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Inventor on Mac via Parallels Desktop

18 REPLIES 18
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Message 1 of 19
whunter
6151 Views, 18 Replies

Inventor on Mac via Parallels Desktop

Hi all;

Anyone on this forum using Inventor in this way? I'd like to get some comments on the speed of Inventor using it in a virtual environment. Also, is it 'easy/pain free' to switch between the virtual environment (Windows) and the Mac desktop (to access mail or whatever)? I've used VirtualBox before on a Linux box before so I'm familiar with a virtual environment, but I don't know Parallels. The latter is officially supported by ADSK (http://usa.autodesk.com/products/mac-compatible-products)

Also, is their direct communication between Inventor and the hardware (specifically the graphics card), or does it go through a software layer?

Thanks,
wh
18 REPLIES 18
Message 2 of 19
Settinglake
in reply to: whunter

I am running Paralles 5 and windows 7.  The problems I have had have been with the resource hunger of windows 7 and have had to turn Aero off to make it work well. It does otherwise work very well within Parallels.  Switching from the Mac to the virtual machine is easy and quick - no more than launching an extra application.

 

My machine is a MacBook Pro (Laptop) with 8 gig of ram and an Intel i7 chip.  I shut the mac applications down as I have max resources set to the virtual machine.  This is fine because I have Outlook on the VM as well as Internet explorer.  When Autocad is running on my Mac my Mac is a windows machine.

 

I would really like Autodesk to offer Inventor Suite as a Mac Native product.  

 

Doug

Message 3 of 19
JDMather
in reply to: whunter


@whunter wrote:
 the speed of Inventor ... and the Mac

I don't know anything about Macs, but I saw Kevin Schneider running on a Mac at AU 2009.  He said it was the fasted notebook he could find for running Inventor. http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class&session_id=5457


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Message 4 of 19
cmcconnell
in reply to: JDMather

We have 2 Mac Book Pros running Inventor here, but we are running windows 7 under Bootcamp. From what I have heard, parallels limits video capability.

Mechanix Design Solutions inc.
Message 5 of 19
huntoon
in reply to: cmcconnell

Hi, I was wondering if you would care to update us on your situation of using Inventor on a Mac. Specifically, have you run into limits in the size of assemblies or complexity of objects?

 

Thanks,

JON

Message 6 of 19
cmcconnell
in reply to: whunter

We have not had a single hardware related issue. If i could change 1 thing it qould be to up the RAM TO 16 Gbs (instead of 😎 a i have some assemblies that take ~8 Gbs just to open. In fact we have been so happy with them, we now have 7 MacBook Pros and 1 Mac Pro.
Mechanix Design Solutions inc.
Message 7 of 19
huntoon
in reply to: cmcconnell

Thanks for the update! I have been wanting to buy a mac and now I am feeling better about the idea. Is the speed comparable to laptops running nvidia QUADROm cards? 

 

Do you happen to use a 3D connexion Space Navigator? I'm wondering if that 3D mouse will work well too.

 

Thanks,

JON

Message 8 of 19
huntoon
in reply to: cmcconnell

Perhaps a better follow-up question would be: How many parts are in the assemblies that require 8gbs of memory.

 

Thanks!!!

JON

Message 9 of 19
huntoon
in reply to: JDMather

Would you happen to know where Kevin Schneider was getting those benchmarks to claim that macs were the fastest for running Inventor Fusion? I am really looking to get a mac, I just need some more info..

 

Thanks,

 

JON

Message 10 of 19
cmcconnell
in reply to: whunter

The video seems comparable and we are running 3d connexiOn controllers.

The assembly in question is a 35000 component master driven assembly.

Not sure what Kevin was referring to...
Mechanix Design Solutions inc.
Message 11 of 19
huntoon
in reply to: cmcconnell

I just checked out your website. Looks like you do really good work.

 

I had one question though, what is that Terminator-snake thing?!Screen shot 2011-06-30 at 8.33.02 AM.png

Message 12 of 19
cmcconnell
in reply to: huntoon

Ha ha. That is a pipeline Inspection tool (PIG for short). That particular one is for 6" pipe. It is pushed through the pipeline by the product and it measures and logs geometry and corrosion.

Mechanix Design Solutions inc.
Message 13 of 19
yeqmaster
in reply to: cmcconnell

cmcconnell - I am curuios as to what settings you are using w/ in parallels? How many CPU's do you assign? How much memory? Do you keep Windows Aero activated? 

 

I too have a new MacBook Pro w/ 8GB ram, and 2.2 GHz i7 Processor. I am running Windows 7 - 64bit on Parallels Desktop 7.

 

Any other pointers would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks.

Message 14 of 19
Settinglake
in reply to: yeqmaster

Hi - I definitely have turned Aero off.  I let parallels take the max ram it needs.  I only have one CPU dedicated.  I disable as much of Windows 7 as I can. 

 

For the most part My laptop is pretty stable.

 

 

We also run Mac Pro boxes under bootcamp.  That works pretty well except there are a lot of updates required to get Windows 7 to run out of the box.

 

Doug

Message 15 of 19
g.desbrisay
in reply to: huntoon

 

I've just installed Inventor Pro 2013 on my MacBook Pro running OS X 10.7.4 and Parallels 7.0.15055.  Most everything appears to work properly except things like the delete key don't work.  I have to press Shift-Ctrl and then select Delete to get rid of drawing elements.

 

Have any of you had this difficulty?  Is there a way to make the Delete key work in the standard way?

 

In advance, thanks for your advice!

Message 16 of 19
g.desbrisay
in reply to: g.desbrisay

Hey, I just found the answer after juggling my search terms on this list a bit!:

 

     Re: Deleting...
     11-28-2011 01:19 PM in reply to: willsutcliffe

     Additionally, on Mac keyboards which only have the Backspace key, you can make it work

     like a normal Delete key by pressing the Fn (function) key along with Backspace.

     Zac Travis
     Autodesk Product Support

 

Thank you Zac Travis!

 


Greg

Message 17 of 19
cmcconnell
in reply to: g.desbrisay

Does holding the function key and pressing delete key help? Cory McConnell www.mechanixdesigns.com
Mechanix Design Solutions inc.
Message 18 of 19
g.desbrisay
in reply to: cmcconnell

 

Yes, that's it!  Fn-<Delete> works on the Mac keyboard.

 

Message 19 of 19
cmcconnell
in reply to: g.desbrisay

You will find that you can use the fn key to get many of the keys you are used to on a regular windows keyboard. Like fn and the right arrow key is END.. Etc Cory McConnell www.mechanixdesigns.com
Mechanix Design Solutions inc.

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