AutoCAD on the Mac and iPad, and the New Version of ArchiCAD

Last Tuesday, Autodesk made a product announcement that came as quite a surprise, and an exciting one at that—it is releasing a Mac version of AutoCAD, and simultaneously also releasing a version of AutoCAD that can run on Apple’s iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and other mobile devices. It is commendable when a dominant company in a field can still come up with something unexpected—something different from the incremental improvements and product upgrades that are typically so routine that they carry little by way of surprise, let alone excitement. In addition to announcing the new developments at a press conference last week, Autodesk also scheduled an event the same evening in its San Francisco office for select customers and media, providing additional details about the products as well as the opportunity to see and play with the Mac and iPad versions of AutoCAD first-hand. AECbytes looks at what has been shared so far about these two new “avatars” of AutoCAD and analyzes its potential impact on the AEC industry—including the possibility of the iPad becoming an exciting new medium for accessing, communicating, and even creating building information..

Next, we will explore the new version of ArchiCAD, which follows up on its ground-breaking server-based collaboration technology introduced in ArchiCAD 13 last year by continuing to offer productivity improvements for architects throughout the full cycle of the BIM workflow, with a specific focus on completing the integration of the architectural workflow with the engineering world. The new ArchiCAD 14 turns IFC technology into full-fledged workflow solutions enabling collaboration with engineers regardless of their discipline or the name and version of the application they prefer working with. This “open” approach to interdisciplinary collaboration can broaden designers’ options for Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), resulting in faster delivered projects and less coordination errors.

Also on the agenda for this month is a look at the enhancements in the new release of Adobe Photoshop CS5, and a provocative Viewpoint article entitled "BIM from Thirty Thousand Feet" which puts forth the proposition that no one really has a global perspective of the complex set of issues involved in BIM, despite it being a global revolution in design methods. But there ought to be a group dedicated to taking an overall view, and be doing something big with that view.

As always, please continue to check out the AECbytes Blog for reader comments and the VendorHub to get a consolidated view of all the technology providers in AEC.

Thank you!

Lachmi Khemlani, Ph.D.
Founder and Editor, AECbytes

September 2010