Official Luthiers Forum!

Title kind of says it all. I'm probably going to bite the bullet and pick up a brand-stinkin'-new copy of SW 2011 but I'm now a Mac guy and have no desire to return to windoze unless I absolutely have to.

I figure that a windows box with a decent graphics card and a 21" monitor will set me back about $1k, maybe as little as $750 but, It will only be used for Solidworks and whatever CAM package I settle on. On the other hand, I could spend 1.5 to 2x that and get a smokin' hot new iMac with a 24" monitor that I could use for all my music stuff etc.

I'm wondering if anyone here's had any success running SW 2011 on an iMac using bootcamp (the one where Windows runs pretty much natively). I've gotten SW99 and 2009 running on VMware Fusion (the one where windows runs in a window in OSX) but the later versions don't run or perform really badly..

I'm not looking for a debate on the superiority of Windows over OSX - I don't care, I like Macs now and I'd like to stick with them. I'm looking specifically for someone who's managed to get SW2011 running with full graphics support using bootcamp.

The two machines I'm looking at are:

3.2GHz Intel Core i3 with ATI Radeon HD 5670 graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, 4G RAM

or:

2.8GHz Intel Core i5 with ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics processor with 1GB of GDDR5 memory, 4G RAM

TIA

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Going through the same debate as you Andy and bit the bullet. I have bootcamp installed on my MacBook Pro and Windows 7 Professional installed. Instillation was reasonably simple though Windows wanted to download and install updates nearly all day long. And there is absolutely nothing about the operating system that would tempt me to switch back to it other than being forced to using it for the CAD/CAM.

Just installed Rhino last night but it doesn't work worth a darn from the trackpad. Going to have to get a windows mouse to try out.

I imagine that other programs might have similar issues, but a 3 wheel mouse is probably the least expensive thing you will ever buy in the luthier game.

I'm hoping that others can answer the question specific to Solidworks because it's one that I'd like to try out too.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Andy,

I use Rhino and MadCAM and was running it on the "Parallels" side of my MacBook Pro and everything was working fine until I upgraded Parallels. I gave up and just bought another Toshiba and use it just for the cad/cam stuff. Everything else on the Mac (including this!). Rhino has a new version out or nearly out for the Mac but I don't know how the CAM would integrate with that.

Shane

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Canada

If you're using bootcamp, you -are- running Windows natively, so it's no different than any other equivalent PC.

Either system will be fine, and you can use RealView graphics if you modify your graphics driver hardware ID to say it's a FirePro instead of a Radeon.

Using virtualization (Parallels, VMWare, etc) can be unpredictable, and I wouldn't bother with it if having things work right is your primary goal.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Bob, have you actually tried this or are you just speculating? I've found some pages on that setup that say exactly what you're saying but I'd like to talk to someone with first hand experience with 2011.

Here's the exact response I got from the tech support guy (who also makes guitars) I'm probably going to purchase from:



It's very tempting to try but if it don't work - I'll have to sink yet more cash into a PC. I suppose I could install bootcamp into my current setup (an older iMac) just to see if it works. It would mean picking up Windows 7 though I guess.

Having an excuse to pick up a 27" loaded iMac to set up the music/CAD/CAM studio is just so tempting. Would totally suck if I had to buy yet another PC on top of that to get SW to run properly though.

VMware or Parallels is not on the table.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

I've been searching around and found some more info I thought I'd add for future reference:

http://vimeo.com/11184808

That video shows SW running really nicely on an iMac and it looks like hardware video acceleration (at least to me).

I found this entry in wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATI_FireGL

And this on modding drivers: http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=105

It looks to me that it's probably worth at least trying to give it a shot on my current iMac. Worst case, I blew $100 on Windows 7 pro.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

I've been running Rhino and MadCAM on my iMac using Bootcamp and XP, and it works great. I'm using a trackball with a scroll wheel, because I too had a problem with my Apple mouse when using Rhino. The iMac is a screaming Windows machine. I have parallels on my laptop, and it works well too but I wanted to be able to use all of the iMac's horsepower, and there's no VM that will do that for me. Parallels is a lot more convenient though...

Dave

Though it is breaking with forum tradition, I don't give speculative advice without prefacing it as such. The question you're asking is analogous to 'if I buy a 2011 Toyota Camry in Alaska, will it still run on gas?'. Windows 7 software runs on any computer with high enough specs running Windows 7 even if it's a new version of the software and even if your computer has fruit on it. As an added layer of comfort, I've personally installed 2011 on a colleague's Macbook Pro and modded the drivers for him as well.

The only difference you'll see interface wise in the graphics is a feature called Realview which uses better texturing and lighting than the standard rendering engine of SW. It's just a software block, though, so a modded driver will let you enable it. Dassault only 'certifies' the pro cards from ATI and nVidia, but it'll run on anything (even cheap on board video!), albeit with a higher chance of glitches.

Soft modding a graphics card driver 'properly' will give you better performance in rendering and framerate wise, but it's pretty involved. In the case where you just want to get Realview working, you just need to learn how to change the device id so that it's the same driver with a different 'name'

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Andy, I'm pretty sure Solidworks has either just come out with or is coming out with a version to run on a Mac. I'd touch base with your local VAR.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Thanks. My plan is to definitely stick with the Mac.

BTW, have you ever seen the movie "Time Bandits"? Your advice kind of reminds me of the Robin Hood in that movie where he gives to the poor, but he's got to punch each of them in the face first.

As to a Mac version - if they are, it's top secret right now. The VAR I'm dealing with knows my plans to run it on a Mac and haven't said a word.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com