Brief video tutorial on using the touchscreen and Apple's Majikmouse is on MacRumours.com
Is it faked? I think so. Autodesk alphas and betas are in English, with other languages coming out around FCS. The Getting Started dialog box contains mostly placeholders, which I find odd, since it is done in Flash, thus OS-independent. The screen grabs are easily faked. The 3D rotation in the video is very rough, and not something Autodesk would want to show off. In the video, the multitouch motions for the screen differ from those used by the Magicmouse, which is illogical.
Hi Ralph,
Where did you see that it was written in "Flash" (AIR?). There're some other indications that at least some form of AutoCAd for Mac is in the works:
http://architosh.com/2010/04/mac-native-autocad-201-sighted-in-prbeta-sdk/
As to whether this is itself real... I see that Autodesk legal has allegedly had the original screenshots taken down (please not the 'allegedly'). The UI itself doesn't look too out of place for me - even Apple's own pro apps lack a certain consistency.
Posted by: DF | May 23, 2010 at 06:18 AM
AutoCAD 2011 requires flash installed, and the Getting Started dialog box shows movies.
Autodesk gives hints it is working on a Mac version, but I doubt that a beta would be released this early in Italian.
Posted by: Ralph Grabowski | May 23, 2010 at 08:54 AM
Looks real Ralph... video from a reader...
http://www.solidsmack.com/design-news/autocad-sledgehammer-mac-autodesks-slams-the-hammer/
Posted by: Josh | May 23, 2010 at 01:04 PM
Perhaps this is Autodesk marketing using a guerilla marketing tactic.
Posted by: Ralph Grabowski | May 23, 2010 at 02:26 PM
Ralph,
I too was curious about the language difference in the screen shots. The program is in English but the installer was in Italian. So I did a test. On the Mac when you change your system language the Finder changes entirely the next time you login into the system (log out, then back in). Applications on the other hand require a restart. If you use particular software tools (Apple's Xcode, for instance) I believe the software installer that is created picks up the Finder's language. Not all installers will do this. For example, Nemetschek North America's Vectorworks installer did not convert to Italian even though my system as set to Italian.
I tested this out and indeed it appears to be the case. All of Apple's software installers convert to Italian or any other language to match the Finder's language while the applications being installed themselves will load only the language they support.
Thus, the English and Italian language issue is resolved. This just goes further to my point that I made in my article that Autodesk is likely using Apple's Xcode tools by Apple and they completely rewrote Autodesk for Mac OS X.
As for the multi-touch gestures being different than what Apple would do? I'll have to review that issue as well. But this does appear to be a legit build.
Posted by: Anthony Frausto | May 24, 2010 at 02:01 PM
AutoCAD for OS X beta is real. I have it open on my Mac right now.
Any skeptic can find a torrent (since this is a beta, the legality of downloading it is unclear. But for no reason that to see how real it is, download it, install it, open it, and then uninstall).
It's real.
Posted by: elldove | May 24, 2010 at 03:01 PM
Ralph. I work on this version of Autocad for MAC. This is surely not a fake.
Posted by: daniel | May 25, 2010 at 07:20 AM
Well, I'll be...
I wouldn't have thought that Autodesk would do it. After all, they had a Mac version years ago.
Mac users are going to get some choice too, with Graebert and Bricsys coming up with their own Mac versions possibly by the end of the year...
Posted by: Norm C. | May 25, 2010 at 02:28 PM
If it works on Mac OSX how far away can a Linux version be?
Posted by: Paul | May 28, 2010 at 04:55 PM
Paul, don't hold your breath. I would be surprised to see AutoCAD on Linux. There is nothing to gain for Autodesk. It may be interesting for small companies like Graebert and Bricsys, but for Autodesk, the potential Linux market is not worth the effort IMHO.
Posted by: Norm C. | May 31, 2010 at 12:24 PM