Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

I have Windows 7 installed on my MacBook Pro using VMware Fusion. Today I installed Inventor Professional 2013. It starts up fine but when I go to create a new part (basically start a graphics window) it kills Windows. No, not a crash. VMware tells me that Windows 7 plan and simple died.

Turning off 3D Graphics Acceleration in VMware settings solved thsi problem. I could create a part and the graphics worked just fine. Next I started Inventor Fusion and it failed on startup complaining about not be able to initialize the graphics sub system. Turning 3D Graphics Acceleration on fixed this problem.

So basically to have Inventor working I need to turn 3D Graphics Acceleration off and to have Inventor Fusion working I need to turn it on.

Is anyone else facing this problem? Has anyone found a solution? Any pointers as to what may be going on will be helpful as well.

Thanks in advance

Deelip Menezes

[#2]

I have it running on my macbook pro too but I used the native 'Boot Camp' installation of windows 7.  I'm not a computer genius but if I'm correct the software you used is a 'virtualization' and not comparable to an actual install.  After you install windows through Boot Camp, you must install the driver package that was downloaded through Boot Camp.  Inventor runs beautifully on my macbook though so I help this helps.

[#3]

There are a lot of variables here. Can you tell me more about your system? Which OS version, build date, VM Fusion version, and graphics card.

In the mean time, a couple of notes:

• It seems that VM Fusion is not handling the graphics very well, having to turn off hardware acceleration. I see some known issues with the latest build of VM Fusion regarding 3D accelleration searching for known issues with it. Also, this VM may not be supported by Inventor, I have to look into that.

• Try running Inventor in Software Mode: Tools > Application Options > Hardware Tab > select or check Software graphics. This will hopefully bypass the VMware Fusion graphics driver/software and use Windows software rendering.

• Inventor Fusion does not have any kind of “software rendering” option.

This is not likely, unless the system is older, but it reminds me of an old issue with Parallels where it wasn't even using the installed video card. It simply couldn't see it. That's gone now, but from reading the release notes for the latest VM Fusion, it seems that virtualization can still have big graphics problems.

"VMware Fusion Virtual machines may crash while using certain 3D applications. VMware Fusion users should refrain from applying "MacBook Air and MacBook Pro Update 2.0". For more details and work-around please read the following KB article. KB 2040249 "

Got that here.

[#4]

VMware Professional Version 5.0.2 (900491)

Windows 7 Professional (Version 6.1 Build 7600)

The "Software graphics" box is already checked

Deelip Menezes

[#5]

VMware Fusion is supported.

Did you read the KB article I linked? It sounds like you may have put this update on, and thus cannot run full graphics.

[#6]

Whenever there's an update from Apple I usually apply it. If I did then this was before I installed Inventor on VMware anyways.

I'm relatively news to OSX. Where do I look to find out whether I have this update or not. And how do I remove it?

Deelip

[#7]

Deelip,

I misspoke. Inventor is only supported with hardware on Parallels. To run Inventor and Inventor Fusion together in VMware Fusion you must use software graphics for both.

Also, it turns out you can set Inventor Fusion 2013 to run in Software mode. (Application menu > Options)

Regards,