In need of a cad application...

Hi! I really want to get rid of my old windows based laptop, and get a new shiny, reliable, virus-free, high tech, macbook pro!!! But... i'm curently working autocad, tekla structures, and i would realy like to learn how to operate solidworks, strucad, and other popullar design programs... If not posible what else is there, that can perform the same tasks as those above? Mainly i'm most concerned in using 3d structural apps like Tekla and Strucad... Thanks in advance...

You'll have to run basically any series CAD program under virtualization or Boot Camp anyways, so you'll still run the risk of getting malware.

miles01110 said:

You'll have to run basically any series CAD program under virtualization or Boot Camp anyways, so you'll still run the risk of getting malware.

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so... saying this, you make me think that there isn't any reason why i should change to mac... if i have to run windows, it means that i'm gonna use more ram from my system, more cpu power, and practicaly, zero down the benefits that an owner of a mac has... :-( the point is to be able to work a cad software without the annoying red-green-yellow-blue flag that says start at the down left corner of my machine... am i right?

Cad

It depends on what knid of CAD you need. The heavy Hitters, ACAD and microstation are both currently PC only (although there is recent talk about ACAD porting to the MAC and MStn will no doubt follow. For big projects they are both the most stable and the most conducive to multi user/discipline environments. That said, under either Boot camp or one of the Virtualisation Applications (VM Fusion or Parallels) the PC versions work perfectly well, with no perceptible performance hit. Given how expensive CAD licenses are, I would recommend you port to MAC, get a copy of Parallels 4, and use your existing package - pretty much natively. Ive been using MCStn V8si for a few years now on a Macbook Pro and find it work fine. I drag and drop files to the mac desktop and can print either from Windows or Mac.

CAD remains the last bastion application to go back properly to MAC. The barrier remains the fact that the majority of heavy license users - Engineering and Local Authority/Public Gov users are Microsft and PC based from years gone by. If anything, its design professionals - architects etc, who are pushing for availability on both platforms.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

lazacom said:

so... saying this, you make me think that there isn't any reason why i should change to mac... if i have to run windows, it means that i'm gonna use more ram from my system, more cpu power, and practicaly, zero down the benefits that an owner of a mac has...

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Exactly. I don't know how Parallels or VMWare perform with CAD-like applications, but you know... virtualization is virtualization.

I've run autoCAD while using VMware fusion, it's not as nice as running it through boot camp. But if you have to, it works. I found that the mouse is kind of jerky and that when doing hatches it can take a minute to continue. I'm on a macbook with a 2.4 ghz duo core processor with 4 gigs of ram. I was also using windows XP.
If you really want to run cad on your mac, install windows with boot camp and just don't go on the internet when your on the windows partition. If you don't want to do this, go back to windows