Mr. Hanspal said AutoDesk was considering making mobile versions of 
the design software for other tablets on the market.