Parallels and 3D modeling/CAD

[number9]

Just a question reagarding Parallels. I recently installed XP home with bootcamp and it runs just great (as great as windowa will run) but considering that my main need to have windows running on my iMac is so I can used windows only CAD and modeling programs like SolidWorks or AutoCAD for school (I'm a mechanical engineer) I think virtualization may be a better solution than rebooting. My only hesitation comes around the fact that parallels doesn't support full 3d rendering because it can't access the video card or emulate it, according to what I've heard. I've seen other people say they are running AutoCAD in it, but I was wondering how usable parallels would be for software of this type.