CADintosh - 6.1.1

While it is great that CADintosh is a Mac native application, IMO, it is simply too strange an application to learn, to understand and to get to grips with in a short period of time (trust me, I have a BSc in CAD!). Ribbonsoft's QCad, while being written in the Trolltech framework, is not a 'real' Mac application, it runs very well on both Intel and PPC versions of OS X as well as Windows and Linux. QCad is also slightly cheaper (although admittedly it does work on the 'one licence per year' system), but it works- very well in fact, and fortunately, is a lot easier to use. QCad also translates very well into Google SketchUp, making the pair an excellent bargain-price architectural visualisation system.

The biggest downfall with CADintosh was that it seems so sluggish even with an Intel processor. It's display and layout is more like Mac OS9. Okay nothing wrong with that apart from OS X is now 8 years old, but more to the point, I couldn't share any drawings with other people who choose to use different platforms, ie Windows and Linux. Because QCad is multiplatform, this makes sharing with other designers possible, and best of all it makes it possible for others to see that the Macintosh is a viable platform for engineering as well as architecture, and in this "we're all hungry for AutoCAD, but we don't really know why" world, us, as Mac users need software like QCad more than ever if we are to show that Mac isn't just for music and pretty pictures.

Of course, when we've achieved worldwide OS X domination, then we can write every application under the sun in beautiful Cocoa, but until that time arrives...........

:"(

I have been using Cadintosh for several years now to make detailed joinery drawings. I have always been impressed with its scaling flexibility - there are no other products to my knowledge near this price range where you can draw in several different scales on the same sheet of paper.

As for support, I can only say that Thorsten Lemke was very helpful when I phoned him a couple of years ago from the UK to Germany with a query - he actually had the help line routed to his mobile for constant support. (I hope he's given that idea up actually, as I wouldnt like to see him suffer burn out!)

The thing to remember is that for a serious CAD user, its not the ease of drawing that is important really, its the ease of REVISION that is important. Also, if , as in my business, you are making a lot of curved or carved work and other technical joinery such as handrailing, there is no substitute for an accurately printed TEMPLATE. Cadintosh allows you to print out templates as big as a football field if you have enough paper, ink and scotch tape.

Any CAD program is going to be hard to get to grips with initially, but this program can give extremely professional results if you take the time. After all being a draughtsman is a profession in itself, so you can't expect to pick it up in one sitting unless you have some real talent. Ive given f our for ease of use as I think its only fair to compare it from the viewpoint of a seasoned user of several different CAD programs

Follow this link for a bit of a drawing done in this program:

http://www.periodproperty.org/Pics/Georgian-Windows-copy.gif

Have used Vectorworks and love it but it's so expensive. This looked like a bargain. Only problem is I spent two hours trying to draw what should have taken me 5 minutes even while stepping through a tutorial. I am not impressed.

This guy should hand off writing the pdf to someone else who is more skilled at writing manuals. "Cadintosh an introduction.pdf" should be "Cadintosh Part two" He should have someone write a quickstart guide. Who friggin' cares if the decimal point is an international standard. Thats a piece of minutia that should be left in the reference manual. Not in the "Introduction".

I found that while stepping though the instructions many things didn't behave the way the developer indicated that they should. At first I thought I was doing it wrong so I reapeated the steps finding that even the repeat processes were not consistent.

I will keep watching though. It's improved from the last time I tried it. Besides he makes Graphic Converter which is a GREAT program.

I went for High Design instead, only $25 education price and a much better manual. Worth a look.