What’s Inside AutoCAD For Mac?
After listening to all the wonderful adjectives used to describe AutoCAD for Mac by Autodesk employees and Mac fans in the recent past, if you want to know what AutoCAD for Mac is really all about, you may want to consider reading a research paper titled “What’s Inside? AutoCAD for Macintosh” by Ralph Grabowski. In this blog post announcing the e-book Ralph writes “This is the book Mac fanbois don’t want you to read“, which I found a bit amusing considering how much Ralph “likes” hardcore Mac fans. Ralph has been very open and vocal about his views on Mac and OSX. If you have been reading his blog posts related to Macs I guess you already know the direction in which those views are pointing. So if you think that this book is a “Why not to buy AutoCAD for Mac” book I wouldn’t blame you. I thought so too.
I asked Ralph for a copy of the book to review. From what I have read so far, this is not a “Why not to buy AutoCAD for Mac” book. Rather it is more like a “Does it make sense for me to switch to AutoCAD for Mac” book. Ralph had done an in depth study of all the commands in AutoCAD 2011 for Mac and has figured out which commands are missing and which are partially implemented and to what extent. He also describes the types of user interface customizations that can and cannot be done.
Different users use the same software differently. So its really up to you to figure out for yourself whether the missing and partially implemented commands in AutoCAD for Mac will or will not adversely affect your work flow. This book will help you get up to speed with the features and limitations of AutoCAD 2011 for Mac. Having said that, I will also add that this book will only guide up to a point. I highly recommend that you install the 30 day trial of AutoCAD for Mac and verify for yourself.
Apart from pointing out the missing and partially implemented commands in AutoCAD 2011 for Mac, the book also explain the differences in the commands that have been implemented. Here is an example.
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Ralph has meticulously documented the differences between the features of AutoCAD on Windows and Mac. The book is filled with screen shots of AutoCAD for Windows and Mac. According to this page, the book as “five chapters, six appendices, 138 pages, 100+ color illustrations, and over 10,00 words“. One of the appendices is the “AutoCAD For Mac Interview” that I published on this blog a month ago.
The book is priced at $29.50 and is available as a PDF. You can place your order here.