Autodesk talks AutoCAD, Mac and Apple’s powerful new iPad Pro

“Apple delivered on longstanding rumors of a more powerful, larger iOS driven iPad — the new iPad Pro — but stunned many in the IT community with its superbly executed new Apple Pencil and new physical keyboard smart cover,” Anthony Frausto-Robledo reports for Architoch.

“Select software developers, like Autodesk, were invited to get their hands on the iPad Pro early,” Frausto-Robledo reports. “In this interview Amy Bunszel, VP for AutoCAD at Autodesk, talks to Architosh about what the iPad Pro makes possible for AutoCAD in mobile, discusses the new hardware inputs like Pencil versus Touch and also provides readers a snippet about what’s important and going on with AutoCAD on Mac.”

This new device [the iPad Pro] is just really fast. So we have been able to load drawings that are over twice as large as drawings in the past… The iPad Pro is huge, it’s fast, it’s so clear… the 60 frames per second rendering is just tremendous… The drawing shown of the San Francisco bay area has more than 320 thousand entities… and it moves around so smoothly! — Amy Bunszel, Autodesk VP for AutoCAD

Apple's all-new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil
Apple’s all-new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil

 
Much more in the full interview here.

MacDailyNews Take: If the A9-powered iPhone 6s/Plus is as fast as a MacBook, we can’t wait to see the benchmarks achieved by the A9X-powered iPad Pro!

SEE ALSO:
Steve Jobs’ influence is evident in the new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil – September 14, 2015
Why artists will flock to iPad Pro and the amazing Apple Pencil – September 11, 2015
Hands-on Apple’s new iPad Pro with Apple Pencil – September 11, 2015
Hands-on with the Apple Pencil for iPad Pro – September 10, 2015
Professional artists cheer the new iPad Pro and Apple Pencil – September 10, 2015
Apple iPads had physical keyboards three and a half years before Microsoft’s Surface tablet debut – September 10, 2015
Wired: Hands-on with Apple’s great, big iPad Pro and Apple Pencil – September 9, 2015
Apple introduces 12.9-inch iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard – September 9, 2015
Cool new iPad case with integrated Bluetooth keyboard further threatens netbooks – August 25, 2010
ClamCase announces all-in-one keyboard, case and stand for Apple iPad (with video) – May 6, 2010

33 Comments

    1. Especially since Apple’s acquisition of NeXT in 1997, the purchase of Anobit a deal that represents one of Apple’s largest acquisitions, and Apple’s aqquisition of PA Semi in 2008 and its aquisition of Quattro Wireless in 2010, all of which were Steve Job’s initiate and vision and which will keep Apple the lead innovator in a New PC/Post PC world and distance it from its competitors (ie: leave them in the dust)

  1. Is it BETTER THAN an Intel quad core? Can it run Windows? Can it run REAL desktop apps? Can it run OS X?
    Is this glitzy, pretty, RT?
    See Pc Apple iPad Pro: Where’s the “Pro” ?

    Again: I want to buy a MacPad. It has DOUBLE SCREENS !
    The Top part works as usual, the BOTTOM part “can” be used as a keyboard, BUT could ALSO be used as an editing controller, a color corrector, an audio controller, and MANY OTHER things developers can come up with.
    It could run OS X, Windows, and iOS. Now that’s MUCH BETTER than the so called iPad “Pro” . I hope Apple makes money selling their RT…Oops. I mean iPad “Pro” But I want my MacPad.
    I would buy a MacPad NOW!!! Right NOW. The iPad “Pro” ? Not a chance in hell.

        1. I don’t think it was. Cook’s analogy was precisely about integrating things that simply don’t go well together. They do this all the time (integrate functionality), but with things that make sense: music player and phone, for example.

          A hybrid device between a desktop and a touch-based UI is, from the UI perspective, an insurmountable problem, since the two concepts are fundamentally different, but in combined use-cases, they would be too close to each other to work well interchangeably.

          Had Steve lived for a few more years, I have no doubt, he would have completely eliminated the mouse navigation from the Mac and consolidated Mac OS X and iOS into a single touch-only interface. Mac would no longer have a vertical screen; instead, the display would be lying flat on the desk, or slightly propped up (like a drafting table), and we’d be interacting with our computers the way humanity has interacted with their work since the invention of a writing instrument (feather pen). In such a setting, you wouldn’t need to try and cobble together two opposite UI paradigms (mouse / touch). Steve died, and the current crop of management isn’t as daring as he was to try such a radical departure from Mac OS X as it is.

    1. CW, you forgot the 5K resolution and the portable 5k controller to drive all those pretty pixels. The Apple Pencil is near real time over those pixels with a fine ability to lay down a thin one pixel line, nice smooth strokes, and ten hours of light weight goodness. Yup, some fine points- ah… Pixels.

  2. I am seriously considering an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil for a personal project I have had in mind for several years. I’ve just put it off due to that cost and other issues associated with large Wacom tablets.

    But… does anyone know of an iPad app that can do the following… 1) import/open a graphic file (jpg, tif, etc. – in particular photos); 2) has a transparent layer (or “onion-skin”) function that you can work on without altering the original image; and 3) export the finished file (flatten or not) as a tiff/jpg/? at a minimum of 300 dpi (600 would be better)?

    And if someone could develop an iPad/Mac app that would allow you to connect an iPad to a Mac and use it as input/graphics tablet, that would be great.

    1. Autodesk is still firmly entrenched in the Windows platform unfortunately. I’d like to see a lot of their suites natively on Mac as well. Unfortunately most of them simply list Boot Camp as their Mac option.

      Having used AutoCAD on both Mac and Windows, I can say I think I still prefer the Windows version more. The Mac version lacks more customization.

      1. Also it doesn’t help matters when Apple refuses to acknowledge the Pro market and will likely never get a foothold into enterprise computing aside from their phones and tablets. Macs need to have beefy video cards for many of the 3D programs that Autodesk makes, and the Mac Pro sits non-upgradable, and without in updated model in quite sometime. Sad.

    1. I imagine there are very few illustrators amongst that lot, let alone architects. They all have fat fingers.

      And again, they’ll see the train comin’ only after noticin’ the rain o’ body parts and the receding diesel plume and doppler-shifted air horn

    1. What if you designed a K-BS self-paced curriculum, based on a progression of iOS devices. K-2 uses iPod touch, 3-6 uses iPad mini, 7-9 uses iPad Air and 10 and up uses iPad Pro? The devices are provided free to each student and upgraded as soon as the student completes all required competencies for their current device. Not in the context of everybody goes off alone in a corner with their screens, but kids in communities of creative Makers and Hackers (ala MITs “How to Make Almost Anything”) that have the opportunity to do more that shuffle through 6 hours a day sitting in a seat in a classroom. This could be very disruptive in a good way. Automate the rote part of education, free educators and students to actively explore the world.

      1. It might be a good idea to create curriculum and have clever, well trained teachers first. The equipment is often hardly relevant but the preparation is everything. If a teacher thinks that a device will replace them and their leadership in the classroom, I would humbly suggest that you have a very poor quality teacher. Rote learning is the smallest part of a true education.

  3. I will alert all  stockholders to sell everything immediately. The company will not survive without your purchase.

    Yes but it would be BETTER !!!! I don’t think Apple would go out of business, if I don’t buy. What a stupid comment.

    1. No, it wouldn’t. Surface is a flop because it is a hybrid between a toaster and a fridge. Two diametrically opposite UI paradigms in a shotgun marriage. You cannot expect your users to actively have to think “wait a moment; am I using it as a tablet or as a desktop; should I touch or should i move a mouse pointer, which is it?” It is impossible to avoid such confusion when many of the visual clues are similar (dialogue boxes with buttons, flip menus, check boxes etc). It doesn’t help when app developers make things even more similar between the two UIs.

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