Topic Title

Thanks Neil - i think i fixed it - for anyone else with the same issue -
i went to vmware fusion menus / virtual machine/ settings / processors & ram - changed it from 512mb of ram to 3000 mb ram. so far it hasn't crashed.

thanks for the help -
g

Hi g,

If you have not already installed VMware Tools, then this will (probably) help with the mouse and with the display.

Hi,

I just discovered a very important Apple menu/System Preferences/Keyboard setting:

Toggle on the "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" option.

This lets the function keys work as they should in Fusion/WinXP/DataCAD. Very important indeed!

I know this thread is older but I just ran across it and thought I'd post my setup since it is different.

I have a MacBook Pro 2.66 GHz i7 with Mac OS X 10.6.4, and 4 GB's RAM. I installed Parallels Desktop 5 running Windows 7 64 bit. I have it set up so when I start Parallels/Windows it boots in full screen on a second monitor. I have ran AutoCAD 2010, DataCAD 12, and the X3 demo and you would never know that it was running on the Mac except that the Mac OS is up on the MacBook monitor.

Thanks for posting and welcome to the forum! It's good to know a bit more about Parallels Desktop and Win7, too.

I'll chime in on this as well.
I'm still running Dcad (Plus and 10, Luddite that I am) on my old windows machine, I run Rhino 3D, Enroute, Vectric Aspire and RouterCad in Win XP concurrently with OSX Snow Leopard on my Macbook Pro via Parallels 5. It's really sweet, I have a Mac 24" monitor for Windows, the MacBook screen for the Mac World. I use a Logitech diNovo keyboard for the windows XP side and the macbook keyboard for the Mac side, a trackball for windows cad/cam and the mac trackpad for the mac side.
Or I drive with both hands and navigate 3d models with the trackpad and fine steer with the logitech trackball.
I can pass off primary control of devices like USB gizmo's and burners from OS to OS at will.
All email comes through the mac os (windows is locked out from the internet, period). I can read, load and save files across the partitions.

I'll soon kill the WinXP bootcamp partition, upgrade to Parallels 6 so I can run Windows 7 in 64 bit.

Best of all, when one OS goes toes up I can (and have), lift everything off the drive with the other OS, clean up the mess, and carry on. Needless to say the registry free Mac OS makes that less painful than Windows, but still it's possible in both systems.

When I made the switch to Macs April 2009, I also bought an IMac 24" for home. It's fitted with the same keyboard and trackball as in my shop, has parallels running and all the same Widows applications loaded. When I get home I can slave the Imac screen to the Macbook (or vice versa) open the application I was running earlier, and work on files in exactly the same software and hardware environment I was using in the shop. It's wonderful.

I'll admit if I get stupid with the number of apps I try to run at once the Macbook starts to pant. I run Win 7 Ultimate on the windows box that runs my CNC router, and I'm pretty impressed with it, but for my daily driver? I get some money I'm gonna get me a big box Mac, load it to the gills, go to town.

Frank Carpenter
Nashoba CNC
Clinton Ma

DEAR FRIENDS
I AM GETTING USED TO THE MAC BUT I HAVE YET TO COMMENCE A FULL DRAWING AS I AM HAVING SOME PROBLEMS CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP AND KEEP THE INSTRUCTIONS SIMPLE.
HARDWARE MACBOOK 15 WITH i5 AND 8GB RAM RUNNING BOOTCAMP- ANS MS WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM
HOW DO I GET THE HOME KEY SET UP TO RUN ON THE WINDOWS SIDE
ALSO THE SELECT MENU IS VERY SMALL AND I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE IT CLEARER
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP
THANKS
REGARDS FROM AUSTRALIA

What version of DataCAD are you running? All recent versions (v11 to X3) have a setting in Tools/Program Preferences/Interface to change the size and/or font of the menu text.

In Bootcamp, you are running "pure" Windows, so there the Mac OSX has nothing to do with it. Does the Mac keyboard have a Home key? If not, you may need to buy a Mac extended keyboard which uses a USB plug.

DEAR NEIL
THANKS FOR THIS I AM RUNNING DATACAD V12 AND THE MAC IS NEW IT DOES NOT HAVE A HOME KEY JUST A COMMAND KEY NEXT TO THE ALT KEY.I HAVE GONE INTO PREFERENCES MENU AND SET THE MENUE SIZE TO 32 BUT IT STILL IS VERY SMALL ON THE MAC SCREEN I AM CONFUSED I USED TO WORK ON THE LAP TOP PC 14.5 INCH SCREEN AND THE MENU WAS VERY CLEAR
I AM STRUGGLING WITH THE CHANGE OVER AT THE MOMENT AND WILL BE GOING TO A MAC SHOP FOR ASSISTANCE AS THIS IS CREATING TOO MUCH DOWN TIME ME TRYING TO WORK IT OUT.
ANYTHING ELSE THAT MIGHT WORK I WAS TOLD THAT I MAY HAVE TO RE MAP THE KEYBOARD ON THE WINDOWS SIDE OF THE MAC

Hi,

Okay, laptop keyboards often have fewer keys, so if you want to have a full-sized keyboard, you have to buy one from Apple:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB110LL/A

When you are running Windows in Bootcamp, it is running Windows natively on the same hardware, and the Mac OSX has nothing to do with the settings. You should always set the resolution on LCD screens at their maximum resolution, and then adjust the size of things with Display Properties/Appearance (for Windows Desktop), and Tools/Program Preferences/Interface for DataCAD. Click on the little square in the upper left, next to Font: ...



Did v12 get installed on C:\DataCAD 12\ ?

By the way -- you do not have to have the CAPSLOCK key on in DataCAD anymore, with the AllCaps option in the text menu, and when you leave it on to type a post IT SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING!

laptop keyboards often have fewer keys, so if you want to have a full-sized keyboard, you have to buy one from Apple:

For PC's if all you want is the 10keypad, you can buy that to have when you need to enter numbers.

Dear Gentlemen
thank you all for the assistance and i will "NOT SHOUT" any more but just quietly request.
i have been able to fix the font size in the menu and also spend hours and finally transferred my contacts e mail etc via my iPhone after much worry.
sync and then merge- thanks to the help desk from apple .

i will still have to resolve the home key i take on board the idea of an additional windows keyboard however, i am trying to only carry around one peice of hardware hence the reason for pursuing the idea of remapping the existing Mac keyboard to work on the W7 side with DC12.

Also the DC12 is located on the C:\ drive and i have created a transfer file off this drive as well so that after saving a drawing to PDF when in the mac side i can view the bootcamp drive and attach and send to a client.
Hope this makes sense?
i would like to hear of others that have had this experience, as i am not yet fully transferred to the Mac to produce any work. So it is an expensive paperweight at the moment.
regards from Down under

It will work just fine for you -- it is really a dual boot machine, and as a Windows machine it is just like any other laptop. You should be able to locate all your DataCAD drawing files (and anything else you want to access from the Mac side) on a part of the drive that also can be backed up by Time Machine.

You'll need to boot to Mac OSX to do this, but it backs up the entire system. Though I don't know for sure if it also backs up the Bootcamp partition and the Windows installation -- that would be a good question to ask Apple Support.

If you get an additional keyboard, I'd get the Apple extended keyboard. The Command key acts just like the Windows key, and the Option key works like the Alt key (as should your laptop keyboard?) and it has the extended number pad, and the Page Up/Down, Home, End, etc.

Neil et al.,
When I spoke to DataCad about running DataCad on a Mac, they did their best to warn me off of this, saying they can offer no support if I ever have problems. But from reading here it seems that a lot of people have managed to pull this off just fine.
I need to go to a Mac because I need the Mac for photographic work and need to upgrade from my Dell anyway. Speaking of upgrades we continue to use DCad 11 in our office and see no reason to upgrade from there so that is likely what I would be driving with the Mac.
I would certainly appreciate some advice on what to look out for. Particularly interested in the discussion of Parallels vs BootCamp, which I don't really understand.

Thanks,

David Peabody

Hi David,

If you go with Bootcamp, then you are running Windows fully "native" on the same computer -- you have to reboot and choose which operating system you want. I'm pretty sure you have full access to the data files (i.e the DataCAD drawings) when you are booted to Mac OSX. Bootcamp comes free with your Mac, but you would need to buy a copy of Win7 64bit. Your Mac only needs enough RAM to support one operating system at once -- so the 8GB stock Mac is fine, but you might want to get 16GB anyway - or even 32GB if you are doing work on big photos a lot. You may want to ask a Photoshop expert on what it may require.

I use VMware Fusion, but Parallels Desktop is very similar -- you have to buy one of these, and you have to buy Win7 64bit. You need enough RAM to run OSX and Win7 at the same time -- this is the major advantage of running Windows in Fusion/Parallels. I'd say 16GB of RAM is a good place to start, and split it 8/8 for each OS.

You run OSX all the time, and start up Fusion/Parallels which then boots Windows and you can run it in three different modes (in Fusion, anyway). You can run it full screen (and you can toggle back and forth), or you can run it in a window that you can move around the OSX desktop screen, or the third mode (which may also be in Parallels) is called Unity and it runs Fusion and Windows "behind the scenes" and runs DataCAD (or any Windows program) as if it is on your Mac OSX desktop. The only part that gives away that it is a Windows program is the buttons at the top corners.

So, that is the basic explanation -- ask any questions you may have. Oh, the stock Magic Mouse works well in Windows as a 3 button mouse with a scroll function.