[tony21]

Bought a G5 for school, need to get Auto CAD or something like it. Im wondering how good V PC works. thanks

[willab]

Virtual PC does not run on the G5.

[tony21]

Originally posted by willab:
Virtual PC does not run on the G5.

why not?

[osiris]

Ouch.

The cold hard truth.



I think a version may be available in a year, or so.

[swingard]

Originally posted by tony21:
why not?

Intel processors fetch and store data in 'little-endian' order (lower-order bits before higher-order bits). All the old Motorola 68k processors and many RISC processors (like the PPC) are 'big-endian' (higher-order bits come before lower-order), but some RISC processors can change 'on the fly'. The G3 and G4 processors have a 'pseudo-little-endian' mode that allows them to mimic the little-endian behavior of the Intel CPUs, so VPC didn't implement any sort of mechanism to convert byte order as it moved data around.

But for some reason, IBM did NOT implement this feature in the G5/970 (nor in the Power4 processor from whence it came). And Microsoft (the new owners of Virtual PC) say it's not going to be a 'quick patch' to fix, because they'll need to change LOTS of code to get around this, and then they've got to be sure that the fix they implement is going to work with the big pile of x86 software out there (which may include sneaky programmer tricks...)

Oops.

[saturnbill]

You may be better off in getting a CAD program meant for the Mac. There are several that might compare with AutoCad and can export the required file format. Vectorworks 10 is probably one of the best. DenebaCad does not have a OS X version yet. Running AutoCad through an emulator may not be the best choice for performance. Or you could (don't make me say it) you could buy a cheap Windoz system (arrrg! I said it, sorry).

[Eug]

How much 3D acceleration is needed by the way? VPC doesn't really support 3D.

[bauhaus]

AutoCad requires quite a lot of 3-D acceleration in newer versions (pre R11 it wasn't the case) Fantastic program but needs a lot of RAM, a good ISV certified graphics card, and plenty of CPU horsepower to run well (especially using mulitlayerd documents.)

Emulation subsystems for AutoCad wouldn't have really worked anyway on the G4, so by getting the G5, you're not missing anything. (you'd have still been in the same boat...)

At least AutoDesk has a viewer in the works and they're opening DWF.

[KidRed]

Originally posted by tony21:
why not?

Because M$ is at it again

[Eug]

Emulation subsystems for AutoCad wouldn't have really worked anyway on the G4, so by getting the G5, you're not missing anything. (you'd have still been in the same boat...)

Yeah, that's what I figured.

Given the recently announced viewer, maybe it's true that AutoCAD will come too... in 2005.

[Busemann]

Originally posted by Eug:
Yeah, that's what I figured.

Given the recently announced viewer, maybe it's true that AutoCAD will come too... in 2005.

I think it'll arrive sooner. Many Apple execs have hinted at this for quite some time now, so I hope for an announcement in the not too distant future. And as autodesk says, the viewer is the "first step" towards the Mac platform..

Both Archicad and VectorWorks are credible apps though, and they both import and export to dwg.

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by KidRed:
Because M$ is at it again

Bullsh*t.

[kevin_stevens]

Yeah, really. Microsoft buys the product at current release code less than six months ago, and it's *THEIR* fault it doesn't support the necessary feature. C'mon - every sin in the digital world can't be laid at their doorstep.

KeS

[Scotttheking]

Either get a PC or wait for the mac version of autocad. Even if you could run autocad in VPC on the G5, I would recommend against it.