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Mac architecture market consolidates
updated 07:35 pm EDT, Mon June 30, 2008
Autodesk acquires GBS
Autodesk has acquired the assets of Green Building Studio (GBS), further consolidating the market for Mac-based architecture software. GBS' web service will soon join the Autodesk product family, while the GBS team will continue selling, training, and supporting architects as they use the GBS web service to design carbon neutral buildings today and in the future. Autodesk also plans to continue support for the Green Building Studio web service and carbon neutral building design training. The gbXML schema will remain an open industry standard, and the GBS web service will continue to be available to any other BIM software.
Mac support to cease?
06/30, 07:52pm reply
Given that Autodesk doesn't support Macs, does anyone know if Autodesk has announced their future plans for Green Building Studio with respect to Mac support?
My guess, and it is only a guess, is that they will drop support for Graphisoft's ArchiCAD (and Mac support along with that...) as the first opportunity.
boulder1259
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Joined: May 2002
A dubious day...
06/30, 07:53pm reply
...for the architectural community... This effort was originally I believe funded by pubic (government) monies...
bobolicious
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Joined: Aug 2002
Not a good day
06/30, 08:51pm reply
I heard about this last week and was saddened. The Mac will loose another architecture tool shortly. Autodesk has little interest in the Mac market and only continues to support those products that had a strong Mac presence BEFORE their purchase. Even then we are living on borrowed time.
Sad day.
RonMan
RonMan
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Acquiring talent...
06/30, 09:13pm reply
...and attracting / motivating talent seem historically mutually exclusive pursuits - the transition may be inevitable however history has a habit of repeating itself...
bobolicious
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Joined: Aug 2002
ArchiCAD is Safe
07/01, 12:26am reply
ArchiCAD was acquired by Nemetschek AG, NOT mediocre AutoDesk! Thankfully!
Nemetschek is also the parent company of VectorWorks, so ArchiCAD is in pretty good hands. Nemetschek assured users that VectorWorks and ArchiCAD are very different products and will both continue to be developed.
I remember trying a copy of AutoCAD 12 for Mac years ago. It was such a dismal piece of trash, that word got around and nobody bought it, much less used it. AutoDesk stopped developing for the Mac in a huff.
Obviously they were used to an undiscerning, captive user base, so the outright rejection by the Mac CAD using community was a big shock... "We do NOT write c*** software! How dare anyone criticize!"
It's a shame to se them get their claws into a "rival" developer.
JeffHarris
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MS-ACAD Monopoly
07/01, 03:09pm reply
When Autodesk's AutoCAD was in DOS format, it was also available for MAC
Guest
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