1. The first reason a native AutoCAD application in a Mac environment works is because of all the Apple fans out there. Love their products or not, you have to admit there are some pretty big Apple fanboys that will purchase anything manufactured with a fruit logo on it. Phone, music player, and portable multimedia device? Check. Laptops, workstations, and mini computers? Check. Backup storage and TV accessory? Check. I’m pretty sure if Apple made toasters, they would sell a million of them in the first weekend.

2. Reason #2 stems from item #1. There is undoubtedly a huge following for Apple within the Autodesk world already, otherwise they wouldn’t have put forth the effort to research and develop this software. It is more than just an assumption, though. Log on to any Autodesk related forum or discussion group and you’ll find at least a few threads about running the software on a Mac. The same goes on Mac forums about running Autodesk software on there hardware. People have been feverishly installing and running AutoCAD, Revit, and the AutoCAD vertical software on Macs over the last few years in whatever way they could possibly find.

3. Apple’s hardware is gorgeous. Some argue their systems are too expensive given the internals they employ, but you’ll be hard pressed to find someone that doesn’t think their products are esthetically pleasant. Now combine beautiful hardware with architects, engineers, and other CAD professionals that in-arguably have an appreciation for well designed products and you’ve suddenly found the sweet spot of Apple’s target audience.

4. There are going to be different features available for AutoCAD on the Mac than on Windows. Okay, so this is both good and bad. The Mac version of AutoCAD will lose some features and that is never a good things. Without knowing exactly what those features will be, though, I’d be willing to go out on a limb and say the new Mac-only options will far outweigh the losses. I’ve got 3 words for you: Multi-touch Graphic Interface. It is in my honest opinion that this alone will be reason for many to adopt AutoCAD on Mac OS X.

5. Apple has gained a legitimate percentage of the PC market to validate Autodesk (and many other companies that have historically ignored Macs) exploring and developing products specifically for it. For far too long, Apple was simply too small to warrant the time and expense necessary for some companies to see any substantial return on their investment. Apple still only has about 4% market saturation in desktop and mobile PCs, but it has been on a rising trend for quite some time. A trend that doesn’t appear to be lifting any time soon. This isn’t just the theme for individual consumers either, as corporate and government purchases of Apple products has been rising dramatically as well.

6. Autodesk has been doing their due diligence on this software. The information Autodesk is releasing about AutoCAD for Mac OS X revolves around their Sledgehammer Preview, which is in it’s 3rd phase of Beta testing. For anyone familiar with Autodesk’s testing cycles, one could deduce this is pretty early on for a 3rd beta. This is all speculation, of course, as I haven’t beta tested any Autodesk product on a Mac and am not familiar with how long they have been doing so.

7. This will get plenty of coverage by the press, twitter, and bloggers alike (as I’m sure you’ve already seen and are currently reading!). If there is anything to be said about Apple is that any company on the face of this planet should be so lucky to get the instant flood of coverage and fanfare. That said, there will surely be detractors and naysayers to the need for AutoCAD natively on a Mac or there being any benefit to the Mac version. That crowd could be in the right, but that won’t be enough to stifle the roar of the Apple news freight train.

8. This isn’t the first software Autodesk has offered on a Mac. No, I’m not talking about applications from 1992. Autodesk has for a long time and still currently offers many programs native on Mac OS. Software such as Autodesk Alias, Maya, Mudbox, and Stitcher make up some of the products already on tap within the Mac environment. Adding AutoCAD to this list is much needed and opens the door for many more products in the future. It’s easy to envision, at a minimum, the AutoCAD vertical software such as Civil 3D and AutoCAD Architecture becoming available natively on a Mac in the near future.

9. AutoCAD WS. How can AutoCAD become more portable? Autodesk answer is by offering on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch through iOS. I’ll argue, as I think many would, there won’t be much merit in viewing and editing AutoCAD drawings on a device as small as the iPhone or iPod Touch. However, the iPad just screams to be used as an drawing viewer/editor. Would it be the most efficient and productive way to get your CAD work done or to knock out that next detail sheet or demolition plan? Definitely not. It would be a very convenient way to get some quick edits knocked out while on a flight or during a bus ride. Also, in my role as an Application Expert and trainer on Autodesk products, I can very quickly see myself and others utilizing AutoCAD and other Autodesk software on an iPad during a class in order to be extremely mobile around a training room and still constantly connected to a projector via WiFi or Bluetooth. Don’t forget that Autodesk already has had a lot of success with Sketchbook Pro as an app for the iPhone and iPad. Also, don’t discount the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch’s hardware being able to handle CAD software. As more and more applications are moving to the cloud or SaaS, they hardware will merely need to be a “window” into the application from the web.

10. Did I mention that AutoCAD WS is going to be available for FREE! That’s right. You’ll be able to download and use AutoCAD WS on your iOS devices to view and edit AutoCAD Drawings for FREE! That sets a pretty low cost of entry point, doesn’t it?

Bonus: AutoCAD for Mac will be able to fully utilize all standard AutoCAD .dwg files. That means whether you’ve been drafting in AutoCAD 2011 or still have some R.14 files sitting around, they’ll all work on AutoCAD within Apple Mac OS and iOS. This is something that should have been expected for AutoCAD on a Mac to have any level of success, but it is definitely worth mentioning.

11. I have a lot more thoughts rolling around in my head about what other reasons AutoCAD software on Mac OS X and iOS products will be successful, but I want to know what your ideas are. Aside from what I’ve already mentioned, what will motivate you to go Mac for your next CAD purchase? What about all this makes you want to scream bloody murder that Apple sucks? What are you hoping for or expecting out of this new AutoCAD software that will be distanced from Windows versions in at least a few ways? Please comment below and get the discussion going!

The RUGIndy August meeting is on Thursday the 24th. They will be meeting in Room 305 of the Campus Center building on IUPUI’s campus. The meeting will be from 6-8pm and you can expect a pretty good sized group to be there. To find out more information, please click the following link for the detailed meeting flyer here.

Rand Worldwide and Avatech Solutions are undergoing a reverse merger, which basically allows a private organization the ability to acquire a publicly traded company. The two companies are forming the newly named Rand Worldwide, Inc. which will be OTC traded and all Autodesk-related business will continue to operate under the IMAGINiT Technologies brand. Another brand that will be brought under the same umbrella as Rand Worldwide, Inc. is Ascent, “A leading developer of high-quality professional training and knowledge products for Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes, and PTC software solutions.” Rand Worldwide, Inc. will also continue development and sales of internally developed software products, IT infrastructure, as well as training, professional consulting. and implementation services for Dassault Systèmes, Pro/ENGINEER and Siemens PLM products.

For more details on the merger, operations, financials, etc. please check out any of the following links:
Businesswire Press Release
What This Means for Customers
A 3rd Party Perspective

Now here is something that should set this post apart. Below is a map consisting of all office locations between Avatech Solutions, Inc. and Rand Worldwide combined. The map is pretty self explanatory, but you can interact with all the pinpoints to find details on each location, pan and zoom, and change the style of the map to see aerial images. Also note that you can pan over to Australia Malaysia, and Singapore to see the 4 office locations outside of North America. (Keep in mind I put this together rather quickly, so there may be some errors or inaccuracies.)

View Rand Worldwide, Inc. Merged Locations in a larger map

With little exception, I think we will likely see these locations remain and quite possibly expand. However, with any merger there are “workforce reduction” and “cost streamlining practices.” This deal won’t be an exception either, just as noted within the linked reports. How, who, when and why are questions that will remain unanswered until they happen, though.

If you are asking yourself why there is so much information flying about this merger, here is the shortest and simplest answer: This newly formed company– Rand Worldwide, Inc. — is now the largest Autodesk VAR in the world. Whether you or your company has or does do business with any Autodesk reseller and value added services provider, you can be sure this will affect future services, competition, and offerings throughout the industry.

Before closing this article I must offer a disclaimer: I am an Avatech Solutions employee and, subsequently, directly impacted by this merger. My opinions and the content of this website as a whole is in no way a reflection of the opinion of, reviewed, or approved by my employer. Also, all this information is publicly available and I’ve attempted to provide sources where applicable.

Please join in on the conversation below within the comments to discuss this deal of epic proportions!

So why is this happening and how can you speed up your process? Well the reason this happens is because you probably have several hundred or even thousands of Layers in your drawing and/or several Layer Filters which are compounding the issue further. When working on any operations in AutoCAD (or any of the vertical products such as Civil 3D or AutoCAD Architecture) that require an “update” of the view within model or paper space, the program will attempt to reload and recalibrate all of these layers and filters in the drawing.

So that was the “why” this is happening, so now let’s explore the “how” to resolve the issue. The over abundance of layers and filters is the cause, but you likely don’t want to go sifting through your CAD Standards and start paring down layer names. That would be absurd. However, there is a simple way to control how AutoCAD handles this process. Within AutoCAD there is a system variable called SHOWLAYERUSAGE. By setting SHOWLAYERUSAGE to “0″ (zero), the program will stop trying to reprocess all the layers and filters every time you zoom, pan, regen, or any other “update” process. A simple solution to a very annoying problem.

To be thorough, however, I must mention it is always a good idea to PURGE your drawings of extraneous layers, blocks, dimension styles, etc. in order to keep the file size as small and workable as possible. Going another step further, utilizing the Command Line prompt for -PURGE and cleaning the REGAPPS (or Registered Applications) will also help your drawings process much better. There are dozens more operations for maintaining your files such as AUDIT, RECOVER, RECOVERALL, etc. which all have their place as well. So as you can see, SHOWLAYERUSAGE is just one of many commands and system variables you should have in your AutoCAD tool box for improving speed and productivity in your drawings.

Please leave any drawing maintenance tips and tricks you might have in the comments section!

What are the first thoughts that comes to mind when confronted with this issue? Is your first action to run a REGEN or REA command in the drawing? Text size, color, boldness are also likely culprits. You’ll probably move on to checking the AutoCAD Text Style of the text entities to see if one of them is different. Not different? No big surprise there, because you probably couldn’t figure out why one or a couple instances of text entities would have ended up on a different text style anyway. How about some of the text being standard DTEXT and others being MTEXT? Eh, probably wasn’t the solution either. Run as many commands as you’d like, but there is only one that will help you (though there are multiple methods to to perform the same fix).

So, why do you have some AutoCAD Text entities displaying slightly bigger, bolder, or darker than others when the are on the same Text Style, height, color, layer, font settings, and were created in the exact same function (DTEXT vs. MTEXT)? The answer is simple, but equally bewildering. Select the AutoCAD Text object that looks different. Using whatever means you prefer, check the elevation of that text object. Now compare the resulting elevation to another instance of text. What did you discover? They were created or moved to different elevations, weren’t they?

Well, it doesn’t matter how or why it happened, but the solution to your problem is easy. Select all the text in your drawing and set it to an elevation that makes sense for your purpose. You can select the irregular text entities and MOVE them or select all of them and adjust/correct all text via the Properties Palette. I would like to say that elevation would be 0 (zero), but that won’t always be the case as we move more and more into designing within a 3D world. As long as all your AutoCAD Text entities get moved to the same elevation, you will have consistency in the size, boldness, and darkness that you want and need. I really hope this helps solve one of the AutoCAD mysteries you’ve come across!

Before I get into the specifics, let me say this to everyone who visits this website: I really appreciate your patience. There are a lot of features and content that I’ve either promised or insinuated to be available in the near future. I’m not going to throw down any excuses…I’ve simply dropped the ball. Whether it was because I over-promised or simply didn’t put the necessary time and effort into developing the feature, I didn’t do what I said I would and I’m sorry. I still have extremely high hopes on the potential of this website and have a lot in the pipeline to be on offer, but I’ve been focusing on my ‘real job’ and improving the speed, security, and user experience of Indydrafter.com. More valuable content will come soon enough and some great new features will be announced along the way. Please continue to be patient and I will continue to work hard to provide something valuable for you time spent here.

Now onto the giving of thanks. There are a lot of people who’ve influenced and supported the creation, maintenance, and content building on Indydrafter.com, of which my wife has to come first. Admittedly, she was totally against the idea when I started it and she reminds me on occasion how much time and effort I pour into it. However, she was a complete angel with how much time I spent creating a complete re-design of the website during the planning of our wedding. I know this had to be frustrating for her and put more pressure on her responsibilities, but she never showed it. She’s also been a great resource to bounce ideas off of and has a good eye for site design, giving me some tips based from her experiences on here.

There are many other people to thank as well, though. I couldn’t possibly name everyone, but there are some pretty incredible people out there that have linked to one of my posts or pages on here from their own blog, through a tweet, and many other various ways. One of the biggest sources of traffic (aside from Google and content aggregating sites such as CADDigest) was from Civil3D.com referencing my article about Civil 3D workstation suggestions. Traffic isn’t everything, though, and people such as Eric Colburn, Matt Anderson (guest blogger for a few sites), and Curt Moreno of The Kung Fu Drafter Blog have given a lot of props and spawned several discussions both on Twitter and on Indydrafter.com. There are more people out there to thank individually than this, but I just pulled a few of the more active people out of a hat as examples…I appreciate everyone that has commented, tweeted, or given any form of feedback.

I also feel the need to thank all the CAD bloggers out there to begin with. You all influenced and motivated me to do this. I’ll have to admit, I get a little jealous when I see one of you post a topic that I had recently been wanting to write about, but that is only because I got in my own way from posting it first. You keep doing what your doing and I’ll try to keep up! There really are some great resources out there for every CAD professional to learn from. Check out my CAD blog resources page to find a listing of most that I keep track of. (If you know of a website or blog missing from my list, shoot me an email and I’d be happy to include it.)

Last, but not least, I’d like to thank anyone who has visited this site over the last 15 months or so that it’s been active. It is by no means a top visited CAD website yet, but you have all given me the motivation to keep working on it and trying to make it better. If it weren’t for you, I’d have probably given up on the site about 6 months into it, but the regular flow of visitors provides a lot of motivation. Now that I’m settled into a new job and am starting to get my professional/personal life balanced, I’ll get back to writing great content that makes it worth your time to keep coming back.

Thanks to all who’ve commented and please keep it up, as it really does provide for a much richer experience for all those reading. Maybe 10 people all have the same question, but only 1 is willing to post it – everyone is positively affected by that 1 person’s comment. I truly hope that all Indydrafter.com visitors have found what they were looking for here and the content within articles has exceeded your expectations to the detail and amount of information you needed on the subject.

All the content from last year will be available again. However, if you took part in it, you’ll know that I added several bonus exercises to the course forum. Not only will that bonus material be posted, but I’ve created even more exercises and will offer them as well. In addition to the course material, though, I stay pretty active on the forum threads in order to answer any questions you might have during the run of the ATP course.

This extra material and Q/A opportunities will only be available on the AUGI ATP forum for the course and you’ll have to register in order to access it. If you are interested (and I hope you are), please follow this link to the AUGI ATP registration page in order to sign up for the ATP 259 “FIELD of Study” class. Also, if you aren’t a member of AUGI, register now for free here.