Anyone running SolidWorks on a Mac? 15

[cmm]

Anyone running SW via Boot Camp or Parallels? I notice someone posted this question mid last year. Currently only Mac Pro has a SW-certified graphics card (Quadro FX 4500) as an option, but I'd rather use the cleaner iMac or a Macbook Pro if I could get away with it. The thought of specifying another piecemeal Wintel box at work makes me cringe now that I've experienced Apple. If on SW ran natively on OSX...


Chris Montgomery
Mechanical Engineer

 

[TStaples]

spaceaged,

I was pleasantly surprised. Sleep mode worked just fine in Windows XP on my MacBook Pro, under Bootcamp. But, with a caveat. I tried it with MS Word running, and it worked fine. With Solidworks running, it was a little different. It did go to sleep, but when I opened it back up to resume, I got some strange video artifacts in SW. It ultimately cleared up with a redraw, so . . ..

So, I guess it mostly worked!

-Tony Staples

http://www.tscombustion.com

 

[Suhr]

I would swicth to the MAc in a heart beat
However.... I like Real view a lot and I hear in 2008 version it will be way cool. I work with surfaces and need it.

Oh well

But BTW my son has a iMac 2.3G dual core and it flys AND it has a 4 button mouse standard, right click works fine when he is in Windows.

 

[B1ALT]

Thanks Tony (TStaples) for your well expressed informative experience.
Question: Do you know if running soldiworks on Mac Mini is also practical and doable?
The one I am considering has an intel core duo chip with 2 gigs ram. (purchased 10/06)
I want to install solidworks on this if possible.

Thanks again.

Bob

 

[pdybeck]

Parallels virtualization software has made some in-roads on support for Hardware accelerated OpenGL and DirectX on their latest release (3.0). Might be interesting to see if SolidWorks runs well while in a virtual session of windows under Parallels 3.0. Mac users would not have to reboot to start in Windows, they could simply open a virtual session while in Tiger or Leopard, Zebra, Dog, Cat, or whatever and launch SolidWorks. Not sure how good the support now is for OpenGL and DirectX graphics (supposedly it has improved), but there could be some promise there. Seems like virtualization will really stir the software/computer industry with some of the options it presents. Could be a disruptive kind of technology (disruptive to software/hardware vendors).

 

[TStaples]

Well,

My wife decided she just had to have my Macbook Pro, so. . ..

So I did what I always do. Upgrade! I purchased a new 17" MBP with the 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, and the new Nvidia 8600M GT graphics. The screen itself has been upgraded, and is now even clearer and brighter. The Nvidia graphics are far faster than the ATI 1600 chip. All I can say is WOW!

As for Parallels, the new 3.0 version handles Solidworks 2007 in Accelerated Graphics mode. SW2007 has been tested and explicitly stated by Parallels to be compatible with 3.0 I now don't see any performance difference between booting Windows via Bootcamp, and running Solidworks in OS X, under Parallels. Both modes get full Graphics Acceleration from the GPU. I now have only one reason to boot Windows; To download patches and updates! Unfortunately, this seems to be a once a week issue these days! :-(

-Tony Staples

http://www.tscombustion.com

 

[Sayyad]

Hey, so is the newer MacBook Pro with the Nvidia graphics hardware significantly faster with SolidWorks than the older ATI graphics MacBook Pro?
It is good to read that Parallels 3.0 has 3D graphics acceleration that actually works well. Thanks,

Sayyad

 

[solidesign]

Suhr mentioned a while ago that Real View does not work on a Mac. I'm having this same issue. I'm running on a Dual core 2.66 Intel Mac with an ATY Radeon x1900 graphics card. Rendering seems to have some glitches too.

Anyone know of a fix for this or what graphics cards will work better/ make real view and rendereing work well on a Mac?

I'm considering getting a new iMac for home and it would be sweet if I could run SolidWorks with real view on it.... as well as get this current machine to work too.

 

[solidesign]

Oh yeah, I'm running SolidWorks 2008.

Cheers!

 

[Theophilus]

Well, at the least you'd want to check the graphics card hardware page at the SolidWorks site. Some cards pass with RealView, others do not. If they don't at least pass in the list posted there, I wouldn't expect them to then feature RealView on a Mac.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine

 

[solidesign]

Thanks Theophilus,

It looks like the current card I have isn't recommended at all.

It also looks like the and the new nVidia GE force 8800 GS that is in the iMac and suppoosed to give screaming 3D results isn't even on the radar at Solidworks yet.

It's hard to tell, though becasue it's a pull down menu where the results differ based on several variable, and Macs aren't supported. Probably a crapshoot drawing any parallels between what they recommend and what would be good on a mac.

Do you happen to know of any reasons why real view would not be supported on any Mac, even if you had a SolidWorks recommended card? That's what I've been hearing, but I can't think of any hardware limitations that would cause this.

Cheers,

~g

 

[Theophilus]

I think the limit might be in the Mac's ability to use hardware-based OpenGL--essentially proper drivers formatted to take advantage of such a system. From what I understand you're forced to use software-based OpenGL (WAY slower) to get the graphics working at all--and the RealView feature is narrowly limited only to certain cards to begin with. I'd guess it really comes down to getting the hardware to properly play with the OS in dealing with the software (guessing). So I'm not sure you'll see this working with a Mac anytime soon.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine

 

[Suhr]

Well I gave up
I had a Macbook pro 2.6G dual core laptop with 4 g memory.
Solidworks works just fine if you boot into Windows XP (dualboot) I tried parallels and Fusion, hated both and they dragged a bit. The graphics card was a NVidia GeForce.
Solidworks ran OK but forget Realview and I need realview, it is adictive.
The only graphics card Mac offers that will run RealView is on the tower and a $1200 option. I also found XP was not as stable as it is on a Dell.
So... the slender sweet Mac went to my wife and I picked up a M6300 Dell laptop. It screams, it is heavy but worth it and Solidworks runs like a champ realview and all. AND... believe it or not I'm running Vista 64 and havent had ONE hickup freeze or crash on any program in 2 months!! They fixed Vista ! At least 64bit and I'm happy and so is my wife. Solidworks costs too much money not to get the computer that works best with it. At least if that is how you make your money. For a hobby, SW is fine on a Mac, just not production, at least in my experience and I really tried to make it work.

 

[clharris]

I currently have a macbook pro and mac pro sitting side by side comparing SolidWorks in Parallels and VMware w/XP pro. So far the mac pro is much better at handling large assemblies and running COSMOS. VMware seems to be the winner by a bit but not much. If any of you have benchmarks and/or questions let me know. I am trying to figure out which machine to keep. No, I do not use boot camp.

 

[Suhr]

I tried both an you really should try boot camp, there is a world of difference. One warning to everyone, dont expect any support with problems if you have maintenance support. Solidworks says Solidworks + Mac = no support.

Especially if you are not using boot camp

 

[purepower]

On topic with the original post, I have Solidworks 08 running fine on my MacBook. Here are the specs:

MacBook, 2.4 GHz- Core2
2 GB ram
gma x3100
Windows xp (32 bit, via Boot Camp)
Solidworks 08

Everything works great for small parts and assemblies. Im on the mac for personal drawings and would recommend such a setup for light to moderated use. Any complex assemblies or animations I would recommend doing on a workstation desktop.

And in regards to the mouse issue, the mac trackpad enables two-finger scrolling and for a right click I simply place two fingers on the pad and click. Sounds like a fully functioning mouse to me...

 

[Theophilus]

I'm glad everyone's keeping this thread going--it's good to see what sort of cross-OS performance can be had (any solutions with Linux yet?).

purepower, what's a system like that cost (particularly when compared with a Windows systm of comparable bits)? What advantages do you see in running Mac hardware as opposed to non-Mac stuff?

I must admit, I'm rather attached to my Logitech MX-Revolution mouse. Yes, I do find it well-worth the cost (I'd estimate it payed for itself within 30 days).



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine

 

[pdybeck]

Love the Logitech MX-Revolution Mouse. I use one at home with a wireless keyboard from them as well as a hi-def web cam for use with Skype. Logitech makes some great stuff...

 

[cmm]

Is there a prize for starting the thread with the greatest number of replies?

Chris Montgomery
Mechanical Engineer

 

[purepower]

My system cost $1199 (normally $1299 - $100 student discount).

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook?mco=MTE3MjA

The most similar Dell I could find costs $999, but its not quite as nice. Same size hard drive, screen size, ram, and graphics card, but its processor is a C2D 1.83 gHz, mine is 2.4.

http://www.dell.com/content/product...s=dhs&cs=19&~oid=us~en~29~xpsnb_m1330_anav1~~

The lowest MacBook is even more comparable to the Dell with a price difference of only $100. For the extra cash you get a little faster processor than the Dell (2.1 v 1.83) but lose 40 gigs of hard drive. But with processor heavy programs like SolidWorks and AutoCAD, the bump in speed is defiantly worth it. Also with the mac you get OSX, which is the main reason I stick with apple. The majority of my workflow goes on the mac side (because its more stable and more intuitive to use), switching over to windoze only when i have to for my cad. Also, because the entire computer is built as one packaged deal, the hardware-to-hardware compatibility is much, much stronger (its not a frankenstein of components slapped together and shipped)...

 

[Theophilus]

Thanks for the feedback (star). Looks like they're getting much more competitive than previously. I'd have a tough time using a Mac at this point because of the amount of parts and assembly sizes I often use (graphics card/drivers wouldn't fly), but if your primary platform is Mac for other work, this looks very appealing. That, and you're used to the (lame) mouse issue already. ;-) (Kudos, however, to the superior track pad.)



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine