paralells

[super spud]

Hi all. Ive ordered my imac with 16gb of ram (is this ott for using windows and running autocad?)

Ad above I need to run windows. Is the best method through bootcamp or paralells? Its £35 as a student. If doing it through this method will it bog down the machine? I didnt opt for the i7 would this be advisable?

Any help much appreciated.

 

[yjchua95]

Hi all. Ive ordered my imac with 16gb of ram (is this ott for using windows and running autocad?)

Ad above I need to run windows. Is the best method through bootcamp or paralells? Its £35 as a student. If doing it through this method will it bog down the machine? I didnt opt for the i7 would this be advisable?

Any help much appreciated.

16GB of RAM is enough if you want to run Windows via Parallels or VMware. I suggest assigning 4GB of RAM to the Windows VM(x64). That's around the sweet spot of RAM to be assigned for a Windows VM.

If you didn't opt for the i7, I wouldn't recommend using Parallels or VMware, because it will bog down your system. If you have an i7, it's okay because it's got 8 threads (the i5 only has 4). Think of a thread as a virtual core.

I'd suggest Boot Camp, because you'll also be exploiting the full capabilities of the graphics card, memory and DirectX (which is what AutoCAD uses).

By the way why don't you use the OS X version of AutoCAD instead?

 

[Bear]

Even with an i5, it's okay to run parallels (or other virtualization software) for most things. Thee important part is you have enough memory. What you could do is install Windows in Bootcamp and then point Parallels to that so you have a choice.

What types of things would you be running under Windows?

 

[super spud]

16GB of RAM is enough if you want to run Windows via Parallels or VMware. I suggest assigning 4GB of RAM to the Windows VM(x64). That's around the sweet spot of RAM to be assigned for a Windows VM.

If you didn't opt for the i7, I wouldn't recommend using Parallels or VMware, because it will bog down your system. If you have an i7, it's okay because it's got 8 threads (the i5 only has 4). Think of a thread as a virtual core.

I'd suggest Boot Camp, because you'll also be exploiting the full capabilities of the graphics card, memory and DirectX (which is what AutoCAD uses).

By the way why don't you use the OS X version of AutoCAD instead?

Its a possibility however I already have autocad for windows so was just going to utilise that.

----------

Even with an i5, it's okay to run parallels (or other virtualization software) for most things. Thee important part is you have enough memory. What you could do is install Windows in Bootcamp and then point Parallels to that so you have a choice.

What types of things would you be running under Windows?

Engineering analysis software mainly. Some of which is only available on windows.

Is 16gb OTT?

 

[Shivetya]

I prefer bootcamp for the most part. Having used Parallels for many years I finally deleted it after their incessant release of upgrades instead of patches. The for a limited time $49 upgrade fee that seems to come yearly. Oh, going to Mavericks, well you have to upgrade!!! My response was, good bye

 

[mosborne39]

Autodesk allows you to install one copy of Autocad on a laptop and one on a desktop as long as they are not being used at the same time. My work laptop, running Windows XP, has a copy and my I-Mac has an OSX version installed on it. If you are having trouble, send Autodesk an email through their help section. I found them to be very responsive and more than accommodating.

Now if you have a hacked version of ACAD then you're on your own.

 

[bradbamford]

Do you get better performance pointing Parallels at a Bootcamp partition vs a VM running on the same HD as OSX ?

 

[super spud]

Autodesk allows you to install one copy of Autocad on a laptop and one on a desktop as long as they are not being used at the same time. My work laptop, running Windows XP, has a copy and my I-Mac has an OSX version installed on it. If you are having trouble, send Autodesk an email through their help section. I found them to be very responsive and more than accommodating.

Now if you have a hacked version of ACAD then you're on your own.

Are you files interchangeable between the two platforms?

 

[mosborne39]

Yes they are. I just transfer them via a thumb drive or email them to myself. I've not had any issues with .dwg or the .dxf

 

[super spud]

Yes they are. I just transfer them via a thumb drive or email them to myself. I've not had any issues with .dwg or the .dxf

Awesome!! Did you find the interface very different? Id image they would want to keep them fairly similar.

 

[super spud]

Yes they are. I just transfer them via a thumb drive or email them to myself. I've not had any issues with .dwg or the .dxf

Awesome!! Did you find the interface very different? Id image they would want to keep them fairly similar.

 

[mosborne39]

The interface is very similar, menus can be placed where ever you want and all text commands work exactly the same. The biggest difference is my laptop at work has a second screen which is only 22" while my iMac is a 27". That extra space is extra nice.

 

[super spud]

The interface is very similar, menus can be placed where ever you want and all text commands work exactly the same. The biggest difference is my laptop at work has a second screen which is only 22" while my iMac is a 27". That extra space is extra nice.

My boss kept going mad at me for not using my second screen. I used to have all my properties boxes open with a tiny working space and kept zooming in out and around. He could never follow what I was doing when showing him something!