I'm just wondering if anyone uses Macbooks to do CAD work on a regular basis? eg. Solidworks. If so, how does it stand? Does it perform just like any other Windows laptops running off of integrated graphics?
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simple DO NOT TRY. and even if it is a windows laptop Solidworks is not consumer GPU friendly, go for a portable workstation with a FirePro or Quadro GPU, if budget is a concern a newer GCN radeon will do in a pinch. Gforce 6xxm - 8xxm and intel IGP are dead last.
if it is light work on an IGP then you will find that the MBP/rMBP will throttle it very quickly, it is just due to how CPU intensive CAD applications are comparatively. -
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2.0 likes this.
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I use Solidworks daily on my rMBP in a production environment. I work in large assemblies of over 2,000 parts and have absolutely zero problems.
Do not waste your money on the "workstation" graphics cards. They only real advantage they have over the consumer cards is the ability to use the "real view" option. There is a registry hack that will allow you to enable this feature on a standard GeForce card.
I also use Pro/E (Creo 2), Catia and NX9.0.
The rMBP is more than adequate to handle all of these programs through Bootcamp with 16MB of RAM instead of lugging around a 9lb workstation laptop that is overpriced because of the video card. -
Registry Edit that allows RealView on a standard GeForce card
1. Launch regedit and go to key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SolidWorks\SolidWorks2014\Performance\Graphics\Hardware\Gl2Shaders\NV40
2. Under the NV40key create a new key called GeForce
3. Under this new "GeForce" key create a new DWORD(32-bit) Value called "Workarounds"
4. Double click the"Workarounds" and enter a hex value"40008" (without "")
5. LaunchSolidWorks...(Should see the RealView gold ball now)
Enjoy! -
MAC for CAD ?
Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by Sanarae, Jun 2, 2014.