About PowerCADD 9

August 2009:Engineered Software has announced PowerCADD 9 has released August 26 2010!

Visit this link on our website to learn more about Buying PowerCADD for the first time or to learn how to Upgrade from a previous version of PowerCADD to version 9. Engineered Softwares website also has information on what's new in PowerCADD 9 and we have information here in our PowerCADD 9 Learning Center We also suggest readers visit PowerCADD Canada to read this release announcement for PowerCADD 9.

About this section of our website

This section of our PowerCADD User Learning Center is dedicated to the latest version of PowerCADD, version 9. Premium content on this site is restricted to registered users only. To post comments, vote in online polls, and access other features on this website please register or login.

Basic System Requirements:

PowerCADD 9 supports Intel only Apple Macintosh Computers.

• Processor: an Apple Macintosh computer with Intel (single, dual or more) processors
• RAM^?: 2 GB^? (gigabyte) of RAM for optimal performance
• a CD-ROM drive
• a hard disk drive with 150 MB of free disk space for the PowerCADD application, user manual, and example drawings
• Operating System: Mac OS^? X 10.5 Leopard minimum, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or newer recommended

Recommended System Requirements for PowerCADD 9:

While the minimum system requirements will do the job with respect to PowerCADD, here are a few additional or modifications to those requirements well worth considering:

• Main Processor: Multi processors will accelerate the operation of Mac OS X and therefore also improve performance for PowerCADD. Multiple Intel Core i3, i5, i7 or Xenon processors or better.
• An additional 125MB of free hard disk space (275 MB total) for third party PowerCADD Externals and their related user manuals and/or example files.
• Graphics Board: The fastest possible graphics board, with maximum amount of Video RAM available for your particular hardware. Maximizing your graphics board will help increase overall system level performance and by association the performance of PowerCADD.
• RAM: at least 4 GB of RAM total. There are various system level processes that take up memory, along with the other applications that are also typically run during a work session in addition to PowerCADD. For example it may not be unusual to have an Email application, web browser, word processor, spread sheet and image editor (e.g. Photoshop, PhotoShop Elements or Painter) all running at the same time as PowerCADD.
• Operating System: Mac OS X Snow Leopard (most recent version -- OS 10.6.4 at time of this writing) or newer. A well maintained and up to date operating system is critical to overall computer performance and affects all applications, including PowerCADD.
• OS Maintenance: A well maintained Operating System and hard drive. This includes regularly running OS X Repair Permissions (related Apple article ), hard drive directory maintanence , CRON^? tasks (related Apple article ), and general hard drive optimization (one of our related articles). It's also important to note that having sufficient free hard disk space is important for proper performance of Mac OS X -- a hard drive with insufficient free disk space can cause significant OS slow downs which affects all open applications including PowerCADD. We recommend maintaining at least 15-20% free hard drive space on your hard drive, with a bare minimum of 10% free hard drive storage space.
• Optional: an output device and related software drivers of your choice which is Mac OS X compatible to print your drawings