PCportable?

[L.DOSSO]

Is a PC portable 15" screen size,convenient for yacht designing?

[Jeff]

What is a "PC portable"? A notebook / laptop?

I would always say 'the bigger the better' when it comes to screen size, but I could work on a 15" flat screen fairly comforably... if I had a decent optical mouse! A 19" desktop LCD is a little nicer... and a 21" is a little nicer than that

[L.DOSSO]

A PC that folds into two(hinge in the middle).Ithink I mean a notebook.But what I've seen in shops and what interrest me is one with 512 mo ram,60 GO harddisk and a intel pentium2.8Ghz.

a-......What is the name of the macintosh software which corresponds to the Pc software Autocad?

[Jeff]

Ah ok... a notebook. There is such a range from tablet PC's to ultra thin notebooks to these hybrid thick standing laptop/desktop models I wasn't sure at first.

What is the name of the macintosh software which corresponds to the Pc software Autocad?

Now that's a very good question and one I cannot answer... also the reason I just got a Xeon instead of a G5... much more CAD software selection for the PC than for the mac still.

[L.DOSSO]

ok thanks jeff.Well in fact,I just find macs very beautiful(aesthetic of shell)but I am aware that there is less choice for softwares.More than I begun to shape hulls with Nautilus!So I will certainly choose a Good PC notebook.This way I will be able to re-install probasic and autocad 2002.(but first, I must export my autocad" copy" which lies on my hard disk (I mean someone had given a copy of it but I give him the CDrom back)towards the notebook my parents will offer me. bye-bye.

[edneu]

There are several CAD programs for the Macintosh, Asher-Vellem made a good one at one point. Love it or hate it, Autocad is by far the industry standard, but does not have a MAC version.

I know of no current hull fairing / design programs for the Mac. I prefer the MAC OS over windows and love the design of their Macintosh hardware, I think it is a great and innovative computer.

[ErikG]

Well there is one
MaxSurf, but I don't think that they will develop it any further, it does work though.

[Jeff]

I prefer the MAC OS over windows and love the design of their Macintosh hardware, I think it is a great and innovative computer.

It's just too bad that Apple chose to maintain such a stiff monopoly on their hardware/software integration.

I can't help but wonder if I would be using a Mac right now if Apple would have been able to release a Mac OS like OSX which ran on commonplace X86 hardware in the days of Win 9x. I guess that's not really a fair suggestion though.

While there are some things I really envy on the Mac side still, overall I much prefer the freedom of choice and variety on the Windows/PC side. Most of the Macs are impressive (except for the imac/emac and the lack of a full size keyboard and professional pointing device in place of the wasted space on the 17" ibook), but at the same time I think PC’s and Windows have outpaced Mac’s integrated trouble-free approach with the excellent hardware support in 2000 and XP.

In the last year we've seen PC prices come down considerably while construction and components have improved in quality. Hopefully the market will evolve to allow a more expensive higher quality fit and finsh range in the PC world as well where more artistry can come into play. And I still hope OSX will become more hardware independent....

[Andrew Mason]

Maxsurf is still supported on the Mac, together with all the programs in the Maxsurf suite, however the Windows version of Maxsurf is now significantly better. We stopped new developments on the Mac versions several years ago due to lack of demand and the significantly better development environment under Windows.

As nice as the Macs are, Apple has done a terrible job of attracting and supporting developers in areas other than their niche markets of multimedia and education, and it is too late to turn the situation around, established CAD developers are just not interested anymore.