Autodesk announces official release of Revit for use on virtualized server.
If the success of the iPhone and MacBook has taught us anything, it’s that people buy Apple products for the experience.
To this end, Autodesk has been somewhat accommodating. It has a short list of software offerings that work natively on Mac systems, including AutoCAD and Fusion 360.
Revit isn’t one of these offerings and this can pose a problem for architects and engineers using Mac devices.
This doesn’t mean that people haven’t been able to use Revit on Mac systems. So far, the answer has been to use Apple’s Boot Camp, which, for all intents and purposes, turns a Mac computer into a Windows computer.
Kind of defeats the purpose of buying a Mac for the experience, though, doesn’t it?
Revit joins AutoCAD on the cloud, running on a Frame virtualized server. (Screenshot courtesy of Frame.)
Moving Revit to the Cloud
Mac users have been crying out for a better way to use Revit for quite some time. According to the company, Revit is one of the more popular Autodesk applications running on Mac hardware.
So how did Autodesk decide to fix this problem?
Instead of developing a native offering of Revit for Mac (that’s so 2014), the company teamed up with Frame to bring the popular modeling software to the cloud. The result was a reconfiguration of Revit into a virtual environment that runs certified Autodesk applications through your computer’s browser.
Check out this video announcement from Autodesk University:
Mac Compatibility
The introduction of Revit to the cloud in this manner is another step on the way to full cloud use for Autodesk software. The browser-run version lists compatibility with OS X, iOS, Android, Chromebook and Windows OS systems. It isn’t clear whether it supports Linux.
Revit running on a MacBook Air using Frame. (Image courtesy of Roopinder Tara.)
This is particularly exciting for Mac users because it is the first official support of Revit for Mac, even if it still doesn’t run natively on the systems. The browser version runs at full speed from the cloud and doesn’t require additional plug-ins, so users can easily stay in Mac environments for the full experience.
If you’re curious and want to try out the browser version of Revit for free, check out cadonthecloud.com. Autodesk and Frame have also released some guides and FAQ sheets for those users who have a few questions.
