[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by AustinSchuh

Sorry to break it to you, but most, if not all, pieces of mechanical CAD software run only on Windows. You might find some tools which run on a Mac or Linux, but all the good ones (Solidworks, Inventor, Pro/E, ...) only run on Windows. I don't personally know of any big projects designed in AutoCAD. The constraint based systems in Solidworks and crew let you do amazing things that you can't do in AutoCAD, or are much harder.

My recommendation would be to spend the time to figure out how to either dual-boot or run it in a VM. That way, when you graduate, you will already have some good experience with one of the industry standard tools that is directly applicable.

Don't forget NX/UniGraphics. It runs on a Mac just fine. It's, of course, Apple's MCAD software of choice (judging from job postings)