VM Fusion on Mac

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Hi, I am running VMware 6 on my IMac 21" so that I can use a CAD program called 2020 design. My problem is that I dont know how to properly install windows 7 with the proper amount of memory divided to each. 2020 had optimum requirements of Windows 7, intel core i7, 8GB RAM (for 64 bit OS), NVidia GeForce or ATI/AMD Radeon with !1 GB or more dedicated memory (3d accelerator). I have no idea how to make sure that that is what I have on the virtual platform. I really need someone who knows mac and pc! :) Teri
 

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Welcome to Mac-Forums..

Within the settings of the VM you've created for Windows, click on the Processors & Memory tab and there you can control how much memory you give to the Windows VM. Realize that if you want to give 8GB to the VM, your iMac should have at least 16GB of memory, otherwise you're going to adversely affect the performance of OS X..

As far as graphics is concerned, click on Display and ensure "Accelerate 3D graphics" is set to on, you can't really control video memory here.

Realize that the requirements you are looking at are for the physical machine, that doesn't translate one-to-one for a VM.

So start with some reasonable level of settings and see how the program behaves, if it behaves well, then you're done, if not, you will have to increase (likely) the amount of RAM given to the VM to make the application happy..
 

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Those are some pretty hefty system requirements. I doubt the developer ever intended for that application to be run via virtualization. I'll be interested to hear how it works out (if it does).
 

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Those are some pretty hefty system requirements. I doubt the developer ever intended for that application to be run via virtualization. I'll be interested to hear how it works out (if it does).
My thoughts exactly. The GPU requirements alone (not to mention the memory ones) are very high for a VM and I'm not sure Fusion can facilitate that much access to the underlying hardware.

TeriTuran, have you considered Boot Camp (installing Windows on your Mac)?
 
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Welcome to Mac-Forums..

Within the settings of the VM you've created for Windows, click on the Processors & Memory tab and there you can control how much memory you give to the Windows VM. Realize that if you want to give 8GB to the VM, your iMac should have at least 16GB of memory, otherwise you're going to adversely affect the performance of OS X..

As far as graphics is concerned, click on Display and ensure "Accelerate 3D graphics" is set to on, you can't really control video memory here.

Realize that the requirements you are looking at are for the physical machine, that doesn't translate one-to-one for a VM.

So start with some reasonable level of settings and see how the program behaves, if it behaves well, then you're done, if not, you will have to increase (likely) the amount of RAM given to the VM to make the application happy..

Thank you for the quick reply. I did go in a dedicate the minimum requirements for the the 2020. You mention clicking on "Display" would this be on the VM side or the mac side and where?
 
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funny thing is I can't even figure out how to post messages back to you from this forum:) How in the world am I going to fix such a perplexing issues as a virtual platform running a CAD program not really meant for that :(
 

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Thank you for the quick reply. I did go in a dedicate the minimum requirements for the the 2020. You mention clicking on "Display" would this be on the VM side or the mac side and where?

Check on the Display within the VM settings you were looking at the memory..

As the others have indicated, while VMWare and Parallels have come a long way in being able to run some memory/CPU/GPU intensive applications, some will just not work.

Having said that, I do know that a colleague of mine used run AutoCad on their Macbook Pro through Parallels and it worked well enough for them to work. Not being a use of CAD software, I can't tell you whether they just dealt with decreased performance while having the ability to stay within OS X or if AutoCad has lower requirements than the application you are attempting to run.

So give it a shot, if it fails, since you already have a copy of Windows that you're using for the VM, you can go the Boot Camp route..

Oh, and which Mac are you using anyway? It's probably good to make sure that the Mac meets the system requirements of your CAD application. Also, they don't have a Mac version of that application?
 
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Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac12,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.7 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 12 GB
Boot ROM Version: IM121.0047.B1F
SMC Version (system): 1.71f22
Serial Number (system): D25G81MJDHJN
Hardware UUID: AFFBEBC8-7155-53AD-B9C9-5A7E258CC685


AMD Radeon HD 6770M:

Chipset Model: AMD Radeon HD 6770M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x6740
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-C0170C-170
EFI Driver Version: 01.00.544
Displays:
iMac:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes
Connection Type: DisplayPort

The reason I'm in this mess is because after just 2 years the hard drive died and it was just replaced. I'm back to factory settings and having to load all this software back on.

No they do not make a mac version. If they did I would purchase it no matter what the cost.
 

Raz0rEdge

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Your Mac doesn't meet the Optimal requirements and I wouldn't sweat that anyway..

Looking at the minimum requirements:

PC Desktop/Laptop or Mac Boot Camp
Operating System: XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 (32 or 64 bit) OR Apple Mac OSX w\Boot Camp
Processor: ual Core or Quad Core Processor at 2.16GHz or above
System Memory: 3 GB RAM (for 32 bit OS) or 6 GB RAM (for 64 bit OS)
Graphic Card: NVidia GeForce or ATI/AMD Radeon with 512 MB or more dedicated memory (3D accelerator)
Resolution: 1280 x 1024
Security Device: USB port
Hard Drive: 7200 RPM drive with 4 GB or more free disk space (80 GB hard drive or above)
DVD-Rom Drive: 8X DVD or higher

I believe the VM will work fine for you, give it the 6GB of memory and leave the other 6GB for OS X and you should be fine..
 
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VM on Mac

Hi, I'm back with a new MAC - a bigger one :) So my new question is how much memory should I give to each side. Currently I have 50% - 50% and the 2020 CAD program is working slow. If you look at the original message I give the mac stats and the cad program requirements. So without really jeopardizing the Mac how much can I dedicate to the fushion side? Also on the Processor and Memory Screen I have the option to select 1,2,3 . . . processors. I have no idea what I do with that but will it help the massive cad program run better if I dedicate "processor" to the virtual side?

Help :) I would love to find someone who knows both sides and can instruct me the best way to configure this MAC with Fusion.

Thanks a million.

Teri
 

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RAM is likely not your issue. CAD generally requires strong 3D acceleration, which is a weak point of virtualization. You'd be better off running Mac native CAD or use Boot Camp to install Windows natively on your Mac, where it can take full advantage of your video card.
 
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CWA107 Thanks for the insight. However, if I do run the CAD using boot camp I will not be able to be on both at the same time? I'm not exactly sure how to do all this it is a challenge to do the IT side of my business. I'm a kitchen and bath designer and so I'm forced to confront computer issues and so here I sit not even really understanding your suggestion completely but I certainly don't expect you to take the baby steps I need to understand :)
 

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CWA107 Thanks for the insight. However, if I do run the CAD using boot camp I will not be able to be on both at the same time? I'm not exactly sure how to do all this it is a challenge to do the IT side of my business. I'm a kitchen and bath designer and so I'm forced to confront computer issues and so here I sit not even really understanding your suggestion completely but I certainly don't expect you to take the baby steps I need to understand :)

I will try to break this down and make it simpler...

VMWare Fusion, Parallels Desktop and VirtualBox are all different products that fall into the same category of software, known collectively as "virtualization". What they do, in layman's terms, is create a "pretend" PC within a process running on your computer. Since that "pretend" PC doesn't have access to the hardware resources of your computer, it has to go through layers of software to do that. As a result, the performance will never be quite up to par with running a software package on the system itself (we refer to this as "native").

Your Mac, from a hardware standpoint, is like any other run-of-the-mill PC, albeit with a few Apple-specific tweaks. So, it has the ability to run Windows natively just as any other PC would. Boot Camp is a set of tools that facilitate this process and sets it up in such a way that Mac OS X is still available.

In other words, when you configure Boot Camp, you give your Mac a split personality, such that you can choose to start it up in Windows or in Mac OS X, but you can't run them both at the same time as you can under VMWare Fusion.

So, what are your options for optimal performance? My vote would be to look at a Mac-specific software package for your CAD work. There are a number of great options out there, most specifically, AutoCAD, which is sort of the standard-bearer for the segment. If you don't need something that high-end, you might try looking at packages like iDraw or one of many others available on the Mac App Store when you search for the term 'CAD'.

Aside from that, you can run it straight from Windows via Boot Camp, but of course, then all your Mac goodness is unavailable until it's time to reboot (as you rightly noted).

And finally, you could continue to try to tweak around with settings in VMWare, but I really don't think that's going to help. Specifically, I would allocate at least 4GB of RAM to the VM if the package you're using is 64-bit. If it's 32-bit, then it can't address more than 3GB of RAM anyway. Also, under the Graphics settings, make sure that 3D acceleration is enabled. You might also try allocating an additional core or two under the processor settings - but that is just "pretend", so it probably won't help a whole heck of a lot.

You might also try Parallels Desktop, as it is supposed to be a bit more capable in terms of 3D performance, but I think that is mostly geared toward gaming - and Parallels tends to be less reliable as well.

Hope that makes sense.
 
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Vm Fusion vs Boot camp

Is Boot camp a virtual platform? If not should I be perfect to run the 2020 I'm talking about. Just got the new 27" Retina 5 :)
 
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Hi, Still trying to work out my CAD (2020 Technologies) program on a mac not meant for a mac. Is Boot Camp going to be the same in terms of limitations as VM Fusion for running a huge cad program? Just got the new 27" retina 5 and needing to load Window but don't know if I should use Bootcamp? or Fusion?
 

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Boot camp is not virtualization, its the method in which you would install and run Windows natively on the Mac. The upside of this approach is better performance for hardware intensive apps. The downside is that you have to reboot between Windows and OS X if you need to switch between applications..
 

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Let's keep this thread all together. Please do not cross post.
 
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Okay so I'm finally going to give this a try I think ;) It would be so much better if they just came out with a version for mac. Thanks so much again
 

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to chscag I have no idea what the heck you're talking about?

Cross-posting is starting new threads about the same subject in different forums. We like to keep all the posts about the same topic in a single thread so that its easier to look it over and provides a good reference for future readers..
 

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