MacDraft Professional

RATING:

4.4

(196)

About MacDraft Professional

MacDraft Professional is a 2D CAD application for Mac. The software is suitable for classrooms, professional architects and individual users, and it features tools for floor plan design, architectural drawing and illustration. Users can create architectural drawings, floor plans, garden plans, mechanical drawings and topography. Users can select different units of measurement and scale drawings as necessary. The layers tool allows users to modify and add detail to specific parts of drawings without modifying other layers. Other features include integrations with various other CAD applications, vector tools and a Library Palette which allows users to store any drawn object and drag and drop it into new drawings. Single and multiple perpetual licenses are a...

MacDraft Professional Pricing

- Multi user licenses available - Upgrades from previous versions - Personal Edition (Lite) available - Educational discounts available

Starting price: 

$399.00 one time

Free trial: 

Available

Free version: 

Not Available

Floor Plans in MacDraft 8

MacDraft Professional Reviews

Overall Rating

4.4

Ratings Breakdown

Secondary Ratings

Ease-of-use

4.5

Customer Support

4.5

Value for money

4.5

Functionality

4

Most Helpful Reviews for MacDraft Professional

1 - 5 of 196 Reviews

David

Entertainment

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed March 2017

Excellent 2D Drawing

I've been using MacDraft for years, in its various iterations, primarily to produce blocking diagrams for theatrical performances. The latest version is even more powerful than the earlier ones. Sure, there's a bit of a learning curve, and I know I'm not using even half the power of the app, but it's versatility has won me over. There are plenty of other drawing applications available, but for the combination of features I want, plus a relatively low price, MacDraft takes the cake!

PROS

Ease of use combined with power.

CONS

I can't find any way to set up various preset groups (e.g., line weight x, line color y, line style z), so I have to select each one individually

Doug

Architecture & Planning, 1 employee

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed December 2020

REVIEW

Slightly frustrated - I am looking for a simple easy to use 2D draughting programme with the functionality of Vectorworks. This doesnt quite make it but it is better than other low-cost software for Mac.

PROS

Reasonable price.. it works OK once you get used to it. Works on Mac.

CONS

1. Problems setting up dwg/dxf imported drawings - setting size and scale. 2. Tools do not stay for repeat use. Need to be reselected each time. 3. Trimming is cumbersome - line by line. Ref 2 above. 4. Some of the tools are a bit cumbersome.

Reason for choosing MacDraft Professional

MacDraft tools are a easier to use.. But much easier to import dwg/dxf drawings. Din't like the use interface.

Reasons for switching to MacDraft Professional

MacDraft tools are a bit easier to use, and don't need the 3D capability. But much better import dwg/dxf drawings.

Thomas

Fishery, 11-50 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

3

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed December 2020

President

I use it for design work for our shellfish plant, flow charts for food processing, diagrams for publications, grants. I am a very visual person and have talent in expressing difficult concepts in flow and logic charts. We even have our oyster farm inventory on a Macdraft file that we update daily with changes. I'm the guy who deleted MS Office from all our business computers and went to Google Docs and Sheets because it has all the function I need for 99.9% of what we do without the intolable complexity of Word and Excel. Please keep MacDraft simple for us customers who are to simple minded for Word, Excel, and CAD.

PROS

Frankly, I have been using MacDraft for 30 years because it was easy, not overcomplicated, and I don't like to learn new overly complicated programs. I likely had on of the earliest versions of MacDraft from the earliest days 1990s...

CONS

The biggest problem I have with the software is that it creates progressing errors in measurements when you do some of the more advanced moves. It always has. Example - I will set the grid to 2" and do a layout, then suddenly it is doing 1" then 11/64" and so one after doing a rotation or inserting one of you templates. I wish you would fix that. It has been aggrevating for 30 plus years. I would expect that the new ownership would have resolved that. Also, you have made the dimensioning tool almost unuseable in recent versions. What's that about?

Reason for choosing MacDraft Professional

I'm not completely opposed to progress, but resist change just because some software engineer thinks it's cute. By and large your company has kept MacDraft fairly simple and that is why I continue to be a customer I do like the templates and am using them more and more. Just frustrating that the round off keeps generating errors.

Jerome

Construction, 1 employee

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed June 2019

Review of MacDraft Professional 7

Using the application to design furniture and built-ins

PROS

I like the ease of use and the fact that it is not cluttered with features not required for 2D drafting.

CONS

1. I would like to be able to close or hide the Libraries tile. It blocks the Parameters tile and I have to scroll down to get to the 'Parameters"of Length and angle, etc. 2. I would like to be able to snap to a predefined distance from an end or a corner of an object. For example, to be able to snap to a location 25%, or 1/3 from an end of a line or corner of a rectangle.

Reasons for switching to MacDraft Professional

Vectorworks was getting too bloated for my needs and too expensive.

Vendor Response

Hi Jerome, Thank you for the review! You can hide the library tile by dragging it down to the bottom of the right panel, it be there as a small pop up button. As for snapping to a location 25% or 1/3 from the end of a line, it would be great to get more information on this if you could contact us via support@microspot.co.uk :) Microspot Team

Replied June 2019

clare

Architecture & Planning, 1 employee

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed April 2023

Great intuitive 2D drafting software

PROS

I was able to quickly learn the program and start using it for my projects.

CONS

I would like the print function to be more flexible; often I want to print just a portion of a page on my at-home 8 1/2 x 11" printer, but there doesn't seem to be a way to hone in on a specific part of the layout for this.

Reason for choosing MacDraft Professional

Better features than AutoCAD LT, better pricing than Chief Architect.

Reasons for switching to MacDraft Professional

Sketchup wasn't accurate enough for construction documents.