Good afternoon,
Mr David Byrne, a prolific writer on AutoCAD and an Autodesk expert, has recently written "AutoCAD 2011 for Dummies".
In Chapter 1, page 11, of the book he states "Eventually, Autodesk settled on Microsoft Windows as the sole operating system for AutoCAD". I am living in Thailand and recently have obtained a license for AutoCAD 2011 for Mac! I bought the aforementioned book from Amazon on the basis that it would be as comprehensive as other titles in the "Dummies" series, but alas no. Could someone please update Mr Byrnes, or maybe he could look at the Autodesk website?
The interface for the Mac 2011 version appears to be significantly different to that for the Windows version. Unfortunately this almost renders the book useless to me and it will take me much longer to get to grips with the programme than I had anticipated.
Regards
First of all, this is a forum for AutoCAD Architecture (www.autodesk.com/adt), not plain AutoCAD used by architects or architectural businesses.
AutoCAD R2011, and the book written, came out 6-months before AutoCAD for MAC: printed material does not self update and the book never was intended for future products help, just R2011 in Windows as you noted.
AutoCAD for MAC has it's own Forum at Autodesk, it is at http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-for-Mac/bd-p/520
A quick Google Search found one ebook so far (http://www.simplecad.com/autocad-for-mac.htm) and lots of free online help guides (www.google.com).
What you don't get with AutoCAD for MAC that everyone else using AutoCAD for Windows considers minimum requirements: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-for-Mac/What-you-don-t-get-in-ACAD-for-Mac/td-p/2801342
Hope all the above helps.
Hi davidbooth,
Only one small remark to the link, which Mr. Dean Saadallah published in the previous answer (http://www.simplecad.com/autocad-for-mac.htm). The point is that the book, which is mentioned there "What's Inside? AutoCAD for Macintosh" was written by Ralph Grabowski - who is an editor at upFront.eZine Publishing, Ltd. and the author of over 100 books and several hundred magazine articles about computer-aided design. However, he is also known as, say the least of it, not a very big fan of Mac OS and Mac hardware. To understand this, just look at the comments on his blog WorldCAD Access.
Given a certain bias of the author of this book, I would not recommend it as a textbook for beginners.
In this case, much more useful to begin with free resources at AutoCAD Exchange (http://autocad.autodesk.com/?nd=home) or at Autodesk University 2010 Online Classes . (http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class_listing&filter_keywords=mac&chunk=15&filter_type=&filter_track=5&fi...
Or you can also look at "Mastering AutoCAD for Mac" book by George Omura and Richard (Rick) Graham. At Wiley.com you can download sample chapter "Exploring the AutoCAD Interface".
Maxim
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