ArchiCAD Native on Intel Macs

There's a headline I bet we never thot a year ago we'd be writing -- "...CAD Native on Intel Macs."

But now it's happening: ArchiCAD 10 runs native on Intel-based Apple Macs running OS X, as are others. I wonder if it was easier for Graphisoft, because they also had an Intel/Windows version of their CAD software. Let's listen in as Viktor Varkonyi, vp of Archicad development, explains how his company did it:

"Our close partnership with Apple enabled us to quickly bring to our users the best platform that Apple has ever released. Our users will definitely benefit from the innovation and performance that these machines bring."

And there-in lies the rub. Prior to a year ago, Steve Jobs repeatedly assured us that the IBM-produced PowerPC CPUs were the best platform. Mac-oriented software vendors and publications had benchmarks to prove the point. And now we learn it was a misrepresentation of the facts. Or, as some have labeled it, "Steve's reality distortion field."

Reminds me of the minimalist design of the iPod -- where "minimalist" is the code word for giving the customer really-few hardware features so that Apple makes much more profit and/or drives down the price to further reduce competition in a Wal-Mart-like fashion.

Makes me not want to ever buy a Mac. But I do shop at Wal-Mart. Silly humans and the reality-distortion fields we carry with us.

Comments

[Anthony Frausto-Robledo]

Ralph,

Most veteran Mac CAD programs were developed with Metrowerks' CodeWarrior development tools in C++. I know VectorWorks for instance is written like this, and I believe ArchiCAD is no different. They typically have CAD engines written in C languages and the interfaces written to OS-specific API's. The core of these cross-platform engines are identical, thus the same operating capabilites generally across platforms. Moving to Universal support was a big deal because it meant transplanting one's code base to Apple's Xcode - a different IDE that is only at version 2. So yes, it's young, especially compared to the maturity of CodeWarrior.

To answer your question of whether it was easier for the Intel Mac version because they had a Windows version prior, the answer would generally be no. The Intel-Mac version of ArchiCAD is compiled from the same tool that generates the PowerPC version, not the tool that generates the Windows version.

[Anthony Frausto-Robledo]

Ralph,

To respond to your other comments...

I think it is somewhat inresponsible to suggest that Mac users are being duped by Steve Jobs. The IBM PowerPC 970 was and still is a superb chip. Why do you think Microsoft went to an IBM PowerPC processor for the XBox 2? The Power Architecture is a sweet architecture no if-and-buts. That is why all three game consoles are now on IBM-based chip architectures (Cell and PowerPC).

To further my point, if you look at Apple's own benchmarks (see Mac Pro pages) you will notice the performance metrics are generally around 1.4-1.6 faster. Bear in mind that if IBM delivered another generation of the PowerPC 970/980 series to Apple the performance would have been pretty darn close.

Where Intel has truly excelled is with the power use and performance per frequency. The Xeon 5100 series chips blow away even the Xeon 5000 series chips that directly proceeded them. That is why Dell charges nearly $400 less for a 3.6GHz + 5000 series Xeon compared to a 2.6Ghz 5100 series Xeon.

So there have been no misrepresentation of facts as you suggest. The truth is, the G5 was an incredible chip -- and could run circles around P4s in many arenas. The other truth is "Woodcrest" Intel Xeon 5100 series processors are just plain remarkable.

How much more than G5? Well...it turns out around 30-60% generally average. That's not an outrageous claim, just a reasonable one.

[Anthony Frausto-Robledo]

I just can't drop this one. Ralph, you simply are not looking at the Mac Pros for what they are. You say minimalist design as if Apple is selling you less. Simply not so. Do an indepth analysis and compare to Dell 490 or 690 and you will find you get more for you money, especially as you load up the machine.

[Ricky]

It's attitudes like this which make me loathe to enter a building that may have been done with CAD.

[Ralph B.]

I think your comments are a bit prejudicial the G5 chip has been out for years now while the Core and Core2 are brand spanking new architectures. I don't think anything touches them at this point not AMD or anybody else. The Power PCs problem was that it couldn't or IBM wouldn't scale it down (in power). The G5 comes in at roughly the same deficit to the Core2 as does the AMD chip which was the king of the hill until this month.

In terms of minimalist design, you like what you like... Your taste are just as valid as anybody elses.

However to your statement "giving the customer really-few hardware features" I am confused. What more do you want? Seriously please explain how this machine is lacking in hardware features.

R.

[John Papola]

I find this train of thought surprisingly illogical for people who should have a solid grasp of logic.

The G5 was faster than the P4/Xeon at the time of it's launch (remember the Virginia Tech G5 grid's meteoric rise to the third fastest super computer on earth?). The AMD Athlon/Opteron also used to be faster than the P4/Xeon

The Core 2 Duo is dramatically faster than the P4 and faster to a lesser extend than the G5 and Athlon/Opteron in their most recent forms.

How does the new Core 2 being faster change the fact that the G5 used to be faster? IT DOESN'T.

Things change. That doesn't make Apple/Steve Jobs liars. It's just called technology progress. Now go save yourself $1000 and buy a Mac Pro. It's the cheapest Xeon 5100 workstation for the money and the only workstation on earth that can run every OS on the planet.

[thannaingtun]

I want to study autocad.

[Keagan]

hi guys the problem that I am facing/experiencing is that we had a 3 Comm Switch in the office and the network Speed was really slow, Then we upgraded it to a cisko managed switch and the intel machine that we tested the switch on "flew" when you did the copy and paste excercise (Intel Mac) using the archicad 10 application, but when all the other macs were placed onto the network the Copying and pasting became as slow as it was when we initially had the 3comm switch on the intels, however all the power Pcs old and new are saving / Copying and pasting as quick as they should. one thing that i have noticed is that when you copy and paste, the cpu usage then goes above 100% and archicad doesnt respond, this happens even when you are opening the file as well please advise on a possible solution.