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Inventor on Macbook Pro with Retina Display with Parallels

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Message 1 of 18
mjbeller
12441 Views, 17 Replies

Inventor on Macbook Pro with Retina Display with Parallels

I've read all the other posts that I can find but I have not found a solution to my performance problem.

 

I installed Inventor in Parallels and everything runs reasonably well except for the Navigate functions.  I can't pan or rotate or use the "home" icon.

 

I've allocated 4 processors, 4gb Ram, and 1gb Video Ram to Parallels VM (running Win 7 x64).

 

Thank you for any help (everything runs incredibly fast in Boot Camp).

17 REPLIES 17
Message 2 of 18
mjbeller
in reply to: mjbeller

More informaiton ... it appears that the navigation might be working but the display just doesn't show.

 

For example, if I select free Orbit the cursor changes immediately.  I then select the object and start to rotate/orbit as usual.  However, the screen does not show any movement of the object.

 

When I then click outside the orbit area, the object quickly refreshes in what I assume is the last position I left it (it just ddn't show that animated rotation).

 

Does that help anybody understand?

Message 3 of 18
bobbi.thompson
in reply to: mjbeller

As far as I know, Inventor has trouble seeing the video card on a Mac in Parallels. Most Mac peeps run Inventor on Boot Camp.

Message 4 of 18
mjbeller
in reply to: bobbi.thompson

Thank you. System requirements indicate Inventor is supported on Parallels
(I'm running now with Boot Camp) and I believe many others are running
Inventor without problems.

How can I tell if Inventor "sees" the Mac video card?
Message 5 of 18
mjbeller
in reply to: mjbeller

Fixed!!!

 

I now have Inventor 2014 working flawlessly on Macbook Pro with Retina.

 

I contacted tech support from Parallels and they connected to my machine remotely and set the configuration.

 

I had 8 CPU's and they changed it to 2

I had 4gb RAM and they changed it to 6.6gb

I already had 1gb of Video RAM set

Set the 3D acceleration to DirectX9 (he said this was better for 3D)

Changed the 'Resolution Type' from 'Best for Retina' to 'Scaled' (I think this was the biggest change but I haven't tested, he said the Scaled setting allows Parallels to optimize)

 

All is good.  Hope this helps others.  I'm now going to delete my Boot Camp partition ...

 

Message 6 of 18
tintin.v
in reply to: mjbeller

For those who still don't figure it out, the problem with panning and rotating is beacuse of the DPI set to 199% (or 200%).

Inventor 2013, and 2014 don't work over DPI higher than 175% (I tested it).

So that's why changing the the settings to 'Scaled' in Parallels fixed the problems.

Paralles 8 only sets DPI to 199% in 'best for retina', and 100% in 'more space', there are no intermediate values.

'Scaled' sets DPI to 100% but lowers the resolution to 1440x900 (or 1680x1050, 1920x1200 dependeing on which you have in yout mac system preferences), that's why it looks crappy but it's the best way i found to work on Inventor at this time.

PD: I think setting the RAM to 6.6gb to the virtual machine is overkill, 4gb is more than enough (I have set it to 3gb and no problems). Although I feel 2 cpus is not enough, Inventor runs better with 4 cpus. I personally have video set to 512mb and no problems.

 

Message 7 of 18
jannis
in reply to: tintin.v

Many thanks for all the informations, I am about to buy also the new macbook pro.

I have currently a lenovo Workstation W510.

My Questions is, great it runs, but how fast or how big are your assemblies, how fast is it open up the iam's?

We have sometimes up to over 1000 parts in one machine, is this also fast.

I do not want to use this for mainly assemblying but on the road as backup ,not  to carry around 2 laptops

as I currently do, I take my Lenovo with me, plus an macbook air.

But I would like to avoid this.

 

Any informations if also bigger more complex files will run fine with this grafic cards, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M, this is not certified from Autodesk.

 

many thanks to all

 

I intend to buy this machine or mac :smileyindifferent

 

15-inch: 2.3GHz
with Retina display Specifications

  • 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
  • Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz
  • 16GB 1600MHz memory
  • 512GB PCIe-based flash storage 1
  • Intel Iris Pro Graphics
  • NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M
    with 2GB GDDR5 memory
  • Built-in battery (8 hours)
Message 8 of 18
mjbeller
in reply to: jannis

I would say it runs very well but (1) I don't have a lot to compare it to since I'm new to 3D modeling in general and (2) my parts designs are relatively simple and I haven't started creating larger assemblies (but I want to start learning). I mostly design 3D objects for 3D printing.
Message 9 of 18
paul_sanchez
in reply to: mjbeller

Was having similar issue with Inventor on Parallels 9 with MBP retina running Maverick. Inventor was crashing randomly often when zooming in/out.

The config was working Ok with parallels 8 but started to crash randomly after upgradig to P9.

Switched to directx9 and scaled display (not best for retina option) and solves the issue.

hope this helps others.

Paul

Message 10 of 18
Bill.Schmid
in reply to: mjbeller

Could I inquire as to the specifications of your MacBook Pro?

Message 11 of 18
paul_sanchez
in reply to: Bill.Schmid

sure,

MacBook pro 10.1

ROM version : MBP101.00EE.B02

I7 2.7 Ghz quad

16 GB RAM

Intel HD Graphics 4000

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M
VRAM :    1024 Mo
Rev  0x00a2
ROM Version :    3688
Version gMux :    3.2.19 [3.2.8]

OSX 10.9.3

SSD drive

 

Hope this helps,

Paul

Message 12 of 18
Bill.Schmid
in reply to: paul_sanchez

Thanks, Paul.  That helps a lot.  Sounds like you've got a 15" MBP.  I'm wondering if anyone is running Inventor under Parallels on a 13" MBP?  The person I'm setting up a system for wants a 13" over a 15", in spite of my trying to explain the benefit of the discreet graphics card.

Message 13 of 18
paul_sanchez
in reply to: Bill.Schmid

Hi Bill,

Glad it helps, yes it is a 15" MBP, forgot to mention it.

Hope you can convince your user to go for the 15", there is big difference on the graphic card and also 2 more cores, which is always a much better choice  in particular if you are running multiple virtual machines simultaneously on top of Parallel .

Paul

Message 14 of 18
bmngoc
in reply to: paul_sanchez

Hi, 

 

I am using a MacBook Pro 13 retina late 2013

I installed Parallels Desktop 9 and installed Windows 7 in it. 

And then I installed Inventor 2014 and I always got stuck at the splashscreen. I tried 2015 aswell and had the same result. It got stuck at the splashscreen. With 2014 I got the pop-up that either waiting for the programm or quit it. With 2015 no pop-up appears but it got stuck at the splashscreen. Anyone has a solution for this?

I need the software to work for my studies.

 

Message 15 of 18
Bill.Schmid
in reply to: bmngoc

Well, that doesn't sound very encouraging.  Could you provide some of the specifications for your computer, such as the amount of memory installed.  Also, is it Windows 7 Professional and is it 32 or 64 bit and how much memory do you have configured for your virtual machine?  Any other details you could provide might help someone to diagnose the problem.

 

I'm wondering if there has been a file created by Inventor with an error log.  You might look in the directory where Inventor is supposed to start.

 

We wound up getting a late 2013 MBP 13" Retina, too.  I stuffed it with 16G RAM and went with the 2.8 GHz processor.  I just received the Parallels and Windows software the other day and need to install it this week before I send it off to college.  I probably won't find out for a couple weeks how well it all works.

Message 16 of 18
bmngoc
in reply to: Bill.Schmid

I gave it 60 GByte of HDD, 4 GByte of RAM and 1 GByte Graphics memory. 

 

I gave up on Parallels and switched over to VMWare. a) It works perfectly. Right out of the box. Installed it, launched it and there was the license stuff popping up directy. After that I could start working in Inventor 2015. Same configurations as with Parallels. b) The battery lasts longer while working in VMWare. Parallels lasted shorter. With VMWare I got about 6 h. With Parallels only 4-5 h.

 

Maybe that's helpful for you. I have no problems since switching to VMWare.

 

My machine has 8 GByte of RAM, 256 GByte SSD and i5 with 2,4 GHz. I run Inventor 2014 on a way less powerful machine. Thinkpad Edge 13 late 2010 with i3-380 UM, 4 GByte RAM, 320 GByte HDD. The i3-380 is a very very weak CPU. It's a low voltage CPU. I think my Parallels has problems with Inventor or maybe it's something general. I don't know. But with VMWare everything works fine.

Message 17 of 18
Bill.Schmid
in reply to: bmngoc

Glad you got it working!  Just curious, Parallels 9?  What version of VMWare?

Message 18 of 18
bmngoc
in reply to: Bill.Schmid

Yes, newest Parallels 9. 

Full name of VMWare is VMWare Fusion Professional Version 6.0.4 Maybe that's helpful for you.

Greets.

 

Edit:

And I am using Windows 7 Professional 64 bit form my College. You could try Parallels 9 if you want. Maybe it works for you. For me, it was no good. Inventor didn't load fully so I had to switch. Maybe it works just fine for you. 

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