kmosx: Can I run AutoCad on Mac OS X?
AutoCad is available now for Intel Macs:
http://usa.autodesk.com/products/mac-compatible-products
Previously, version 12 ran on older Mac OS versions. If you find it doesn't work well enough for you in Classic (the Mac OS 9 environment you can run within Mac OS X on 2005 and older Macs), and the newest version is too powerful for your current Mac, you may want to consider one of these alternatives which read and often also are able to write AutoCad files. These links to their webpages are given here so you can further research which product best suits your needs:
- Apple Boot Camp, Oracle Virtualbox, Parallels, Crossover Mac, VMWare are all Intel compatible solutions for running Windows native applications on Intel Macs that may run Windows version of Autocad.
- Wintel for Mac OS X, Darwine, iEmulator, Qemu are available for both PowerPC and Intel Macs that may run Windows compatible version of Autocad.
- VirtualPC will run AutoCad in Windows emulation on PowerPC Macs (A Big However here, Microsoft onApril 8, 2014 ended security updates for Windows XP, and only Vista and newer will get free updates)
- Engineered Software's PowerCADD
- TurboCad
- Ashler Vellum has several different CAD titles availalble
- Artiface
- Graphisoft's ArchiCad
- Autodessys's Formz
- LemkeSoft's CADintosh
- ACDSEE Pro Mac (former Deneba CAD links go here)
- Real CADD
- Ilexsoft's High Design
- VectorWorks
The website http://www.architosh.com/ is a great resource for CAD programs and users of CAD on the Macintosh platform where you can check for reviews and user opinions about the various products.
I don't use any of these products, but have been keeping track of available software in the field since I do mapping which uses Computer Aided Design programs, and have kept an interest in seeing what is available for the Mac in the field.
