Update of PowerCADD for MacOS Catalina

[Jean Claude EuanCADD]

Is the 64 bit release of PoweCADD still on track for late 2020? An update would be hugely helpful to our business here in the UK with 10 PC users.

Regards

Euan

[Rik Negus]

Don't hold your breath wait for the update

[TrippRoyce]

Hopefully soon. By winter I’ll have to jump to another platform to stay productive and compatible with the rest of the world.

[[email protected]]

Euan et al.,

We receive many requests per day regarding the 64-bit version of PowerCADD. I have had a few customers request that I post updated information on the forum regarding PowerCADD 11.

This is what we are expecting for release at this point.

As has been discussed earlier in this forum, PowerCADD is being rewritten for the 64-bit architecture. This is a requirement to run with Catalina, Big Sur and above. Had the issue simply been to make PowerCADD 64-bit capable, that would have been a relatively small task. Instead, the rewrite is required because the fundamental APIs which PowerCADD was written against were completely removed from the system upon the release of Catalina. These APIs known as Carbon, are how PowerCADD 9 communicates with windows, menus, dialogs, input devices(mice and tablets), files, the file system, and dozens more subsystems. Those APIs are gone from Catalina and above.

For the reasons I stated above, PowerCADD 9, a Carbon-based 32-bit application, will not run on Catalina or Big Sur. We have been and are working on the 64-bit upgrade of PowerCADD, PowerCADD 11.


The good news: PowerCADD 11 supports modern OS features which were not available Carbon applications: tabbed windows, modern input devices, dark-mode, graphics-card support, modern toolbars, modern UI, cloud support, full use of computer memory, and a host of performance improvements available to 64-bit binaries. In addition, PowerCADD 11 will be native on Apple Silicon-based computer when it is released. We have been developing on these machines since early June.

The bad news: At this point we are expecting the release to be summer of 2021. I wish I could tell you the release will be sooner, but software development takes time.

For users who wish to purchase hardware which is not compatible with Mojave, you have the option of running PowerCADD using virtualization with a 3rd party product like VMWare Fusion or Parallels. It isn't an optimum solution but a workable one which quite a few PowerCADD users employ. We use VMWare Fusion in-house to run PowerCADD on all versions of macOS which PowerCADD runs.

For users who can stay on Mojave until PowerCADD 11 is released, that is the best solution to maintain access to PowerCADD.

Todd Stanley
Engineered Software

[patrickm]

Thanks for clarifying the situation, Todd. We appreciate not being totally in the dark. (Now get back to work! )

[Joe Mattei]

Finally a note from the software cave... Todd, you just lost a whole bunch of users!

[bellarchitect]

Thanks Todd! At least some of us appreciate your work and Alfred's work. Looking forward to the new PC11 release!

[Rik Negus]

Another empty promise, shear bull shit!

Todd be a man and find a new home for PowerCadd, as long as you hold onto it there will never be a future.

Based on experience you completion dates mean nothing.

I happen to know what the real problem is and you know what it is Todd and it has nothing to do with time.

[JaiCheswick]

So please let us know what the problem is Rik.

[pjmeli]

I have PowerCadd running on a Late 2014 Mac Mini under Mohave and just in case that computer gives up the ghost before a 64-bit version comes I have a Mohave Virtual Machine running in VMware on my 2018 Mini (Catalina). The VM seems just as snappy as PC is on my older mini.

Speaking only for myself I would be lost without PowerCadd and I'm willing to run it on old hardware or a VM for a long time.

I would love to have a 64-bit version of PowerCadd ASAP but I'm certainly not mad about it. Apple has moved the goalposts on the OS a few times in the past few years so I understand the difficulties for a small company.

I do most of my work in Sketchup but Trimble just switched to a subscription model that is double the cost of my Pro version for features I will never use, and the subscription version won't run if the subscription lapses, so I'm waiting to see if FormZ survives. Most of those new features are just sneaky ways to increase revenue. That seems to be the operating system for corporate businesses these days, so be careful what you wish for as far as PC being bought out by a big company. No matter how much blood we give they want more.

Just my 2¢
Paul