CAD on iMac

[trnce.lam]

Ok hears the situation... I am an final year architecture student, i'm planning to get a iMac and taking advantage of the back to school deal in the uk:

3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1 GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS w/512MB GDDR3

And going to update the RAM to 4GB with cruical and getting a ipod touch 16GB + printer deal.

Now i'm going to get parallels because thats what from my experience is what architect's have at their practices. For autoCAD etc.. What are people's views on that? and any people experienced in using cad progs on parallels..or bootcamp? any problems?

Thing is I don't need it straight away...so I might wait until mid-october..incase of a new iMac coming out. However I know i'll always be waiting ..so shall I buy it now? or wait?

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Lots of questions! But i've been waiting ages for this promo lol..might buy it this weekend.. and just stare at it before turning it on! Ok all comments and replies greatly appreicated.

 

[kornyboy]

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That setup should work great for you. Good luck with it.

 

[brad.c]

In your student experience, are native Mac apps like Vectorworks at all common? I had a chance to use v10 when designing an office floorplan. I used it to argue for larger rack space in the server closet. Heck, it became the sever ROOM because I could show the inherent problems with the original layout.
The latest version, with rendering engine, looks pretty good, particularly if bought on a student license.

 

[trnce.lam]

Well working in practices, about 30% were mac users. But they just used parallels! so native mac apps weren't used in office..that i was aware of. Never used VectorMarks as i've been using windows since ..like birth haha (this will be my long awaited first mac) but i've heard VectorMarks is like Microstation.

AutoCAD is obviously the main one that everyone uses...but there is no native mac app for it ...atm? Surely they should get one out soon! then loads more people would convert.

Anyways do you reckon i should get it now? or wait till nearer the end of the promo (31st Oct) Cheers.

 

[brad.c]

My wife is ready to buy a Macbook (and get off my MBP ) , but I've told her to wait until end of October because of the possibility of aluminum casing.

How much better will new iMacs be? I don't follow the Intel parade of processor updates, so I can't tell you. If that's important to you, and you can wait; wait. If not, and you want to get started now, buy now--but buy refurbished. Save some money.

 

[KítscheñÇinqµe]

autocrap is dead. revit rules.
i recommend you search (then maybe ask) at augi forums or autodesk about parallels, bootcamp, vmware, (qemu?). the little i've read about revit arch 2009 (on windows) is that the quadcore is worth the $ for 2009's rendering.
also my vague distillation of threads regarding software: if you already know (and like!) archicad or vw, then use those. it's true that most job ads require 2-3 years of autocrap, but significant % already are asking for revit, some require it (seems more often, the cad manager ads require revit). next year even more "intern" ads will ask for revit.

you'll like revit within your first hour using it. it allows you to think about the bits and pieces (the model). unlike using autocad, which more resembles perverted pro-chess level fight against the software. and it (your enemy) has hidden claymore mines under the chessboard.

 

[trnce.lam]

Wow.. someone likes autoCAD haha.. well i'm most comfortable with using autocad atm because thats what i've been using all summer! However sat through a revit structure session showing the tools however some options are missing on the architectural version..seems pretty good. but is it just like autocad though with a 3d element? hmmm

Well theres a new version of paralles now so i might get that over vmware because I heard it just works better?

and ok i think i've had enough of waiting...i'm just going to buy it this weekend and should get it some time next week can neeee wait lol.

 

[hookemsccr]

I too am an arch student, Texas SOA. I'm running autocad and revit on a AMD 2core @ 3.2ghz. 64bit of course. 6gb of ram and 500gb hdd. All on vista. I use this when at my apartment or especially when I'm rendering or digitizing anything. But I also run both apps on my 15"MBP with VMware fusion almost seamlessly. It's near to impossible to render or digitize on it, but that's a spec problem not a software one.