CAD/ drafting program for Mac

J

Jason Dermer

Freshman
Jan 16, 2011
66
0
6
Asbury Park NJ USA
www.asburyaudio.com
As Asbury Audio moves further and further into overall production, I now have the need for a decent CAD/ drafting program. It does not need to be all that fancy, but I do need the ability to do scaled drawings, stage and rigging plots, lighting/ truss layout, etc.

I would prefer that the basics of the program are relatively easy to use, and I would like to keep within a $1,000 (US) budget.

What has been working for you?
 
Re: CAD/ drafting program for Mac

Vectorworks is the leading software in the theatre world. It rose to popularity because it was, and still is, cheaper than AutoCAD.
 
Re: CAD/ drafting program for Mac

I've been rather happy with DraftSight for the Mac. Been compatible with whatever 2D AutoCAD has been thrown at me thus far. And it's free! Been thinking of getting a license of Vectorworks for 3D work though.
 
Re: CAD/ drafting program for Mac

Yup, 2D cad is pretty mature and there are a number of free packages that are serviceable. 3D cad gets a little more complex, and before investing in one, you need to define or clearly understand who needs to read your output. I did a fairly significant design using an inexpensive 3D PC package from turbocad. When dealing with some output file format issues, I bought the MAC version of turbocad 3D since they supported more/different output file formats. Not only was this disappointing, but the two software packages were night and day different. Not just subtle differences to deal with MAC or PC interfaces, but apparently different software programs sharing a common brand name.

JR
 
Re: CAD/ drafting program for Mac

I have been using Vectorworks since before it was called Vectorworks ( the original name was Blueprint and I only recently threw away the installer floppies LOL ) on Macs. Its fairly wide spread in theater and special events works as Cameron noted. Be that as it may AutoCad is still the MS Office of the CAD universe and being able to open a file created the current version of AutoCad is pretty essential to playing on the same field as other vendors in the industry. Much like the Office program this often involves having to keep up with the Joneses on version levels even when using software the will import AC files as Vectorworks and many other CAD programs will. A very handy app to keep on hand is DWG True View 2012. This requires having an install of Windows near to hand but thats pretty much de rigueur in our biz. The program allows you to view a CAD drawing in the same way that a $15K seat of AutoCAd generated it to be seen as it's not unheard of for there to be issues with importing across any software platfom. Just as importantly the application allows back saving of the latest and greatest version of an AutoCad doc back to something your perhaps not so pricey and flashy CAD app can handle.
 
Re: CAD/ drafting program for Mac

I'd been using TurboCAD Mac until I went to Lion and the installer wouldn't work so I needed to upgrade. For the CAD, CAM and fab software I run it under Parallels/Vista 64 bit and have switched to Alibre. For doing what Jason is doing I wouldn't use Alibre, though, I'd stick to TurboCAD or Vectorworks. At the day gig we use AutoCAD Mechanical and SolidWorks on Lenovo XP machines.

Plus 1 on what ERC is saying about AutoCAD being the industry standard, particularly if you are interfacing with contractors and architects.
 
Re: CAD/ drafting program for Mac

Riley Casey said:
A very handy app to keep on hand is DWG True View 2012. This requires having an install of Windows near to hand but thats pretty much de rigueur in our biz. The program allows you to view a CAD drawing in the same way that a $15K seat of AutoCAd generated it to be seen as it's not unheard of for there to be issues with importing across any software platfom. Just as importantly the application allows back saving of the latest and greatest version of an AutoCad doc back to something your perhaps not so pricey and flashy CAD app can handle.
Click to expand...
Autodesk seems to be on a three year file format cycle with 2004, 2007, 2010 and now with AutoCAD 2013 out there is yet another new .dwg file format. So make that DWG TrueView 2013.

I'll echo the comments regarding AutoCAD and working with Architects, Engineers and Contractors. One of my past employers was running VectorWorks on Macs and in one year spent so much time importing, exporting and cleaning up AutoCAD files provided to us or oru sending out to others that it justified switching to PCs and AutoCAD LT for everyone in the office doing CAD work. And being able to use functionalities such a x-refs can be a real time saver. I should note that I am finding a significantly increasing number of Architects and Engineers transitioning from AutoCAD to Autodesk's Revit BIM software and on the last few theater and church projects I have been one of the few design team members still using AutoCAD.

I know several people that use Google SketchUp for a lot of their work, although it was recently sold to Trimble and its future, especially the free version, is unknown.
 
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