Native MacOS 10.4 Cocoa

[thedrez]

When is Vectorworks going to become a native Cocoa application under OS 10? Anyone who has used both Carbon and Cocoa based apps knows that Cocoa is far superior... When will this be available????

[Pancho]

indeed, when?

I'd love to see at least some info on VW's future road map.

As I have posted earlier, we are developing an app in Cocoa that we wish we could interface with VW through the clipboard, but there does not seem to be any documented way of doing so.

Another, related, welcome addition would be the capability to import pdf into Vectorworks. A lot of the drawings we receive from clients are sent to us in pdf format that we wish we could import into VW in order to edit them. Also, many programs can place pdf's into the clipboard and if VW was able to read (and generate) this data, it would automatically gain lots of interface capabilities.

If there is anyone in the development team reading these forums, can you please let us know if you intend to implement some pdf-import at anytime in the future?

[Ken]

To import PDF into Vectorworks, go to File -> Import -> Import Image File, then select your PDF.

But, to have true PDF editing, you'll need to have an Adobe license, like owning Acrobat, which still doesn't allow you to "edit PDF's in Vectorworks within Acrobat" because there's no such thing, unless that's what you're asking for here, which seems near impossible given the sole purpose and existence of Acrobat as a commercial product. I've simply written on top of PDF images on an extra overlay layer (in VW).

One low-priced alternative is a shareware called GraphicConverter. It's just like Photoshop. You can modify the PDF image, then continue to save it as a PDF.

And, finally, I'm not sure anymore if NNA pays much attention to this wish forum. It's mostly for our own entertainment.

(As for cocoa, it seems NNA has long abandoned such robustness for the Mac in favor of some cross-platform approach that sacrifices a few things on each platform )

[islandmon]

I was under the impression that v12 uses the native Cocoa Libraries.

[Ken]

I was under the impression that v12 is supposed to be robust.

[Christiaan]

When is Vectorworks going to become a native Cocoa application under OS 10? Anyone who has used both Carbon and Cocoa based apps knows that Cocoa is far superior...

Can you explain what advantage you think there will be for the end user? I was under the impression that we wouldn't see much difference with an application like VW, especially under Mac OS X 10.5.

[islandmon]

The way I understand it ... Cocoa is 100% Object Oriented Code replacement of the traditional C++ lIbraries providing protected memory and more efficient processor paging.

[islandmon]

WWDC06:

Cocoa provides the fastest way to full-featured, extensible, and maintainable applications on Mac OS X and, for many Carbon developers, Cocoa also provides the easiest way to add new technologies. Learn the ins and outs of what it takes to integrate Objective-C frameworks and a Cocoa user interface into your existing Carbon application. You'll also hear development strategies and advice from those who have already made the transition to Cocoa from Carbon.

[Andrew Bell@NV]

Carbon and Cocoa are equally capable. I submit the following:

The Register on the Mac Finder and Carbon

'Bollocks, says one ex-Apple software engineer of our acquaintance who has no small knowledge of the beast. "Carbon is at the same level as Cocoa, and they are both built on the same underlying foundation. They are absolutely true peers of each other," he says. "One can do things that the other can do and vice versa, but there's no reason why a well written Carbon app can't be just as good as a well written Cocoa app.'

[Mark McCay-Moran]

If Carbon does the job and isn't leaving VW "behind" as the OS continues to grow and evolve, then Carbon it is. If NNA is postponing the inevitable, or removing options for the app to interface with the system or other apps, I'd like to see a transition to Cocoa.

I'm not tech saavy enough to give anything other than an end users opinion. Certainly VW following the move to intel based machines is a priority for me, as my office considers new computer purchases.

I don't know if or how its related, but I'd like to see dual and "quad" processors addressed, and soon. Its been quite some time since apples pro machines (except some lowest tier models) have come stock with multiple processors. Render times (and file sizes) have gotten out of hand.

cheers, mmm

[thedrez]

Well, it's been over a year and I understand quite a bit more than I did when I posted here... I can see where it just doesn't make sense to make VW a "pure" Carbon app.

Carbon it is... and shall be...