Mac / Windows setup

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Permalink Reply by Scott Schneider on December 15, 2009 at 3:14pm

Im running Windows xp 32 bit on a macbook pro in bootcamp with 4 gb ram. Currently running the latest Rhino 5 beta build. So far having no problems. but something you should be aware of is that the Mac os is 64 bit but windows xp is not. When you boot into windows you lose 2 gb of ram when running applications. Windows 7 offers 64 bit but the last I heard it was having problems running in bootcamp. I find all kinds of limitations with parallels and VMware fusion, such as print driver problems, mouse problems etc. All I can say is if you are running xp 32 bit you should be ok. Ive been working in files at around 500 mb in size and its sluggish but still seems to run ok. One other thing, if you plan to run 64 bit windows 7 you will need to upgrade your mac to snow leopard but you may still have problems with WIn 7. Look at the mac website about bootcamp and Win 7. I dont care for parallels or Fusion because its just another software to contend with.

Hope this helps
scott

Permalink Reply by Terry on December 15, 2009 at 10:53pm

Hi Bill,

I am running Win 7 64 bit on a 3.06 duo core iMac with 4GB ram and 512 MB nvidia card, 1TB Drive. Snow Leopard 10.6.2 is the OS. Scott is correct in that Bootcamp will not handle 64 bit MS OS at this date. The new release is due out in the very near future (End of Dec early Jan I've heard).

In light of this I'm using Parallels 5.0 to run XP and 7 64. I have Rhino 4 SR6 as well as both 32 and 64 bit Rhino 5 WIPs and the Mac Wenatchee WIP on the Mac. Both versions of Rhino 5 work very well in Parallels on Win 7 64. Rhino 4 has had some problems but I attribute that to the Win 7 64 as it works on the XP side without issue.

I found Bootcamp to be cumbersome....only because I felt forced to work in a Windows environment where I would have to reboot to get email or go on the web for whatever reason. Losing half of my memory to Windows didn't help to speed things up either. In my line of work, I have to be responsive to my clients as we receive changes and new data on a constant basis. I've sworn off using Microsoft Office, Exchange, and any of their other apps. Apple's iWork, Mail, and Safari are much more efficient than their MSFT equivalents (not really the right term as the Apple apps are superior and do not hog memory like Word for example).

Parallels allows me to keep chugging along with Rhino while staying in the Mac environment. I really haven't noticed any loss of function or slowness on the Mac with P5.0. It's possible that Parallels 4.0 was slow but I wouldn't know. We just switched from PC's to Mac's here at work. I can already attest to a higher rate of productivity due to this switch.

For the time being, you'll definitely want to use the PC versions of Rhino as the plug-ins, Flamigo, and Grasshopper only work on that side afaik right now. Once Wenatchee gets closer to release, McNeel will release the SDK for developers to start porting plug-ins. In the meantime you can create your CAD within Wenatchee or a version of 5.0 WIP then save the file as a .3dm or R4 format. If you need plug-in support, simply open the file in R4 and use the plug in.

For example, I use RhinoCam Pro and RhinoArt. Since they're both 32 bit, I'm able to use them in my R5 WIP 32 bit version. They will not work in the R5 64 bit. That day will come eventually but I have a workaround for now.

Clear as mud right?

Terry Wellman

Permalink Reply by Stefan Boeykens on August 9, 2010 at 8:11am

Have participated in a Grasshopper workshop, using Rhino4 running in XP 32-bit in Parallels. Now upgraded to Parallels 5 and Windows 7, but it is still slower than the real thing.

Strangely, the whole Windows system is from times to time very responsive and then at other time, things slow really down for several minutes. Maybe switching back and forth between Parallels and the rest of the OSX system is not really helping?

So mixed feeling, but for ease-of-use and integration I prefer Parallels by far over bootcamp.