[MAlan]

I would like to know 3 things:

1. What is the best 2D CAD application for Mac OS X currently?
2. What is the best 3D CAD application for Mac OS X currently? I'm thinking along the lines of SolidWorks or Unigraphics but for Mac.
3. What is a decent CAD application that I could afford to buy for home i.e. ~$200 - $300 or less.

[osxrules]

People swear by Vectorworks

This is the update but it has reviews and links to the homepage:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/1216

But it's about $760. You might get a cheaper copy off ebay or maybe even Vectorworks 10. I haven't come across cheap 2D/3D CAD software that's worth talking about.

Search for cad on www.versiontracker.com

Sketchup (cheap) gets some good press but it looks a bit limited to be useful.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/15755

Blender3D (www.blender.org) is a full blown animation suite that has lots of features like Maya and is free but it's not really for cad. It does have radiosity, GI etc. and imports some DXF so you might be able to model in Sketchup and import to Blender. Then texture, light, animate cameras and render in there.

Blender does HDRI too for scenes with high realism.

[ism]

The only viable mechanical 3D CAD option is cobalt and then it's probably still slightly more towards product design than mechanical design.

You're not going to get a decent 3D MCAD package for home in that price range unless it's a student edition, which you can get Cobalt in.

(I'm a mech eng, I've used/use ProE and Autodesk Inventor at work on windows and have researched the OSX alternative extensively.)

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by osxrules:
This is the update but it has reviews and links to the homepage:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/1216

But it's about $760. You might get a cheaper copy off ebay or maybe even Vectorworks 10. I haven't come across cheap 2D/3D CAD software that's worth talking about.

11 recommended for OS X.

[jdogg99]

I've run SolidWorks 2004 in Virtual PC (with Windows 2000) and it's surprisingly fast. Definitely usable, but if you switch between a fast PC (with graphics acceleration) and VPC you'll notice a HUGE difference.

[MAlan]

Thanks for all the suggestions.