Does anybody have a recommendation for CAD software for use on an Apple Macintosh? I have seen one posting about Sketchup and saw from their website that they have a Mac version. I have also seen an article on TurboCAD, their 2d program is $99 and the 3d is $500.
Any comments or recommendations would be appreciated.
John
Replies
I hail thee, Mac user!
I hail thee as well.
Most of the good CAD programs for Macs (like FormZ and Vectorworks) have prices and feature lists targeted squarely at professional designers and architects. This web site has a list of possible solutions. I've only used FormZ, and it is fantastic. However, it is very expensive.
http://www.pure-mac.com/cad.html
Thanks for the link to the Mac CAD programs. I think I may try TurboCAD ($100). This is for personal use so it is hard to justify spending $750 and up for the 3D programs plus it would take too big a chunk out of my woodworking/tool budget.
Regards,
John
You might want to also try Design Intuition from http://www.gizmolabs.com.
Michael
Michael,
When I clicked on the link all there was on the Gizmolabs web site was a comming soon message.
John
I must have put an "s" in there. It's http://www.gizmolab.comSorry about that.Michael
Thanks Michael,
Yes the link works now. This looks intersting and got a very good rating from Macworld. They have a free demo that I think I will try out later this week.
John
John,I've been using Design Intuition for a few months and like it. Not a bad learning curve and is intuitive enough that you don't need to relearn it if you don't use it regularly. It also helps that it is specifically geared toward woodworking
On their website they state the software is aimed primarily at cabinetmaking and can take on some furniture and remodeling design projects. They also say that it isn't able to orient pieces at angles nor represent shapes other than blocks and cylinders.
So it sounds like if I have a table design with tapered legs and an odd shaped top this would not be possible with this program. Does this sound right or am I misunderstanding?
John
at this point it is true- although they are working at adding those features. For me it's been a good tool for checking proportions and overall design until it looks right. My frustration with so many other CAD programs is the amount of time it takes to learn how to draw a basic box. While DI has some limitations, at this time it gave me the ability to do what I wanted with a much smaller time investment. I also liked the fact that it seems to take advantage of the Mac interface more that some other programs I've triedAlso, the creator, Jonathan Sand, seems very responsive to suggetions for improvements- I like the idea of being able to talk to the person who wrote the program.There is a trial download- it's what hooked me.
Thanks for the feedback. I will try the demo. For quite a lot of what I would use it for the limitations are not a problem. There is a lot to be said for working with a product from a responsive company. Also getting the Mac interface right is important, I think to many just port over a Windows product without thinking about how to make it a native Mac program.
John
Good luck- let me know what you think after you've tried it-
I just tried it last night. The demo download went very quick and in minutes I was running the program. Without looking at the tutorial or any directions I was able to draw a platform bed design that I had been thinking about. The only area where I had a problem was I could not draw the headboard elements with a taper so rather than leaning back a little it is straight up.
With the addition of tapers (polygon tool) and curves this would be great. I still may get this one but I also plan to look at the TurboCAD demo this weekend.
John
John,I'd be curious to hear your comparisons after you try Turbo CADGood luck!
I've used Canvas since dirt. Does just about anything in both imaging and drawing.
Jonathan is very receptive to suggestions. I've been beta testing for him and he's great to work with.I made a suggestion some time ago about adding bezier curves, or some type of curve tools, and he said it will be added to a future version.Michael
You might ask about the new TurboCAD for Mac's at http://www.cadcourse.com. They are I think putting together some training for what they said was an excellent CAD program for the Mac platform at a reasonable price. Their words, not mine, as I have never used a Mac.
In addition to the programs already mentioned, High Design,
http://www.ilexsoft.com
is a reasonably priced 2D program for the Mac OS.
I posted about QCad in the other CAD thread, there is an open source 2D CAD program available for Mac.
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.html
I have not used it so I cannot truly "recommend" it but you can try the commercial version for a free download, license it for less than $30 or build it from source for free.
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