Alias Design 2015 Macbook Pro with Mavericks issue

[niklaspropeller]

We have some Mac users which are experiencing problems with right click and Alias Design 2015. When clicking on for example shelves the program locks and becomes unresponsive, almost like a new windows is opened, but not showed, and all other interface objects locks.

Anyone else experiencing similar issue or is Alias Design 2015 running good on your Mavericks installations?

/Niklas

[Florian.Coenen]

Hello Niklas,

I have done here some tests with Alias on my MacBook Pro Retina with Mac OS 10.9.4 and cannot reproduce this issue.

A guess on my side is, that it has potentially something to do with the Alias preferences that are been imported from older versions?

Can you do a test and rename the folder "UserPrefs2015" into "UserPrefs2015_old" and restart Alias.

The folder can be found here:

finder> library> preferences> autodesk> alias>

Is the behavior still with the new prefs?

Best Regards

[j-carlton]

Florian, what GPU are you running on your Mac Book Pro Retina?  

The latest Mac Book Pro discrete GPU is not qualified (NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M) - so if you happen to be running this GPU, have you encountered any issues?

[Florian.Coenen]

Hello,

sorry for my late reply.

I am running the 2,3 Ghz Intel Core i7

16GB RAM 1600Mhz DDR3

Nvidia GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB

OSX 10.9.4

So right, this is not a recommended and certified system.

Basically I haven`t gone through all the tools on the Mac and haven`t tested peripherals like Wacom’s Cintiq, but as far as I can see, there is no major issue.

But compared to a mobile workstation with a Nvidia Quadro 4000 card, the performance is poor, especially when switching to hardware shade.

But actually I haven`t done a complete QA for this hardware, and I am not allowed to recommend nor to support that hardware when running into issues.

Do you have additional quetsion?

Regards,

[j-carlton]

Florian,

6 months ago, I demoed Alias 2015 Automotive on a new Mac Book Pro Retina, Mavericks OS, 2.6GHz, with the Nvidia GeForce 750M.

If I brought in a large wire file (around 150mb), and shaded it, the performance was terribly slow. Much slower than my early 2011 Mac Book Pro with the same file. Small files performed adequately when shaded, but no better than my old laptop. On paper, the new Mac Book Pro should have trounced my old one, but this clearly wasn't the case.  This poor shading performance would have drastically slowed my workflow down.

I spent a lot of time adjusting as many settings as one can on a Mac, and researching a way to correct the situation, but I ended up returning the laptop after Apple retail techs could find no hardware issues.

For me, going back to Windows is out of the question.  I'm just looking for some indication that fairly large files shade well (without lag) on version 2015 with a Mac Book Pro running Nvidia GeForce 750M GPU.

I would also like to know if/when the Nvidia GeForce 750M may be qualified, or has there been an issue?  Does it usually take this long?

I guess there aren't many people running Alias on Macs, judging by the lack of feedback.  This is too bad, because they generally work VERY well together, it's like going back to the good old days of UNIX.

[Anonymous]

Well, alias runs flawlessly on pc's. I don't think is too bad. I shade with a non-beast pc a 1 GB file very smoothly, providing the wireframe is off.

Wireframe showing on shaded model takes a huge toll.

If you turn off wireframe, when u are hardware shading it, does it get slow when u tumble view?

[duaxiong]

Did you try turning off ALL of the anti-aliasing?

[Florian.Coenen]

Hello,

Unfortunately I have no information if or when we will certify a gaming card like the GeForce card.

This card is a gaming card and normally not meant to run CAD applications on it.

So it is not a surprise to me, that a heavy model in shaded mode is much slower than on a professional video card.

I can recognize the same on my side when comparing the performance of the MacBook pro Retina with a professional CAD Windows workstation.

Regards,

[j-carlton]

Thanks for the reply.

Autodesk/Alias has previously qualified the Mac Book Pro GeForce cards, most recently the GeForce GT 650M.  I thought the 750M would be following right behind?

I wouldn't expect laptop performance to equal a desktop, but my 2011 Mac Book Pro with AMD Radeon 6750M runs Alias (2013) VERY well, great shading performance (for a laptop), no lag at all working with large files. I have always thought of it being so good, that there is no longer a need for a desktop -- for those of us who need portability, and aren't tied to one desk.

Unfortunately, the AMD 6750M has a nasty habit of cooking itself to death (including mine).  Just google search "Mac Book Pro Radeon 6750M" to see more info on this subject.  There is no real fix for this -- GPU replacements and reballing repairs are only temporary. 

There is talk that Apple will soon stop using the discrete cards in the MBPro, and they will only have an integrated Intel GPU moving forward - we'll see.  It would be great if we could work from the standalone, desktop level GPU of our choice, attached by a Thunderbolt cable - but it seems the professional market has suffered as Apple and other hardware makers focus their efforts and innovations on the mobile device market.

 DuaXiong:  Yes, turning off anti-aliasing would speed things up some, but this defeats the purpose of having a quality shaded image to evaluate design and surface details. 

[duaxiong]

At some point along the line (I can't remember exactly which version) Alias decided to turn wireframe anti-aliasing on by default; this can really slow things down if you have a large model or your hardware isn't up to it, so I just thought this might explain why you were seeing better performance on the old hardware + v2013.

[j-carlton]

Thanks, I didn't know about that particular switch.  

I always run wireframe anti-alias on with my 2011 Mac Book Pro, and I have shaded Anti Alias set to default-on to medium setting.   When I demo-ed the 2014 Mac Book Pro with Alias 2015, I spent a lot of time adjusting the wireframe anti-alias settings trying to improve things, did not solve the problem.  Turning it off would speed things up, but again, considering the superior performance of my 2011 laptop, this was not acceptable (and who wants to work with a jagged wireframe?).

Again, on paper, the 2014 MBPro (Haswell - Geforce 750M) should have trounced my 2011 MBPro (Sandy Bridge - Radeon 6750M ), but it was a great deal slower, performance wise.  This was back in May of this year, and I just haven't been able to come up with a specific reason since.

[duaxiong]

Would be intereesting to try again with v2013 on the new Macbook just to see if it's the hardware or the software.  Other seemingly innoculous things in the later versions of Alias could be to blame; like the View Cube or gradated window backgrounds.

>> (and who wants to work with a jagged wireframe?)

Me!  I HATE the anti-aliased wireframes;  Everything is blurred so I can't see any potential gaps between adjacent boundaries.  I also can't stand for the speed hit.  The only time I use AA is for screenshots.  I don't even use Point-of-Interest viewing because of its toll on response.

[j-carlton]

Yes, I was going to load v2013, but I read that it's not compatible with what, at the time, was the new Mas OX, Mavericks.  I could have installed an earlier Mac OS, and then tried v2013, but I decided to just repair my old laptop's GPU, and return the new one (rather than spend a whole lot of $ on something that doesn't work).

By the way -- Apple basically has 2 GPUs: GeForce for the Mac Book Pros, and AMD Fire Pro for the Mac Pro desktops.  I'm no technical expert, but why can't Alias be configured/qualified for this LIMITED number of GPUs, since they've gone to the trouble of CREATING an OSX version?   There are no new, Apple products for sale that are qualified to run Alias - and it's been this way for quite a long time.  What is someone to do, who needs new hardware?  Roll the dice? Buy used on ebay?   Makes no sense to me, why update the software to "2015" and not have it be qualified to run on any products available in 2014??

[duaxiong]

I do think they make an effort to qualify current (and generally higher-end) boards; at least on the Windows side, but trying to test them ALL would be impractical.

In my opinion, you're lucky Alias runs on OSX at all.

[alehnhar]

I have this problem too.  Seams to happen when you right click to zoom for me.  I've tried 2015 on two machines with Mavericks and both have the same issue.  First machine is a 2010 Mac Pro with a quadro 4000 card and the other is a mid 2010 Macbook pro with a GeForce 330M.  Seams to happen most when I first start Alias.  It will crash 3 or 4 times then it seams to cure itself for the rest of the day.  Very strange!

[Anonymous]

Just out of curiosity, how do u fit a quaddro to a mac?

I was looking at new macs specs the other day and i was appalled to see the graphics card they offer for best mac book pro stock is very very average, which put me off immediately. I couldnt believe it....How can such a fine machine have such a average graphics card to put it mildly?

No wonder there are issues.....

I would love to have a mac, especially for its audio capabilities, which i need for my mixing and DJing, but with that card....Meh. It s really a pitty. I don't get it.

[j-carlton]

I agree completely.  

Unfortunately, Apple has been focused too much on longer battery live, and a thin case profile (both of which effect the unit thermal profile, and GPU selection).  This is great for the "Air" laptops, but the "Pro" laptops should be more about performance.  The MBP is way overdue for a significant update, my understanding is it's due to the delayed Intel Broadwell CPUs. 

Their OS is far superior, this is the trump card, imho. 

[alehnhar]

"Just out of curiosity, how do u fit a quaddro to a mac?"

You don't anymore 😞  I have the old big aluminum tower.  You can get the quadro 4000 or the newer K5000 for it.

So bummed that the new macs only come with AMD graphics.  Just about everything I use.. Alias, Adobe, Bunkspeed.. all like Nvidia.  so bummed.

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the input.

I agree totally.....It is such a fine machine with such a fine OS, and in the end it doesn't cut it, at least for me.

It is quite sad.....I would love to have one....But never as things are standing. Needs more "meat" 🙂

Cheers!