mac for cad application? do they work?

hi guys !
i am a newbie here and the reason that i had to join is that am planning to buy a notebook! now my dillima is powerbook or a "standar, common and logical for some people option-move" pc.
i am a student of architecture and i really need a portable computer due to that my home is far away from that univercity is placed![ ]
i intented to work with archicad and autocad so i need a fast processor and a whole bunch of ram!the raeson that i m hesiting to make my move towards PBook is the price and the compatibility with the cad programms,
are there compatible with the mac osx 10.2.3? (we have the privelige taking them for free as the univer is giving them to us plus they are probably at windows version) hope you can lead me to the right decision!!! any advice should be very helpful

 

Archicad works very nicely on a capable Powerbook (lots of RAM), and AutoCAD translation works very well. AutoCAD is not available on OSX, however many use a program called Vectorworks, which has excellent dwg import/export capabilities. If you want to discuss the CAD capabilities of the Macintosh, I highly recommend you check out the http://www.architosh.com/ website. There's even a forum over there to ask questions like this! Quite frankly I feel that AutoCAD is losing popularity with other 3D programs gaining ground.

Me? I run AutoCAD2005 and Visio 2003 on a windows computer, and on the Macintosh I run Vectorworks for my CAD work. Best of both worlds![ ]

 

thank for the tip![ ]is there an archicad version for apples or is common for both of them(osx and windows)

 

There is a separate version of ArchiCAD for OSX, but it's fully cross compatible with the windows version, to the point that you can collaborate on projects simultaneously on both platforms. The makers of ArchiCAD have taken special care to keep features the same across both platforms, and new versions/releases have come out for both platforms almost at the same time. They have always been very supportive of the Macintosh platform, a good portion of their user base uses the Mac platform, and I don't see that changing anytime soon!

 

which other 3D programs are popular in the industry? is FormZ a popular one?

vince

 

FormZ, Cinema 4D, and Maya seem to be very popular 3D rendering programs in the industry, plenty of other choices. I believe that 3D is really changing the landscape of CAD on any platform, architects are starting to take notice and beginning to realize that there are a lot of very powerful tools out there that are more powerful, efficient, and capable than the industry standard AutoCAD, freeing them up to design more than getting caught up in the mechanics and execution of the design. Hence the increasing popularity of cross-platform CAD programs such as ArchiCAD and Vectorworks. Obviously the Macintosh is benefitting from AutoDesk's losing grip on the industry.