What Engineer uses a Mac? pt. 1

It's no secret, everyone in the world covets a mac. I covet a mac, but I'm more partial to tablets at the moment... talk about full circle, but that's a story for another day. So I was reading this article about Steve Jobs' war against buttons and it made me wonder: who actually in the design industry uses Macs? I decided to dig deeper and do some research.

Just by watching movies, it's easy to believe that everyone who's anyone uses a mac. They're pockmarked across movies like: The Devil Wears Prada, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and Firewall. My Super Ex-Girlfriend really caught my eye because the guy in the movie worked as a project manager for a general contractor and his boss used a mac. The funny thing is, I interned at a GC called Robbins & Morton and Dell was the de facto machine of use, even for laptops.

The first question I decided to ask myself was, "If I were using a mac, what software would I use?" So I did a quick google search to find mac engineering software. The first program to blatantly stand out was ArchiCAD. ArchiCAD is billed as the industry standard for CAD users in the mac community and with good reason. It can export to AutoCAD and other Autodesk programs and can also switch seamlessly between 2d and 3d drawings. Another perk is that students can get ArchCAD for free with purchase of a mac, so there are many reasons to give this program a look.

A second program to use is PowerCADD, which is a 2d drawing program meant for technical drawings. This program is geared more towards structural engineers and drafters. It's also useful for graphic artists etc. This program is not as widely used as ArchiCAD, but it's a start towards the mac's acceptance in the Building and Design community.

There are more programs, but these two are the most consistent. Tune in to my next article which details the type of hardware available including accessories.