Autodesk Doesn't Sponsor "DWG on the Mac" Seminar

The Apple Web site is sponsoring a "DWG on the Mac" seminar. (Thanks to Archintosh News for the tip.)

Who is being spotlit? Not Autodesk, not Open DWG (Design) Alliance -- but SolidWorks (eDrawings), Graphisoft (ArchiCAD), and Nemetschek North America (VectorWorks). Gee, I thought DWF ran on Macs. Maybe not. Or maybe Apple hasn't noticed. Or maybe Autodesk Marketing didn't know this event was happening. Like the use of AutoCAD (in a negative way) in the Infiniti automobile ad last summer. Or they weren't invited because the three competitors didn't want the DWG definer there. You know: turn DWG into an industry standard (like Autodesk likes to call it), just leave out Autodesk from the Mac mindshare.

But think of the position in which this places Apple: Autodesk friend or foe? Or maybe the company that has cornered the market on white plastic really can't tell the difference -- y'nkow, all those CAD packages look the same to the turtleneck crowd.

It would appear that this seminar is targetted at moving AutoCAD users away from PCs to Intel-based Apples: "Architects who are considering upgrading or switching their current design workstation[away from PCs], as well as architects who are looking for more powerful alternatives to their current software toolset[away from Autodesk]."

That this is being hosted by Apple, well... This whole Intel-based Apple computer thing could become a thorn in Autodesk's side, a company that willingly limited its future to Microsoft's APIs.

Comments

[Evan Yares]

The reason there is DWG on the Mac is because the Open Design Alliance provides the libraries for it.

Apple didn't pay us to support their platform, nor, for that matter, did anyone else. Matter of fact, when Apple asked us about supporting their new Intel platform, it wasn't much of a conversation -- we'd already completed the port.

We're happy to have our member companies, including SolidWorks, Graphisoft, and Nemetschek North America, take the spotlight with their applications, because they're doing the really interesting stuff. (And I happen to think that both Graphisoft and Nemetschek make some truly interesting architectural CAD software.)

In any case, so far as DWF goes -- it's not an authoring format. It's just a publishing format. Talking about DWF would not really be all that interesting to Mac users. That being said, the Open Design Alliance was first to put DWF on the Mac. (And no one paid us to do that either!)

[dave]

The apparent basis to hope for AutoCAD appearing on a Mac will be the arrival of Intel based Macs, as I have been told by my local Mac reseller and from Apple's general information on their website. At that point Intel based apps supposedly will run "native" on a Mac. I hope that proves to be the case. Guess we'll see.

[JimL]

In regard to Dave's comment, I can invision a VirtualPC-XP edition. You might still be required to purchase Windows XP (bundled with VirtualPC-XP of course!). The Windows app would still be able to call the appropriate windows DLL's, the Virtual part would be there to "intercept" and redirect to OS X Screen/services/"I/O", whatever. Not unlike VPC7, except:
1) would not have to emulate the Proccessor (should be a big gain) and
2) Perhaps run the windows app in a Mac window without have to actuall show the Windows desktop environment.

JimL