Autodesk, Inc. has announced that it will make Autodesk DWF 6 (Design Web Format) files available for Mac OS X, an operating system with more than seven million users. The support for Mac OS X will allow Mac users to view and print design information created by Autodesk design software, and will provide a DWF Developer’s Toolkit for Mac OS X developers to create third-party design applications that leverage DWF files.
“Making DWF available to Mac users is a strategic piece of our future and a tremendous first step for Autodesk,” said Carl Bass, executive vice president of Autodesk’s Design Solutions Group in the press release. “Multi-sheet design information will now be available to a whole new world of users, extending the design review process and allowing architects and engineers to share their designs with security and confidence, knowing Mac users will see the design information of an original CAD drawing exactly how the creator intended for it to be seen.”
“The power and stability of a UNIX-based operating system, the cutting-edge graphics technologies, and the revolutionary user interface make Mac OS X a great fit for the architectural design industry,” said Ron Okamoto, Apple’s vice president of developer relations. “By enabling these users to share intelligent design data across OS boundaries, Autodesk is able to support the needs of a much larger customer base which accesses building information throughout a project’s entire lifecycle.”
DWF is an open, non-editable, file format that helps customers share data for seamless design collaboration and communication throughout project lifecycles, allowing designers, engineers, developers, and their colleagues to quickly and easily communicate design information to anyone needing it.
To give Apple users access to DWF files, Autodesk is now working with Apple to port the Autodesk Express Viewer to Mac OS X. The Autodesk Express Viewer is a lightweight, high-performance application that will allow Mac OS X users to be a part of the design review process, allowing them to view and print design data, without having access to the software used to create them.
Both Autodesk and Apple have extensive and active developer communities. Autodesk will provide a DWF Developer’s Toolkit to allow Mac OS X third-party developers to read and write multi-sheet DWF drawings.
More information about DWF here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully this will somehow lead to the Holy Grail: AutoCAD on Mac OS X, which will enable design/architecture firms and many education departments to consider Mac OS X. AutoCAD is perhaps the most glaring example of a widely-used application that does not run natively on the Macintosh platform. AutoCAD on Mac OS X would provide a major boost to Mac OS X, allowing architects, designers, students, and others to return fully to the platform many would rather use vs. Windows varients (XP, 2000, NT). Creative people prefer Macs, Autodesk.
Related MacDailyNews article: A Powerbook in a Windows/AutoCAD Architecture Firm – April 02, 2003
No MDN comment ? I thought you’d leap on the “more than seven million users” versus the “tiny sliver” as a remarkable improvement in the phrasing of such news. (Even if it is a press release with an inherently positive spin).
Nahh, it is just the contentment in silence…
BTW, this would not have happened if there was not a market for it. There would be no market for it if *new* Apple users were not there.
I believe these things do not happen just because some company plays the nice guy with Apple. Maybe it happens because OS X truly changed the rules of the game.
seahawk, you are right. it’s all business decisions…
Or, Apple is paying AutoDesk to bring products to OS X so that Apple’s hardware seems more viable in industry. (verses the tinkertoy image it currently holds)
Notice that they are only spending time on viewers.. nothing editable. If Autodesk had any plans to port AutoCad over, they wouldn’t be messing with viewers. The viewers would be the offshoot of the full blown package (Why waste money on developing the accessory first when you could just scale down the full product thereby including the cost of development for a viewer with the full-blown product?) Also, releasing the specs on a proprietary format can’t be a good sign; it shows they aren’t seeing Macs as a profitable market so why not let some else handle it.
Dear Apple/Autodesk enthusiast,
Some time ago you responded to an Autodesk survey about porting our technology to Mac OS X. We at Autodesk are pleased to announce formal support for OS X beginning with our �DWF� published file format and our viewing/printing product, theAutodesk� Express Viewer. Both technologies will be available in the coming months; check the Autodesk and Apple websites frequently for updated information.
�
We have taken the first steps into porting our technology over to OS X to gauge interest in the community. Many of you are also interested in the OS X port of one of our design applications, such as AutoCAD. I will tell you that while this is still under investigation, there are no current plans to port AutoCAD. That said, the release of the Viewing/Plotting product and DWF file format represent our first step at addressing several important customer requests regarding workflow and publication of design data when using OS X as a platform.
�
The �second step� has yet to be determined and we await your response to this technology release. Please continue to voice your opinion with your local Autodesk reseller, retailer, at user groups, in trade magazines and at industry events, etc. Your voice carries weight.
�
Here are some links with information about this technology release:
�
Today�s Press Release (9/9/2003):
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=3557576&linkID=1977925
�
What is the DWF file format?
http://www.autodesk.com/DWF
�
What is theAutodesk� Express Viewer?
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=2787358
�
This e-mail is being distributed to a wide audience; I apologize in advance if I can�t answer your questions in a timely manner. Also, if you wish to be removed from this distribution list, let me know and I�ll remove you. This list is only going to be used (by me) to announce the release of Autodesk technology for OS X for those who have expressed interest.
�
Again,both technologies will be available in the coming months; check the Autodesk and Apple websites frequently for updated information.
�
Thanks again for your interest in our products and OS X,
<<No MDN comment ? I thought you’d leap on the “more than seven million users”>>
FYI, the stat for “7 million (OSX) users” is from Apple itself, no way you can argue that.
Meanwhile, concerning AutoDesk’s long-term intentions, note their comment that “Making DWF available to Mac users is a strategic piece of our future and a tremendous first step for Autodesk…”
Right now, none of us knows what second/third steps will follow this first one. But I would have to think that AutoDesk has future plans in mind. And, I don’t see how much profit AutoDesk gets from this move; one would think that other, more profitable moves will follow.
I know a lot of people waiting for this… Bring it!
In my humble opinion AutoCAD is the MicroSoft of CAD software. Just because 9?% of architects/designers and engineers use it does not mean it is better.
Do yourself a favor, try ArchiCAD.
Any major software company writing for Mac is great news. It helps out the reason we are on Mac. But AutoCAD? I am so happy that I don’t have to work with it every day.
Case in point, QuickBooks for Mac. Don’t make the mistake I made thinking that Intuit actually wrote the same program as it did for Windows. It is maddening that a software company would sugar coat a program and package it with Aqua and say it is for the Mac. We are not stupid consumers, well actually I was.
personally, I would rather see Studio Max for the Mac.
I recently set up an ibook(14″/800/640mb/40gb/combo)for my friend, an architect. He had been using a p3 desktop since he bought it in college. His only requirement,”I Need AUTOCAD on there”.
Of course this was after we had already returned from the Applestore(where we got an isight) and MicroCenter(where we got his open box/previous model iBook for $600 off, No CDs included) So i took it to work, and began installing (No CDs, no problem , Im a tech , and i manage a used mac store) after about 3 Hours from format to finish, I installed 10.2, and all the subsequent updates to 10.2.6, security updates and the like. I installed VPC6 then, Win2kpro, After 4 hours of restarting VPC i finally just went to my frind Jeffs House , and used his streamlined disk (he’s a PC IT guy). we then installed AutoCad 2002, I wasnt sure if it was going to be usable, but I fooled with it and found it to have a little latency , but then again , I kinda feel that way with Windows Anything whenever I use it .. is it just me ?
So I returned to The artichitect with his new white iBook. In with all the toys at $10 Less then apple advertises the book Alone. Then I sat him down and told him to “Do some CAD stuff”.
10 Minutes go by and he says “I thought macs were slow, and this cost me less then my crappy old PC desktop”, I thought .. wait .. His box was a p3/700, only to be jarred by “Wheres that iTunes thing i heard about?”
Currently, my friend Chris is in Argentina, Snowboarding, and making a living as an architect using his iBook.
Hes coming back this winter, and has already emailed ahead that i need to have 3 more ‘books ready for his friends.
the moral .. Use autocad if you need to VPC can do it, scale down what you need, run a slightly older version. Heck if your VPC pc does nothing BUT cad and is never on the internet .. How vulnerable is it ?
re: message posted on Sep 10, 03 | 2:00 pm by “me”…
Using a ported internet viewer is not a viable solution for your AutoDesk customers. Adobe accomplished this with PDF, and you reluctantly followed their lead. Now you reinvented the wheel, but it’s not a better wheel.
How many customers will you abandon before you realize your market share is at stake? Creative people prefer Apple, and every other design discipline is standardized on Apple, then ported to Windows.
Remember the days when Windows didn’t exist? MS Office was originally developed for Apple, and many of the precursor programs used in professional design industries were as well (i.e. Photoshop). Most people don’t remember how it all began, and they got swept up in MS propaganda before they realized how dangerous homogeneous computing is.
You presume that because MS is here today with over 80% worldwide profit share (depending on your source) that this will never change. Relying on a single supplier makes you vulnerable; as vulnerable as any Windows user is to the 70,000 active viruses for that platform.
For the sake of AutoDesk’s investment in their technology, I hope you are in development with Apple. The signal of a paradigm shift is in the disbelief of the multitudes.
I surrender! I have been an AutoCAD user and proponent for 12 years. Still, like so many others I have succumbed to learning, and now use other CAD software, in my case VectorWorks (both Mac & PC compatible BTW), for one reason…the industry that I work in (entertainment) works on Mac.
Let me spell it out here…the production companies that I work for are, justifiably, not willing to provide me with both a PC & a Mac. They don’t care about my 12yrs experience on AutoCAD. They don’t care that I am/was better & faster on AutoCAD. They expect, justifiably, that I keep up with the ‘industry standard’. They expect me to COLLABORATE with my peer designers not SHOW them my work. How is this DWF solution helpful in doing that?
It became evident that my knowledge of AutoCAD was obsolete in this industry and therefore, if I was going to remain viable, I had to make the switch to Mac and thus other CAD software…and so I did and AutoDESK lost me.
Too bad AutoDESK doesn’t see the demand because I am quite sure that I am not alone.
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