Quirky: The UK PR team sent us this little beauty - no use for drawing CAD models, but part of our five-a-day nonetheless

As most have pointed out, AutoCAD for the Mac has just gone public, following the New York Times ignoring Autodesk’s () embargo on the news until a conference call later today.

To use the “worst kept secret” cliche, this was, the worst kept secret. A beta version has been doing the rounds over the last few months (Architosh covered it a while back), many of us have been asking Autodesk for official word of the application once we’d got hold of it and seen that it was real (and getting the usual “can’t comment” response) and some authors have been feeding us tid-bits here and there.

So, let’s look at the press release and what we know. Firstly, this is the first time in over ten years that AutoCAD’s been on the Mac (I dimly remember using a Mac version at university). It looks to be a native Mac user interface, has had 5,000 beta users, and despite the claim that it “makes available many of the powerful AutoCAD features and functionality”, the word on the street is that there’s a pretty hefty percentage missing in this first release - which for those thinking of switching out their Windows versions at the next upgrade round, you might need to check that the operations and commands you use the most are actually ported across once it ships in Autumn this year.

At the same time, there’s good news for CAD using Rectangle Strokers as Autodesk are also announcing that its extended its offering on the Apple mobile platform devices, with AutoCAD WS Mobile that will allow “AutoCAD users to edit and share AutoCAD files on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch so they can have real-time collaboration even while on the go.” And it looks like it’ll be free when it ships.

Autodesk has been pretty heavy on its Mac-based activities over the last few years. In the design and engineering space, Alias is already on the Mac and there’s SketchBook Pro. In the DCC space, there’s Maya and Mudbox to name but a few, so they’re used to the Apple marketplace and see value in it. When Alias launched, I spoke to Thomas Heermann, senior product line manager for Industrial Design to ask about what their gut feeling for Mac acceptance was and he claim that “based on our data, and talking to a lot of customers over the years, we believe roughly 30% of creative professionals prefer the Mac platform over Windows.”

While this is a good thing for those looking to at taking on AutoCAD onto their platform of choice, there has to be some comment on a couple of bits in the press release. Firstly, Amar Hanspal, senior vice president, Autodesk Platform Solutions and Emerging Business has a quote stating that “The release of AutoCAD for Mac marks the return of professional design and engineering software to the Mac platform”.

Umm. No.

The “return of Autodesk professional design and engineering software” maybe but let’s not pretend that this is the first release of CAD software on the mac platform. Many others have been doing it for pretty much the same amount of time that Autodesk has been ignoring it. Ashlar Vellum and Shark 3D have been doing it for a while, Siemens launched NX for the Mac sometimes ago and McNeel’s Rhino is due out of Beta very soon indeed. If you want to talk about AutoCAD-like tools, Nemetschek has had VectorWorks on the Mac platform for a while, as have IMSI with TurboCAD (http://www.turbocad.com/) and many others are due soon.

Autodesk has a conference call this afternoon and there’s a couple of questions that spring to mind - anyone got any others?

• If the software isn’t a 1:1 match for Windows AutoCAD, why the high pricing (it costs $3,995)?
• Any time-line on when the two variants will achieve parity?
• Are they looking to allow cross platform licensing on the same machine (Allowing you to have both Windows and Mac variants on the same machine).
• Will the iPhone/iPad versions allow syncing with iTunes and will they allow the viewing of DWG-based attachments from the Mail app?

Oh and I can’t give you any screenshots yet. New York TImes broke the story, Autodesk sent out the press release, but neglected to bother with the supported materials…

This was talked about at the end of last year, but its gone live for customers today. Alias Sketch for AutoCAD is a plug-in for AutoCAD that allows you to do the following:

• Draw Freehand Illustrations
• Create Concept Variations
• Create Compositions with 3D Models
• Trace 3D Models
• Create Concept Walls
• Annotate

It’s based on the rather incredible SketchBook that Autodesk acquired with the Alias acquisition and which has seen a lot of work (the last release saw some key additions such as line and ellipse guides which alone are worth an upgrade). Essentially, this builds some of those pen-based input approaches and integrates them into AutoCAD.

As you’ll see in the video embedded it allows you to bring in models or drawings from AutoCAD and get to work on them. I suspect this is primarily aimed at the Archiectural user community out there who might not have been exposed to SketchBook previous. In the world of Product Development, SketchBook has achieved a pretty high level of traction, which is impressed when you consider the competition is the likes of Photoshop - SketchBook has always had the upper hand for the design crowd because of the focussed nature of the tool and the specialised tools it offers - and when you consider its $100 (or less, check out amazon for a decent price) and a half decent tablet is going to cost you double that.

Tablet - quick buyer’s guide

Oh - just a quick note on tablets - if you want to get the best from this or other sketching tools, then you need one. I’ve got an older Intuos3 oversized A4 that cost a couple of hundred quid a few years back. It’s bulletproof and I’d happily recommend Wacom to anyone. Wacom have traditionally been the market leader for the professional design space but recent years have seen the introduction of a fair bit of competition (here’s a quick search page on Amazon as an idea) and while the cheaper options might be tempting, there are a few things to consider, so just consider the following when you’re looking to buy one:

• Pressure Sensitivity - if it’s not got it, skip it, leave it - don’t touch it.
• Programmable hotkeys - preferrably application independent
• Match your tablet size to your preferred paper size - this is something I learned the hard way. If you’re used (and trained in terms of muscle memory) to work with A3 sheets, then invest in a good size tablet - buy cheap and too small and you’ll find it difficult. I’ve tried the cheap Bamboo products and they’ll give you RSI quicker than trying to get high score on Track and Field in a Kebab shop.
• Match the tablet to your monitor aspect ratio - Widescreen monitor? Widescreen tablet. Trust me.
• Spares. Spares. Spares. You’ll need more nibs than you’ll realise if you really get into it. Also, you need to be able to source spare pens. Because, believe, you’ll loose it and you will cry. Like a massive baby.
• Oh - the last thing is, if you use a multiple monitor set-up, you might need to disconnect one of them otherwise things get really sketchy - in not a good way.

There you go. Sketching. It’s fun. Get a software tool, get a tablet, have a bash - apparently, Daft Punk helps too. Crank it. Or use a pen and paper. Choice is yours.

Big news just in. Autodesk has just launched Project Twitch on its labs web-site. This sees an experiment start in delivery of the company’s flagship products, AutoCAD, Maya, Inventor 2010 and Revit 2010 over the web. Not downloaded, not maintained, but hosted online.

At present there’s some pretty hefty restrictions on the use of the services. For example, you need to be running on Windows (XP or Vista), using IE (7+) or Firefox (3.x). You can’t upload, download or save files (the apps are provided with sample files). But perhaps the biggest restriction is that you need to be within 1,000 miles of the data center hosting the applications. As you’ll see from the image below, the data center is in San Francisco, which makes a large proportion of the potential users in terms of reach, either fish or aquaman.

Hosted apps are the future – that’s pretty much certain (look at the rise of google’s various apps) and several CAD vendors have already started to experiment with hosted applications. Dassault have been working towards this with Catia for several year. SolidWorks has been pushing out trials of online drawing apps with BluePrint Now and Drawings Now). But this is perhaps the first time that a truly mainstream set of applications has been delivered in this way. It’s a brave new world people. Strap yourselves in. If anyone is in that demographic (presumably sans scuba gear) and gets this working, let us know how it goes.

For those of us men spending this afternoon (and possibly the early hours of tomorrow morning) finding a gift for our loved ones in time for Valentines Day tomorrow (yes it’s tomorrow), then DEVELOP3D are on hand to help.

These Eamz shoes are from United Nude, a company that works with designers from all industries. Referencing the classic Eames chair, founder and designer Rem D Koolhaas wanted it to embody the same sense of cool. “It’s an ode to them, saying that the Eames chair is so cool and so clean in its design that you can create a shoe from the concept of it,” says Rem.

Developed with the assistance of Dutch master shoe-maker Rene van den Berg, the shoe took a lot of designing. “I drew the heel myself in AutoCad since I am a trained architect and this is the software that I’ve always used and feel most comfortable with,” explains Rem, adding “Since the Mono Eamz has a fully moulded upper, you’re dealing with double curved surfaces and you use 3-D software like Rhino, Pro/E or Symatron to make high-level moulds.”

Following several rounds of prototyping, adjustments, and scanning, the heel was finally completed in design, although the assistance of a motorcycle factory had to be enlisted in order to manufacture it.

You still have a few hours in which to get a pair. That is, if you can remember her shoe size.

Organising a busy warehouse should become a lot easier with the deployment of Hyster’s new generation of 3D simulation technology.

The software allows firms to plan out their storehouses virtually and assemble theoretical plans to get the most from their distribution points, creating everything from their shelving units, to the paths used by forklift trucks and even staff.

Robert O’Donoghue, general manager for Hyster’s warehouse products, explains: “Simulation is not an exact science, however it can provide a realistic indication of the viability of various fleet options. Warehouse managers will be able to consider different fleet mix scenarios and develop a good idea of potential pallet throughputs and related costs.”

By inputting key data into the system, with the help of a real-life Hyster ‘warehouse expert’, a series of algorithms based on the known performance parameters of each truck will then illustrate how the warehouse would actually work.

Developing the software with Incontrol Simulation Software BV, it aims to provide the most accurate representation of warehousing operations available. O’Donoghue continues: “We developed the software based on our significant experience of what actually happens in warehouse operations. It was important to make sure that we included all available information to provide an accurate picture of how a materials handling fleet would perform.”