NO: Autodesk on Mac

[Geir Fjærli]

Hi Gavin.

Not an AutoCad user myself, but: I believe that most Autodesk software will indeed run on Windows 7 in the latest versions. See this page for more info:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?id=14185352&siteID=123112

They may have to upgrade the version they have, but I would contact Autodesk about that. If they can, Win 7 is the number one choice. Works just great on BootCamp, finds the right drivers and all. If not, then I would if possible install a copy of XP before I try Vista, then go to Win 7 once ready. (If so, I would probably backup everything on the Windows side, then wipe out the entire Windows partition and start a fresh one for Win 7, but that is just me.)

I would run on BootCamp, I find that Parallels while great for occasional work is much to sluggish for heavy stuff, and tend to restart the Mac rather than start Parallels. That is especially so if they have a Mac with little memory, because under BootCamp Windows gets all of it, rather than having to share with OSX. I see they say they have "250Gigabyte" spare memory. That is probably not so. Maybe that is free diskspace, if so that is more than plenty. I have a 32 Gig Windows 7 partition which is plenty for the few things I still need to do there. Mostly ASP programming and my accounting.

Again, I am not an AutoCad user, so I don't know how well it works on different versions of Windows. But this is my experience with other software.

Geir :)

Den 4. jan. 2010 kl. 22.16 skrev Gavin Foster:

> Dear all,
> 
> Sorry to trouble the list with this but a friend has asked me about running Autodesk on the Apple Mac.
> Autodesk is Windows only (XP and Vista), so they have purchased BootCamp but want to know which Windows O/S they should buy.
> Full details are below.
> 
> I told the friend how widely knowledgeable and experienced the Omnis developers are, hoping that someone could offer some advice or experience.
> 
> Thanks very much!
> Gav
> 
> 
> Last Autumn we bought our daughter an Apple Mac and we have recently bought her Autodesk software with which she has to learn to make CAD drawings of her designs. We now discover that Autodesk is made only for the Windows operating system, and I recall you explaining to me that you have both Windows and Mac's own operating system on your laptop. I believe we therefore need to load a version of Windows and then use BootCamp to manage the two operating systems. She has about 250Gigabyte of spare memory on her laptop so I guess there is room for two operating systems. I hope so far this makes sense!
> 
> One question is what version of Windows to get. The Autodesk disks say on them:
> "32-bit: for Windows Vista, Windows XP Professional (SP2 or higher).
> 64-bit: For Windows Vista, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition."
> 
> It appears that the Autodesk is not yet compatible with Windows 7. The Apple Mac helpline advised against Vista, as it is "too heavy", and in any event we have heard nothing but bad comments about Vista. At home we only use XP.
> 
> On Amazon we have found "MS Windows XP Professional x64 Edition w/SP2c-W/MU" which sounds like the requirement on the Autodesk disks, and there is also a 32-bit version. But frankly I have no idea what is the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit, so I am quite nervous about buying and loading the wrong software.
> 
> Can you please give us some advice?
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