I know that that the title to this post seems a bit strange coming from someone that does AutoCAD development. The last version of AutoCAD that I am aware of that ran on an Apple was Release 12. However, that is not the nature of this post…
What I wanted to write about is something that I have been doing for some time now and thought that it may be of interest to others that do AutoCAD programming. What i would like to discuss is using a Virtual Machine for testing AutoCAD custom applications in different possible configurations.
To start with I have used Microsoft Virtual PC, VMWare and Parallels on Windows XP systems for testing, but have also expanded this testing to using VMWare Fusion, Parallels and Apple BootCamp on Mac OSX…
Since Apple has changed to Intel processors things have changed with the ability to use an Apple system as your primary or at least as a secondary system for use with AutoCAD and other Windows Applications. My personal testing has been with four different Apple machines which are a Mac Mini, MacBook, MacBook Pro and my current system a MacBook Air. Mac with keyboard.
On my PC systems I am currently using Microsoft Virtual PC for Virtual Machines to test AutoCAD applications and configurations. The primary reason for this is that it is a free download from Microsoft and for doing application testing I seldom need the added features that VMWare offers.
On to the Apple Mac OSX environment…
First it is not really applicable to discuss Apple BootCamp as a Virtual Machine, it truly is just a dual boot and the Apple BootCamp install emulates the system Bios and adds windows drivers for the Apple Hardware. BootCamp runs AutoCAD and/or Inventor in a very native mode and for most situations you would not know the difference from running in BootCamp vs. a regular PC. An interesting feature that both VMWare Fusion and Parallels have added to their applications is the ability to use the BootCamp partition as a bootable Virtual Machine drive. What this means is that if you are doing heavy work and need all of the system hardware performance, you would boot directly into BootCamp partition and work with full memory and graphic card capabilities, but if you are in Mac OSX and just need to fire up AutoCAD to view a drawing or do some simple testing, you could start VMWare Fusion or Parallels and have access to that installed version of your Applications…
I do not have hard test data for the following comments, but all are from hands on running Virtual Machines on PC’s and Apple Mac OSX systems. How to connect camera on macbook pro. The first thing that I notice is that under MacOSX Virtual Machines seem to be more stable in that I have fewer lockups and or crashes. Prince purple rush rar. Other than VMWare Fusion being able to utilize both cores of a Core 2 system most hardware features translate similar for both Parallels and VMWare Fusion.
VMWare Fusion… a copy of this will typically cost around $79, the system allows you to apply both cores and has a ‘Beta’ version built in for handling 3D graphics which creates a VM that has a 128mb virtual graphics adaptor (typically VM graphics adaptors are 8-16mb). This worked well for versions of AutoCAD through Rel2008, but installing Rel2009 the graphics did not play well with the new WPF menus in Rel 2009. Take care when creating your VM for Hard drive size, because it is very dificult to increase a hard drive size.
Graphics aren't bad on the MacBook Air 2020 i3 and the rest (RAM, NVMe) are actually better than the Y530. The CPU is underpowered though, just a measly 1.1Ghz Dual Core with Turbo Boost to 3.2Ghz. Im working on 3D small buildings with little details. MacBook Air has 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor and MacBook Pro has 2.3GHz and 3.1GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with Retina display that will help you lot on AutoCAD. If you still prefer MacBook Air you may feel to buy new Mac just within 1–2 year. MacBook Pro will be good of you for 3 - 5 years. The Year of Finally. The 2020 MacBook Air is the first internal upgrade for this laptop, which was redesigned in 2018. The 2018 model came with a 13.3-inch Retina display, Butterfly keyboard, two USB-C ports, a Touch ID sensor, and the same, wedge-shaped design in an even lighter body, and a gold color option.
Parallels…typical pricing and performance as VMWARE Fusion, the 3D graphics settings in this allows up to a 64mb virtual graphics adaptor. This does seem to function overall well with Rel 2009 WPF menus. The performance is about the same from hands on testing, the feeling is that there is an occaisional hesitation in Parallels that I do not notice in VMWare Fusion with same memory configurations (1 mb ram for VM), but increasing memory seems to correct this hesitation.
In Summary if running these on a Macbook, you want all the processor available and as much memory as possible. Back to the machine in the title of this post which is a MacBook Air, the one I currently am using is the base system which is 1.6mhz Core 2 duo, 2 gb ram and 80gig drive. It does run both successful and usually reserve 1.2 mb for ram…
One last comment that I do when creating Virtual Machines is to install the version of windows (typically XP needs about 4-5 gb and Vista 6-8gb) and then keep an additional 4-6 gb for installing applications, I then go through windows and remove everything possible that will not be required for testing (e.g. games, printers and fax drivers etc) which usually allows me to gain about a gig back. This gives me a good base system that I can the create a copy from for installing AutoCAD and/or other applications.
MAIN ISSUE:
I want to buy a Macbook Air, since it's in my budget.
I want to know whether AUTOCAD, would run on it easily. The reason I'm switching to AutoCAD is, i hear Macbook doesn't hang and is wayy smoother than any windows OS.
I went on the AutoCAD website, it says it's compatible with Macbook Air 2.1
however, the model names are MQD32, MQD32A, MQD32B, MQD32AB/A and not 2.1 https://newlinequote.weebly.com/rar-gratis-mac.html.
I am finding the model numbers of Macbook Air so confusing!
there's no sequence in the numbering to tell what year it is and what difference that makes, because most of them are Intel i5. Cardhop 1 1 2 – manage your contacts using.
There's MQD32, MQD32A, MQD32B, MQD32AB/A, all of these have the same specs, I cant find a single difference.
MacBook Air
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