Good news! Autodesk has announced an app that will link iPads and iPhones to Project Butterfly. This provides viewing, markup and limited editing facilities.
Bad news! Autodesk has decide to call it AutoCAD WS, which is bordering on the fraudulent. It’s not AutoCAD, is nothing like it, and is unlikely to ever be anything like it. I can call my dog Prince, but that doesn’t make him royalty. Unfortunately, much of the mainstream media appears to be blissfully unaware of this. This is gaining Autodesk some short-term column inches, but at the longer-term expense of furthering the myth that “AutoCAD” is going to run on iPhone and iPads. People will start using Butterfly, think it’s AutoCAD, and then, if they need CAD for their Macs, wonder why they should spend thousands on something so basic and limited.
Good news! It will be available Real Soon Now, and you can sign up for it at http://butterfly.autodesk.com/mobile/.
Bad news! You can’t sign up for it using your iPhone or iPad (unless it’s jailbroken). Apple may be convinced you don’t need Flash, but Autodesk disagrees. The Butterfly signup page requires Flash, you see. It wants to send you off to adobe.com.
Ouch! You have to admit, that’s pretty funny. Cluelessness? There’s an app for that. I guess iUsers will just have to use their Macbook Pros to sign up.
I choose to jailbreak my iPhone. I love the hardware Apple designs, I am indifferent about the software they offer, I love the number of apps (due to the level of adoption) available on iOS, but I really hate their close-minded control over the app screening process. Android devices and iOS devices are on an equal playing field right now, in my opinion, but the devices with real power are jailbroken i-whatevers and rooted Androids handsets. Here’s to hoping that Autodesk and Apple get on the same page if they want to develop a high adoption rate of their wares.
Probably “AutoCAD WS” looks better than “Design Review WS’, because this AutoCAD on iPhone thing is nothing more than a small Design Review.