AutoCAD on Parallels

imac 20 inch; 2.0GHz running autocad 2008

I love the IMAC 20 inch; 2.0GHz the other day when I saw it at the Mac store. Of course the guys at the Mac store said there is NO problems with the Autocad running on Macs. I guess I am on here to findout if its worth it.
1st I was thinking I can do the bootcamp. Last night I read that doesn't really work because of the Autocad licensing only lets you re-input 4 times.
2nd My boyfriend says I can wipe-out all mac and have it only be pc. But I like all the mac stuff that comes with it.
3. Parallels I have read here and other sites http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2007/03/run_autocad_200.html said that it runs very slow. Well slow is my old dell computer and why I need to get a new system. Also the mouse problem.
Ahhh... The sad thing is Autodesk will never be Mac again. I love Mac but need the autocad 2008 for work.
Advice please!

 

We are running autocad 2007 on iMac 2.0, 2 gb ram with parallels build 5582 just fine.

 

So with parallels there no licensing problems? That sounds great. Just out of curiosity, why did you go with Mac instead of a PC?
Thank you,
Elena

 

Pickbox disappears and so does cursor

I have a new Macbook pro with 2G ram. I am running windows parallel and I allocated half of the ram for windows.

At first, autocad refused to run at all, but I managed to fix that by updating my windows parallel to build 5584. That allowed Autocad to run, but with the following new AND VERY FRUSTRATING!!!! issues.

I installed Autocad LT 2006. When I first start it, the pointer looks right with the pickbox. As soon as I click the mouse, the pickbox disappears and i cannot get it back. Also, when selecting objects, such as for an offset command, the cursor disappears and it is not possible to select anything. I have verified every setting by comparing settings between my old laptop and this one...

itunes and chess works great, but I am forced to use my old HP computer to run Autocad, which frustrates me deeply after spending that kind of money on this now useless toy.

Anyone out there have any clues how to make Autocad LT 2006 run properly on this thing? I am willing to pay for professional help if that is out there. Autocad refuses to help because it is running on an "untested system." Apple has no idea why it wont work.

Thank you in advance!

 

Hello Jmtayloriii,

Have you tried a workaround from the post #56?

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Xenos, I have done the post 56 work around. Thank you for the response.

I think I am going to upgrade the memory from 2 to 4G and see if that helps. I had it at about .5G for windows, 1.5G for Mac, and changed it to 1 and 1. When I did that, autocad showed the pickbox correctly until I selected the first item i tried, then back to vanishing.

I am thinking that it is either a video card issue, or a memory issue. I figure the memory is a relatively cheap way to troubleshoot, plus it will add a bit of performance anyway, so I will try that.

If you have any other thoughts, they are much appreciated!

Oh, one interesting thing that may provide you much smarter folks than I a clue is this: One of the work arounds said that I could fix the double cursor problem by disabling the mouse snych in paralles tools. When I did that, the extra pointer went away, but it the remaining one would not respond to the mouse.

Thanks again!

JT

 

Hello Jmtayloriii,

Could you please send me a screenshot of the "Troubleshoot" tab (Windows Desktop -> Properties -> Settings -> Advanced)?

When you disable Mouse Synchronization in Parallels Tools Center, you lose the option that lets you to switch the control over the mouse and keyboard input by clicking inside or outside the Guest OS window.

So when the option is disabled you should move the cursor over the guest OS window and click in the window to capture the keyboard and mouse in the Virtual Machine.

When the mouse and keyboard input is captured, you cannot move the cursor out of the VM window.

To release the keyboard and mouse to Mac OS X you should press the hot key combination designated to release the keyboard and mouse input. The default combination is Control+Alt or Control+Option.

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Well can we fix it?

Hey guys I'm helping my mom out she recently switched to Mac and shes an architect.
I quickly read the first few posts.

She has the lagging mouse thing, I think it's not that uncomfortable but she really needs to fix it.

She read that she needs to have Windows and Mac OS X on two different spaces or by starting up and choosing which operating system to use.

I don't get the whole Mac thing cause I've always used Windows.
Any help??

 

Oh she's going craz and she's threatening to sell her Mac!!

( Lol! )
o,o Help me I love her having the new Mac, or she's taking her old comp back!! (Lol she gave me her comp PLEASEEE!!!)

 

Oh and anothr question,

*frowns*
How much time do replies usually take?
Or is it just that I am on a different Time Zone?

 

Hello Chimi,

I have proposed a workaround in the post #56. Just citing it here:

1. Right click on the Windows Desktop. In the drop-down menu choose "Properties".
2. On Properties Display open "Settings" tab and click "Advanced" button. Open "Troubleshoot" tab.
3. You will see the "Hardware acceleration" slider there. Put the slider on the graduation line preceding maximum Hardware acceleration level mark.

It is possible that you have encountered an incompatibility issue with AutoCAD and Parallels Tools video driver that provides 3D hardware acceleration feature.

And another thing I would like to let you know: if you need a prompt answer from Parallels staff, you'd better use e-mail or phone support. I hope the Mac has not been sold yet...

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Uh-oh!

Well my mom is happy with her Mac! It hasn't been sold yet, but she really appreciates the help. ;D

Um the problem wasn't solved, =[
She'd be very sad to sell Manzanita back (um we call it that! ), but she needs to work.

Is that the only solution or will we have to use the "Boot Camp" thing?

 

Chimi, it is the only solution currently. We are working to implement the fix of the issue in future major update.

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Parallels saves the day

I have Autocad, Pcad, Designer, Corel, etc running on my PC of crap, and with a RAID array, full mirror backup each night, I touched a trace in PCAD, heard a TING and my system went into a booting loop. No virus, just a registry that had to have it's own hard drive.

After all that backing up, it still took me 4 days to get my system back, then after a week of use, I went to use AutoCad and it wouldn't load. The company told me that a Windows update has some NET program that has been killing them all over the place.

I have been transferring everything over to my MAC PRO 8 core 3gig machine, this was the final straw.

I switched over to it, ran ACAD and did my edit. My only complaint is accessing more processors and a little slowness on the mouse, zoom which was discussed earlier.

Here is my plan:

Load Windows, load only the programs that HAVE to run in Windows, disable the access to the internet completely, only to the network, use the MAC for everything else. With the internet disabled and no browser, you drop your chances of attack and viruses. I have also found that most software companies will transfer your license to the MAC platform for free to $100.00.

I feel free again.

 

If you are in the Coherence mode, go to Control Panel, Then Display, Then to Settings, then to Advanced, then to Troubleshoot.

If the worthless red HELP screen comes up, you clicked Troubleshoot a few steps ahead of where you should have.

Backing it off one click helps a little, but it still feels a bit sticky.

 

Yes, it runs great on Macs with Boot Camp. Better then my PC's did. I run AutoDesk Revit on a MacPro and MacBook Pro. I use AutoCad just to look at AutoCad drawings. I just installed Parallels on my MacBook Pro and Revit runs fine.

 

I have Autocad Lt 2004 and am running it under Parallels on my mac computer and its the worst mistake I ever made in my entire business career. I thought I could avoid all of the problems of a windows computer by buying a mac and installing Parallels to run Autocad but I now have three times more problems than I ever had.

 

I did just what you are considering and its the worst mistake I ever made. My advice - don't even think of doing it.

 

Well, if anyone is interested...

I'm running AutoCad 2010 under the latest Parallels 5 version with no problems. AutoCad 2009 and 2007 also ran fine on my earlier versions of Parallels.
I did have a mouse problem with 2007 where double clicking the scroll wheel (PC USB mouse) should have showed all of the drawn parts in the AutoCad window, but Parallels support suggested a quick fix, which was to buy SteerMouse mouse driver.
I did that and all was fine, I am still using SteerMouse but support indicated to me when I placed the problem report that the later version of Parallels (I was on 3 or an early 4 at the time) would not have that problem. I just haven't bothered to de-install SteerMouse to find out.

I have an iMac Core Two Duo 2.16GHz with 3 GB RAM.
It's not as fast as a dedicated late model PC or Bootcamp but quite acceptable.

 

Hello. I have a problem using AutoCAD Architecture 2009. In Parallels 5 I run Windows 7 from my BootCamp partition. When I run AutoCAD (it is installed there in my BootCamp) i get my license deactivated. It remains deactivated even when I use AutoCad in Boot Camp.

Is there anyone who can help?