Dominik Hoffmann, the Man Behind the SolidWorks for Mac Petition

Through the help of Google and Facebook, I managed to track down Dominik Hoffmann, the man who first launched the SolidWorks for Mac petition. With 4,479 signatures on record (so far), his online plea represents a small but vocal segment of the CAD users flirting with the idea of migrating to Mac. Hoffmann was kind enough to spare a few minutes to respond to my inquiry, so here’s our exchange (edited for length and clarity):

Question: When did you launch the petition? What prompted you to launch it?

Answer: I think it was in 1999. I was just  getting started with SolidWorks. I was so impressed with the ease with  which I was able to just pick up and run with SolidWorks that I   imagined and wished for a version that would run on Apple’s Operating  System. Since then the [Mac] OS has been greatly improved and hardware has become so much faster, too. SolidWorks on Mac OS X would be even more desirable today.

Q: Were you surprised by the number of signatures collected?

A: I hadn’t looked at the number until you brought it up in many years. I  had no idea that it was that many.

Q: Have you heard that Autodesk is currently running a survey to  find out people’s interest in AutoCAD on Mac?

A: No. You’re the first to alert me to that. I couldn’t care less, unless it  meant that they would bring Inventor to the Mac OS as well. SolidWorks   opened up the world of 3D CAD to me, and I couldn’t imagine doing what I do with CAD in 2D. Inventor, by the way, comes close to SolidWorks, but is less intuitive.

Q: Can you give me some background info on who you are?

A: I am a physicist who has worked in the telecom components industry, where I picked up SolidWorks. Since the telecom collapse, I have worked in biotech, where SolidWorks has helped me design widgets for experimental setups. I guess I’m coming up on 10 years.  In my most recent project I have had to use Inventor instead.

Q: Anything else you’d like to add?

A: Should you chose to quote me, would you mind making sure my name is  spelled correctly?

Note: I also had a chance to speak to Jeff Ray, SolidWorks CEO. He shed some light on SolidWorks’ position on the Mac platform. I’m transcribing our phone call now. I hope to be able to post it tomorrow.