7 ms·

This is insane. Is there no great first party CAD solution on Mac?

steve1977 19d ago
I guess not for this use case. There are many industrial use cases for which there are no macOS versions. In fact, Siemens NX was once available on macOS AFAIK, but isn't anymore.
left-struck 19d ago
Nothing that CAD and engineering students would be familiar with. There are some open source options but those aren’t taught at school afaik.
- culturestate 19d ago
  Not that it's necessarily suited for Apple's use case, but Autodesk's Fusion runs natively on Mac.
  - fingerlocks 19d ago
    I think it’s just an electron wrapper over a browser version. Impressively sluggish, clunky, and unresponsive for a so-called native app
    - jasode 19d ago
      Autodesk Fusion GUI uses the C++ Qt library, not Electron. Link to my previous comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24252787 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24252787
      - fingerlocks 19d ago
        Okay that’s even more pathetic. Is it using only CPU bound software rendering? I do 3d programming on MacOS. I can assure you that it’s not slow because it’s just super-duper complex. No, it just sucks.
        tohnjitor 19d ago
        Most CAD programs take little advantage of multicore or GPU, if any. It's all about single threaded CPU performance.
nikitaga 19d ago
Tons of industrial software is Windows only, whether it's design, operations, or configuration & control apps for industrial hardware. MacOS versions are more commonly found in the low end of the market, e.g. Fusion 360.
- anon291 19d ago
  Which is kind of insane when you think about it considering what a cluster fuck the win32 API is
  - zwirbl 19d ago
    Still the most stable API on Linux
    - dijit 19d ago
      I still think that it’s one of the great ironies of our time. Linux itself bends over backwards to avoid breaking userland, to the point where there is a substantial amount of cruft when interacting directly with the kernel. Only for GNU to say “fuck that” and create a widely mockable situation, one of the worst targets of modern programs for stability… to the point where people start using alternative libc’s specifically to statically link them. What a monumental failure.
      - boredatoms 19d ago
        Dynamic linking by default has turned into a premature optimization over time
      - amrit3128 19d ago
        Just a quirk of the times. GNU made the most optimal solutions of their time, but in the end we still have some tech debt. I think it was inevitable that this would happen with GNU or for that matter any project, since it's not a centralized project like linux and was never going to be since it's not just one piece of software.
  - 19d ago
starky 19d ago
Professional 3D CAD software is pretty much Windows only. Especially with a company like Apple where you have complex models with many designers working on it you aren't going to risk using anything other than the likes of NX, Catia, Creo, or SolidWorks (though I shudder at how frustrating SolidWorks would be in that use case).
- pjmlp 19d ago
  It used to be UNIX as well, but Apple choose to give up on UNIX workstation market.
- vablings 19d ago
  Yes, but for no reason, I do have Creo 9 now working under wine and the performance is basically the same as windows with a few minor bugs
jbl0ndie 19d ago
Vectorworks. Popular with smaller architecture firms but not the biggest ones.
- nabeards 19d ago
  Archicad as well!
zokier 19d ago
NX supported macos and Linux until 2019. The situation is kinda sad/ironic considering that many big CAD packages have their roots in classic UNIX workstations, and afaik that was one of the major usecases for RedHat desktop. With the general decline of MS and Windows I imagine CAD companies must be reconsidering their platform choices. But of course big ships turn slowly so who knows when anything concrete might happen
- gmueckl 19d ago
  There is no meaningful decline of Windows on corporate desktops.
- emptyfile 19d ago
  [dead]
- WarmWash 19d ago
  In the hardware engineering space, I don't know if I have ever seen a mac. Linux pops up a bit because of the rise of micros, but it's still 99% windows.
Jarmsy 19d ago
Rhino runs natively on Mac
DrScientist 19d ago
For quite a long time, graphics card driver quality and performance has been much better on the PC driven by the larger PC gaming market. Very hard for Apple, or Linux to do much about that - especially when Nvidia considered it's drivers key IP. Couple that with a relatively small market - and it's hard to justify supporting multiple platforms.
tohnjitor 19d ago
Autodesk AutoCAD is available for Mac. Autodesk Fusion is also available for Mac. I for one would love to see Autodesk add more Mac and Linux support across their lineup. Especially Inventor and its associated add-ons.
AdamH12113 19d ago
CAD software (and other high-end professional software) can easily cost 5-10x as much as the computer itself. You buy the computer for the software, not the other way around.
ActorNightly 18d ago
CAD is not just drawing. CAD packages are often integrated with other software that does things like stress analysis, BOM, thermal simulation, and so on. Its an entire ecosystem that streamlines a lot of things, so it makes sense to invest in it. The reason for Windowsis because a lot of the CAD software utilizes gfx drivers heavily for rendering. You can do things like raytracing to simulate how the product will look.

steve1977 19d ago

I guess not for this use case. There are many industrial use cases for which there are no macOS versions. In fact, Siemens NX was once available on macOS AFAIK, but isn't anymore.

left-struck 19d ago

Nothing that CAD and engineering students would be familiar with. There are some open source options but those aren’t taught at school afaik.

culturestate 19d ago
Not that it's necessarily suited for Apple's use case, but Autodesk's Fusion runs natively on Mac.
- fingerlocks 19d ago
  I think it’s just an electron wrapper over a browser version. Impressively sluggish, clunky, and unresponsive for a so-called native app
  - jasode 19d ago
    Autodesk Fusion GUI uses the C++ Qt library, not Electron. Link to my previous comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24252787 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24252787
    - fingerlocks 19d ago
      Okay that’s even more pathetic. Is it using only CPU bound software rendering? I do 3d programming on MacOS. I can assure you that it’s not slow because it’s just super-duper complex. No, it just sucks.
      - tohnjitor 19d ago
        Most CAD programs take little advantage of multicore or GPU, if any. It's all about single threaded CPU performance.

nikitaga 19d ago

Tons of industrial software is Windows only, whether it's design, operations, or configuration & control apps for industrial hardware. MacOS versions are more commonly found in the low end of the market, e.g. Fusion 360.

anon291 19d ago
Which is kind of insane when you think about it considering what a cluster fuck the win32 API is
- zwirbl 19d ago
  Still the most stable API on Linux
  - dijit 19d ago
    I still think that it’s one of the great ironies of our time. Linux itself bends over backwards to avoid breaking userland, to the point where there is a substantial amount of cruft when interacting directly with the kernel. Only for GNU to say “fuck that” and create a widely mockable situation, one of the worst targets of modern programs for stability… to the point where people start using alternative libc’s specifically to statically link them. What a monumental failure.
    - boredatoms 19d ago
      Dynamic linking by default has turned into a premature optimization over time
    - amrit3128 19d ago
      Just a quirk of the times. GNU made the most optimal solutions of their time, but in the end we still have some tech debt. I think it was inevitable that this would happen with GNU or for that matter any project, since it's not a centralized project like linux and was never going to be since it's not just one piece of software.
- 19d ago

starky 19d ago

Professional 3D CAD software is pretty much Windows only. Especially with a company like Apple where you have complex models with many designers working on it you aren't going to risk using anything other than the likes of NX, Catia, Creo, or SolidWorks (though I shudder at how frustrating SolidWorks would be in that use case).

pjmlp 19d ago
It used to be UNIX as well, but Apple choose to give up on UNIX workstation market.
vablings 19d ago
Yes, but for no reason, I do have Creo 9 now working under wine and the performance is basically the same as windows with a few minor bugs

jbl0ndie 19d ago

Vectorworks. Popular with smaller architecture firms but not the biggest ones.

nabeards 19d ago
Archicad as well!

zokier 19d ago

NX supported macos and Linux until 2019. The situation is kinda sad/ironic considering that many big CAD packages have their roots in classic UNIX workstations, and afaik that was one of the major usecases for RedHat desktop. With the general decline of MS and Windows I imagine CAD companies must be reconsidering their platform choices. But of course big ships turn slowly so who knows when anything concrete might happen

gmueckl 19d ago
There is no meaningful decline of Windows on corporate desktops.
emptyfile 19d ago
[dead]
WarmWash 19d ago
In the hardware engineering space, I don't know if I have ever seen a mac. Linux pops up a bit because of the rise of micros, but it's still 99% windows.

Jarmsy 19d ago

Rhino runs natively on Mac

DrScientist 19d ago

For quite a long time, graphics card driver quality and performance has been much better on the PC driven by the larger PC gaming market. Very hard for Apple, or Linux to do much about that - especially when Nvidia considered it's drivers key IP. Couple that with a relatively small market - and it's hard to justify supporting multiple platforms.

tohnjitor 19d ago

Autodesk AutoCAD is available for Mac. Autodesk Fusion is also available for Mac. I for one would love to see Autodesk add more Mac and Linux support across their lineup. Especially Inventor and its associated add-ons.

AdamH12113 19d ago

CAD software (and other high-end professional software) can easily cost 5-10x as much as the computer itself. You buy the computer for the software, not the other way around.

ActorNightly 18d ago

CAD is not just drawing. CAD packages are often integrated with other software that does things like stress analysis, BOM, thermal simulation, and so on. Its an entire ecosystem that streamlines a lot of things, so it makes sense to invest in it. The reason for Windowsis because a lot of the CAD software utilizes gfx drivers heavily for rendering. You can do things like raytracing to simulate how the product will look.