inventor compatibility

[Anonymous]

Currently, we are using Solidworks on our workstations. Due to some new clients which only use Inventor Pro, we are looking to integrate Inventor Pro in our organization as well.

All our workstations are Apple computers. Most of them are iMacs and Mac Pros, some running Parallels and some Bootcamp. Obviously, Solidworks being only available on Windows machines, it too is running through Parallels.

We have taken Autodesk Inventor Pro 2019 for a test drive on the following machine:

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)

3.8 GHz Intel Core i5

64 GB 2400 MHz DDR4

Radeon Pro 580 8192 MB

Latest MacOs, Latest, Parallels 14.1.2, Windows 10 Pro with latest updates.

We have tested Inventor on a similar machine running Bootcamp as well, and the results were almost similar.

This leads us to conclude that running Inventor through Parallels, increases productivity, due to the ease of switching between a Windows and Mac environment.

While both Solidworks and Inventor seem to run relatively ok on the above configuration, we could use some boost in speed and productivity, especially when using Ray Tracing and custom complex IBL Environments. Using both, Solidworks and Inventor with single parts and small assemblies, the performance is acceptable, but when opening multiple large assemblies it starts to significantly slow down, sometimes to a point where the application freezes, or informs us that it has run out of memory.

Parallels is set up to split the memory in half, 50% for Mac use and 50% for Windows use. This seems to work well, except when dealing with large assemblies. When running either Solidworks or Inventor on the virtual Parallels environment, no other software is running which could use memory. The running our of memory is experienced only with Inventor and not with Solidworks.

While we are aware that Inventor is not designed as a rendering tool, using Ray Tracing for better looking and quick sharable renders solved the issue of exporting the components to a rendering platform for rendering.

We really would like to keep using Macs in our organization, as we are using the Macs for other purposes as well.

We have done some research on the matter and there seems to be little to no info on using Autodesk products on the new iMac Pro systems. We were looking to upgrade our iMacs, to iMac Pros, with the following configuration:

iMac Pro (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2018)

3.0GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz (or other if better results are achieved)

128GB 2666MHz DDR4 ECC memory

Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GB of HBM2 memory

Latest MacOs, Latest, Parallels 14.1.2, Windows 10 Pro with latest updates

We were looking for some information (benchmarks, experience, speed, issues, problems) from anyone who has tried using Autodesk Products on the new iMac Pro Systems before we change our 25 iMacs and spend $10k per system on a new system which may or may not provide significant speed improvements over our current configurations.

Thanks... Hope someone has tested Inventor on the new iMacs and or has some additional info...

[mcgyvr]

If I needed increased performance the first thing I would do is get away from a virtualized environment and run my software on the OS it was designed to run on.. 

Virtualization = performance hit right from the start..

At the very least I would give the virtualization as much memory,etc... as you can..

While I cannot directly answer your question about the newer MACs I can guarantee you that if you are at the point where you are running out of memory and having a serious performance issues now that increasing to the newer ones will not yield a drastic improvement.. Expect a minimal improvement at best.. Its unlikely that the ROI on new MAC hardware will be worth it.. 

Not to mention $10k on a computer is downright silly.. One can build a $3k Windows machine that will net you the highest possible performance possible.. After that is all about the limitations of the software..

[SBix26]

Let's ping @blair to weigh in on this.  He is a power user running Inventor on a Mac, not sure of his complete specs.

---

Sam B
Inventor Pro 2019.3 | Windows 7 SP1
LinkedIn

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I agree with Brian. The performance on a virtualized  environment is very hard to measure, since the hardware is not leveraged directly by the applications. If there is a performance issue, there isn't much we can do. Also, adding more or better hardware may not directly benefit the virtualized environment and its applications.

Many thanks!

[leowarren34]

@Anonymous 

If you're looking to upgrade read Neil Cross's AU class, very useful.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/buying-the-right-workstation-for-inventor-au-2018-clas...

The CPU is king and since IV is single threaded you'll want as much speed as possible whilst still having a few cores for rendering. The recommended CPU is a 6 core Xeon or equivalent.

Another cost to performance would be virtual OS, as the software would have an overhead, far better to run natively.

Neil's IV system costs £2000 and is the best you could get for Inventor so you get 5 of those for 1 iMac pro, so definitely consider it.

[blair]

I have a couple of Mac's, the older unit is a Mac Pro (dysan can) with 96Gb of memory and a couple of Xeon's running at 3.6Ghz. Each model of Mac has a sweet spot for memory. I am able to allocate 32Gb to Parallels and let it allocate video as it sees fit.

The second is a new 15" 2018 MacBook Pro with the iCore9 CPU with boost to 4.8Ghz, 32Gb with the Radeon Pro Vega with 4Gb of memory.

I leave the display setting to full Retinal display and it pushes the Inventor model without any issues. 

I did notice a performance improvement in the latest version of Parallels. 

[leowarren34]

Cheers @blair,

Overhead was expected, glad to see it has been reduced in newer versions, pretty beefy Mac though.

As much as I love using Mac, I personally find it hard to justify to the price unless you need a Mac specific feature, especially when going over to windows.

That boost on the I9 is impressive.

[blair]

My work unit is Windows based. I tend to use the MacBook Pro for only road use which is primarily for presentation use.

Between the iPhone, iPad and Mac, the integration is much better than Windows environment. I do a lot of presentation on the personal side and find the Mac better.

[leowarren34]

I have to agree the Apple eco system is very good if you have the lot, I love the seamless cloud transition and transfer of files. I think the overall integration is second to non my only gripe is the cost, but I'm a student so my budget is very small.