Hi Punchcad developers/sales guys,
I was just reading another group I am registered with, and there was a query about cad software for macs. The short story is that a link was posted, and there the Concepts *** products are listed (link below). The date of last modification was June 2007! Obviously out of date. I don't know who is responsible for keeping these links up to date, but there is obviously an avenue for potential sales here which is not being maintained. ;)
Regards, Ian.

http://www.pure-mac.com/cad.html

Hi Tom,
I'm sure you are right!
The guy who was looking for a cad package for macs actually purchased a copy of viacad2d3d immediately after viewing the demo video when I gave him the link to punch. He said he had looked at all available packages (his words), and did not find viacad. It must be the world's almost best kept secret!:confused:
Regards, Ian.

I get the impression you think Solidworks is the only package to challenge Shark, what about Solidedge, spaceclaim to name a few ?

There is a long...long....long way to go for Shark believe me. Have you upgraded to Shark yet anyway, I know you were talking to Nick about it weeks ago ? :rolleyes:

In which respect?
My use of the various cad systems is for surface/solid creation/modeling, be it for work/contract or for my own interest hobby of 3d modeling. Solidworks, well, it is good, but there are certainly other alternatives that can produce with equal degree.

I prefer to look at VC as a possibility for anyone to have access to a powerful 3d modeler(at a very reasonable price), which it certainly is. I had no second thoughts on making purchase very soon after finding the product, but that was me. Now, even thought I have used many 3d CAD products, VC(or maybe I should say Acis?) works differently in various respects in 3d model building , and certainly gives a number of un-descriptive error messages.
Any 3D package does need to be as user friendly as possible which ever direction the user is taking, be it for work or play, and IMHO, VC is still lacking on that. I cannot directly blame Tim/development for that, as I still do not fully understand the limitations set by Acis.

A pig will fly if you kick it hard enough, or give it a plane (pilot included).
VC/shark will be what development make of it, but more importantly, what the end user makes of it, and what can be produced without various error messages that are not understandable, or need for workarounds for simple objectives. IMHO.


- Steve

Hi Tom,

IMHO,

Spaceclaim is an add-on for such as Rhino. It as no place in my mind for full CAD.

I have not used spaceclaim much, but enough to say VC pro is a better alternative. IMHO of course.

- Steve

Yes, apparently, according to the SC rep here in the UK, there are others who share a similar opinion. :)

Really I should just bite the bullet, and support Tim and the gang, shouldn't I/ we??

There's a date on the pure-mac site that's March 2009 (7 matches for 2009!)- so the site is still being maintained- kind of....but you are more or less right. Over the years, us dedicated Mac using designers, have slowly plodded away, swimming against the tide, hoping and dreaming that CAD will come back to the Mac in precision form (and it is- but only just). As for Mac-friendly sites, Architosh is a far better site for being "on the pulse".



LOL! I was trying to avoid writing too much on the subject! I started to write, but got too confused in what I was trying to say! But nevertheless...here goes.....



Yes Paul. My thoughts exactly. Behave! ;-)



No I don't think it does. It's not good to become complacent- complacency is the Achilles heel of Microspot MacDraft, which I purchased for a lot of money a few years back- but MacDraft is all based on Mac OS9 code, so it doesn't really behave like a modern Cocoa application for Mac OS X. Oddly enough, Shark is like that too. Shark looks and behaves very much like a Mac OS9 app (but unlike MacDraft, is still being developed- thankfully). I suppose this is really because Shark started out life as CADD Pro- or even ACAD?!! Judging by Tim's track record, we're all in good hands. :-)

http://forum.punchcad.com/showthread.php?t=2337

This is a really interesting thread for me, because traditionally Mac users have been given a suite of applications that all 'talk' to each other. For eg, Shark only really needs to output an EPS or AI image, that then can be opened up in another application such as Illustrator or Quark, to make a final presentation. Of course nowadays, this system is what all Windows users are used to, but once upon a time, this wasn't so much the case, as one Windows application would do the complete job. In many ways that's why the PC won over, because it was seen as the cheaper option. Also Apple had their share of drawbacks such as Quickdraw 3D which was supposed to be the holy grail for 3D apps on Mac OS9- but it eventually turned out to be a bit of a disaster, not because the software was bad, on the contrary QD3D was really excellent- better than Direct3D and OpenGL, but QD3D was abandoned as soon as Steve Jobs got back on the board and introduced OSX, which was incompatible. This alienated many developers from the Macintosh (including AutoCAD, which once worked on Macintosh).

Interestingly, you can run MS-DOS on either Apple Intel Binary or PowerPC architectures in an application called "Boxer". I know that 3DS Max once ran in DOS right? I found this earlier, while trying to look for Tim's older application, CADD Pro. It's not the same thing, but the result is a pretty cool 2D drafting app set-up for free!


Dude, I am so much looking forward to that bestselling Shark tutorial (book) you are about to write! ;)



Well 2D is very demanding, and good drafting takes a lot of time. A decent 3D CAD app should be able to create proficiently, 2D drawings from a 3D model (and vice versa). Pro/E and Solidworks handle this with ease, but Shark, although acceptable, is nowhere near the quality these heavies are capable of (IMHO), but it really needs to achieve these dizzy heights if it is to compete. I don't know though, whether this will happen soon, as I get the feeling that despite Tim's genius, I get the feeling that Shark and VC is no more than a small office 'shed' down the end of the garden in nice sunny Wisconsin, and not your mega-corporate skyscraper holdings of Concorde, Massachusetts!

Is Tim a genius? Yes I think Tim is a bit of a backroom genius, the way nothing gets fixed quickly (it gets fixed, but over a long period of time!), or advertising is rarely updated- it's all the signs of some boffin in their garden shed, very possessive of their creation and little niche! But why not? I quite like that. I also like the fact that Tim is part of the crowd here. It's quite humbling!



Hence THAT book, Steve! ;)

Errmmm since you boys are NOT moderators....:rolleyes:

I'm sure most people smile at the banter and move on.....thats life. I think if those offended actually contributed in some way to the product it would be easier to bite my tongue:D:D

I appreciate your honesty, please show us all your serious posts because I have yet to see one myself, that is one which is beneficial to this software or another user using it....



Who cares.......ive got broad shoulders:cool:



Truth is im not one for forums in fact this is I only forum I spend time on and when im here I like to "contribute" if I can.



:D:D When you stop spouting B*&locks & throwing posts off topic and start treating this forum like most other users.....I will consider your request.

Have a good think before replying :mad:

Spaceclaim is what it is, and that is (IMHO) an addon to Rhino. Paul put forward that the 2 combined are very powerful and I would not argue with the that, simply as I do know Rhino, and the limited time with spaceclaim I have taken does show some good (albeit to me limited) solid work. I do have a trial of spaceclaim which is still current. I will look at it again, but mainly out of curiosity rather than to being an option to purchase.
It is down to the end user if the product will give what is wanted. It was a no brainer for me to purchase 2d/3d, I did upgrade to Pro to show support as I do use the software quite a lot now.

I think it is really down to Tim to get a grip on the product and sort out the numerous outstanding problems/bugs. I admit I do not usually take so long to understand/predict the outcome of various tools, but VC/Acis certainly keeps me guessing at times.


- Steve