Styles&Wood. Smoother, smarter spaces with AutoCAD for Mac.
Handley points out that being able to easily exchange documents with clients who may use other CAD applications is another essential feature that AutoCAD for Mac handles effortlessly. "AutoCAD's DWG format is the dominant standard in our marketplace and the one we tend to use to exchange information. Autodesk and Apple have worked hard to ensure we can exchange files seamlessly between our designers, whether they're using AutoCAD for Mac or AutoCAD on a PC, and also with other parties outside our business".
Handley believes Styles&Wood will also benefit from some of the native capabilities of the Mac. "Features, such as Quick Look – which allows DWG files to be previewed in Exposé and Spotlight, are the unsung heroes of OS X and have a dramatic impact on daily productivity", he explains. "Spotlight has been very well integrated into AutoCAD for Mac, with ‘highlighting of commands’ making it easy for new users to find their way around and get up-to speed. In addition, having the X-Code development tools included in the operating system offers a substantial procurement advantage compared with Windows-based PC platforms – this means that we don’t have to go back and ask for additional tools to do development work. Also, the speed, flexibility and stability of OS X mean large files are handled efficiently, allowing users to focus on design without worrying about the system".
A final advantage of running the Apple platform and AutoCAD for Mac, says Handley, is that "it will help Styles&Wood to attract a different range of employee, and motivate the staff that we already have in the business. We have a lot of staff who come from a background of working on Macs and there's a great deal of enthusiasm among our designers for this. If they're more comfortable working on a Mac, we can now offer them that choice".
Andrew Taylor is one of the designers at Styles&Wood who is looking forward to having the option of using AutoCAD for Mac. "I’ve been an AutoCAD user for the last 20 years, going from using the DOS operating system through to Windows; it's exciting to now have the opportunity to use AutoCAD on the Mac", he says. "We'll be able to widen the mix of applications we now use and we're no longer shoehorned into using PCs because it's the only platform available for our core application. Coming from a design background, it’s been quite frustrating over the years not being able to use Macs, especially as they're a more secure and stable environment, and have a nice look and feel".
While there has been some nervousness within the company about the difficulties of introducing Apple hardware into a PC-dominated IT infrastructure, Handley says the beta programme for AutoCAD for Mac "has dispelled many of those concerns and proved it’s now very easy to integrate Macs into a well-established Windows networking infrastructure. In fact, it was quicker to connect the Mac to our network than to get the network to recognise the virtualised copy of Windows that was on the same machine".
In the long term, Handley thinks there could be benefits in the server room, as well as on the desktop, because of the flexibility Apple hardware brings. "It’s not just about the ability to make use of the wonderful software that runs natively on the Mac, but also the ability to use Bootcamp and virtualisation, as well as to run PC software possibly faster than we can on comparable PC hardware", he points out.
With the production version of AutoCAD for Mac being released, Styles&Wood now plans to introduce one Mac workstation running AutoCAD for Mac in each office, and evaluate how the two versions perform compared with each other. "If there's no discernable difference in performance - and I'm hoping we'll actually get slightly better performance out of the AutoCAD for Mac machines than we do out of our PCs running AutoCAD - I'd expect us to begin to migrate around half our staff from PC to Mac over time", says Openshaw.
The bottom line for Styles&Wood? "Ultimately we believe that the innovation of having AutoCAD for Mac is going to present us with new business opportunities".
