Revit running on a macbook pro

[angelo]

It's surreal and kind of crazy! The day is finally here that I can run the only program I need windows for!

It's nice and snappy and all the drivers seem to be running fine. Apple Boot Camp enables a very easy win xp pro sp2 install.

Photos taken this afternoon.

AR7 gang-Matt, Angelo, and Ben

[Wes Macaulay]

Angelo -- under Settings > Options > Graphics, can you try turning on OpenGL and turning off Overlay Planes and see how it handles shadowing with a good sized model?

[angelo]

Angelo -- under Settings > Options > Graphics, can you try turning on OpenGL and turning off Overlay Planes and see how it handles shadowing with a good sized model?

Wes,

It gave the default warning about "some objects may not display correctly..," but worked just fine. Much faster shadow generation (pretty much instantaneous) vs. a progress bar before.

[Phil Read]

Hi Angelo -

Care to try this as well?

http://www.parallels.com/

Recent Article:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/computers/0,70604-0.html?tw=wn_index_1

[medmonds.101628]

I did the install on the machine angelo is referring to...
Following up with another test...

I just loaded an 85 meg Revit file (200,000 sf high school building)...
The 2D/3D performance feels just as fast if not faster at times than my dual 3ghz xeon dell that has the nvidia quadro fx 1400 graphics card in it... My Dell also has 2 gigs of ram...

This MacBookPro has the smaller ATI card in it... (128 MB) and only 512 megs of ram.

Can't wait to get my own with the bigger card, more memory, and the fastest processor. :)

[PeterJ]

In a virtual environment, Windows runs as a Mac OS X application inside its own window. Safari and iPhoto can happily co-exist with Microsoft Access running on Windows XP. The virtualization software even supports monitor spanning. On a two-monitor system, Mac OS X can be running on one screen, and Windows XP on the other.Straight from the wired article that Phil linked to. Now that would be a nice trick!

[medmonds.101628]

If I understand it correctly, there is a performance penalty in the virtualization scenario because the processor is virtually divided to handle both OS's and any programs on both sides of the line. For web browsing, word processing, etc, it may not be noticable at all. I am extremely curious about what it will feel like running Revit, Photoshop, FormZ, Viz, etc.

[Andre Baros]

Are you running with a stand alone or network license. I assume that all the network functions are working so a network license should work, right?

[angelo]

Hi Angelo -

Care to try this as well?

http://www.parallels.com/

Recent Article:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/computers/0,70604-0.html?tw=wn_index_1

Phil,

I've heard of some pretty massive failures with the installation of windows via Parallels. I think I'll wait until some of the kinks are worked out...

Angelo

[Wes Macaulay]

Wes,

It gave the default warning about "some objects may not display correctly..," but worked just fine. Much faster shadow generation (pretty much instantaneous) vs. a progress bar before.Wow. That's all I can say... this means (if Revit taxes computers the most of any possible app we could use) that the Mac is now open season.

Of course, this also means Mac firms have to buy and learn XP as well as Revit, but it's still a grand day.

[medmonds.101628]

Andre,
The answer to your question is stand-alone. Actually we didn't bother to enter our serial number yet... Just running it in trial mode.

And, yes, the network functions work perfectly, as do wireless, bluetooth, etc. With three clicks of the trackpad mouse, I had my bluetooth MX900 wireless mouse working perfectly.

[BomberAIA]

Was there a increase in speed on the Mac? Are the Mac's graphic cards better?

[affdesco]

When recently attempted same on powerbook 1ghz with max ram... I found that Revit, though operational, was disfuntional on many tasks. Tried several options. I was running win 2000. I finally sold that laptop and bought a toshiba w/ 17" display. In any case, the laptop is good but slow compared to desktop or workstation. good for on the road designing, showing off plans, etc.
good luck and will watch for more on this subject. My friend bought the mac from me. I'll watch him try to use the software as he has upgraded OS and other items on the MAC.

[angelo]

When recently attempted same on powerbook 1ghz with max ram... I found that Revit, though operational, was disfuntional on many tasks. Tried several options. I was running win 2000. I finally sold that laptop and bought a toshiba w/ 17" display. In any case, the laptop is good but slow compared to desktop or workstation. good for on the road designing, showing off plans, etc.
good luck and will watch for more on this subject. My friend bought the mac from me. I'll watch him try to use the software as he has upgraded OS and other items on the MAC.

Uh Greg, there aren't any MacBook Pro's at 1 ghz. Were you trying to use the hacked OnMac.com setup? The MacBook Pro's are duo-core chips that are very fast and we haven't found anything yet that doesn't work.

What was your setup?

Angelo