PowerCADD 8 - An announcement from Eng. Sw.

[Derek]

It may have slipped by the attention of many here that E.S. have made an important announcement regarding PowerCADD 8.

You can read it HERE.

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PS: Happy new year to all.

[patrickm]

[pbacot]

I was afraid the news would be the final demise of PowerCADD.

So it's good news. Thanks.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

(and yes, I support this, it makes sense)

[Thom Pratt]

Bill Stanley asked for support of their decision to drop coding for PPC machines.

He has mine.

An intel only version has to be much better and faster as the code will be a lot more efficient.

My only question is when. I won't update my offices copies from pcadd 6 until there is an Intel install.

AutoCAD only has limited appeal even in a dual boot world.

Thom

[phansford]

There will be a day when there are no or very few PPC Macs. I applaud ES's efforts - but hell - this is a moving target. Intel only will be fine - just keep support for PC6 and PC7 going for awhile longer.

As I posted in an earlier thread - I purchased a new 15" MacBook Pro (w/ the 256 Vid Card) about 2 weeks ago. I have loaded everything on the machine, but have yet to really put it to the test. I've been doing a lot of marketing work in Pages with it. Leopard is pretty sweet. Love QuickLook.

Now I'm still using PC 6 ( I seem to hit every other update- so PC 8 will be on my purchase list for 2008). I'll get to working with PC6 on the new machine later this week and try to give a report to those of you still running PC6.

But Bill - as soon as PC8 is ready - I have an intelMac waiting.

[rjpotter]

I also bought a Macbook Pro recently and have found it to be unusable as a portable machine as the battery drains from full charge to zero over a 36 hour period even when the Macbook Pro is completely shut down.

Apple have replaced the battery but this has not solved the problem (tested with three different batteries, all of which keep their charge when left out of the computer and drain when put in).

If I forget to take the power cord on a trip then the machine is completely flat after a day-and-a-half without even being started up, which seems weird for a brand new portable. Does anyone else with a Macbook Pro have the same problem? My trusty Powerbook G3 400 keeps its charge for days when shut down.

-

MacBook Pro 2.6GHz 4Gig
PCadd 7 with WT
Leopard 10.5.1

PowerBook G3 400
PCadd 6 with WT
Tiger 10.4.10

[Rob C]

Shut down? You mean, not in sleep mode, but shut down? That is weird.

[Rob C]

Well, it looks like 2008 will be the year I buy an Intel Mac. It would help Photoshop and Lightroom which are already native now.

[M-Rick]

But what are the novelties in PC 8 ?

Can someone make a list of the new features ?

[Nick]

[quote="rjpotter"]I also bought a Macbook Pro recently and have found it to be unusable as a portable machine as the battery drains from full charge to zero over a 36 hour period even when the Macbook Pro is completely shut down.

Try re-calibrating your Battery.
http://www.macfixit.com/ has some information on recent battery problems.

[jasonlocher]

a question about hardware. Many of us are going to have to update our hardware to run the new powercadd 8. A very important factor, especially concerning price, is: will powercadd 8 benefit from multiple processors, or will it even use more than one processor? If not, I see no reason to update workstations to mac pro quads, and firms will be able to save substantial amounts of money by just getting imacs.

[Alfred Scott]

Jason,

We will have more information in time about hardware and PC8. The graphics card and graphics memory is important. Multiple processors are used to a limited extent. You get dual processors in all current machines, so anything beyond that will not do anything for you.

Alfred

[jasonlocher]

so a dual core imac with maxed out ram and vid card will run the same as an 8 core mac pro.

good to know.

[Alfred Scott]

Jason,

Maybe but I doubt it. My experience is that the consumer-level machines just do not match up to the pro-level machines. This has nothing to do with PowerCADD. It's just that the total package of how the machine is designed makes a lot of difference. There are a ton of factors, but I think you get what you pay for.

Alfred

[Peter Severin Carlsen]

Back to the original comment, I feel a bit of bait and switch going on. No I'm not thrilled to have to buy new intel based computers to be able to have Powercadd run perhaps as smoothly as it did under OS-9.

What happened to those claims that PC-8 would run 70 times faster than PC-7 on any machine you could put it on.

I'm a bit disappointed with the eye-candy that has been drapped on both the operating system and the programs we run. Yes they are curious and fun. No, they are not necessary particularly when they slow down the program just to have a visual effect. Take reshaping a polygon in PC-7. It used to be that the polygon went transparent allowing you to see through it and snap to another point, aligning it properly. Now it seems to want to become translucent, but can't or won't very quickly (if much memory is required) causing me to wait or try to reshape it blindly. Same is true with greying the selected lines. Is there a way to turn off the bells and whistles?

Simpler, used to be the manta. Too bad that PC-8 won't run on the hardware I own.