Mac book running windows in a VM
- Thread starter kin
- Start date
Looking at something like this:
Processor
2.4GHz 8‑core Intel Core i9, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz, with 16MB shared L3 cache
Memory
32GB of 2666MHz DDR4 onboard memory
Display
16‑inch (diagonal) LED‑backlit display with IPS technology
3072‑by‑1920 native resolution at 226 pixels per inch with support for millions of colors
Storage
2TB SSD1
Graphics
AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory and automatic graphics switching
I too am running Alibre Expert on a iMac under MacOS 10.15.7 (Catalina) using Parallels Pro 16.1.1. So far, it has worked perfectly.
Two things were needed for this to be workable.
First, a real 3-button mouse is needed. The Apple mice do not work. I use a LogitechM-UAE96 (three buttons, center is also a scroll wheel), but there are many workable choices.
Second, you will need to upgrade physical memory in the Mac. My iMac is old enough that DRAM cost had dropped significantly, so I maxed DRAM out, at 96 GBytes. Installing memory in the iMac was easy. I've never added memory to a MacBook Pro, but I bet it's easy as well. On the iMac, there is a special door, so one need not disassemble the Mac.
Two things were needed for this to be workable.
First, a real 3-button mouse is needed. The Apple mice do not work. I use a LogitechM-UAE96 (three buttons, center is also a scroll wheel), but there are many workable choices.
Second, you will need to upgrade physical memory in the Mac. My iMac is old enough that DRAM cost had dropped significantly, so I maxed DRAM out, at 96 GBytes. Installing memory in the iMac was easy. I've never added memory to a MacBook Pro, but I bet it's easy as well. On the iMac, there is a special door, so one need not disassemble the Mac.
Telescopi
New Member
I have had no trouble at all running Alibre Design Expert v22. It should be noted that I'm only an occasional user with a professional background, but I have never encountered any problem despite creating multiple configuration parts and assemblies.
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
running Windows 10 in a Parallels VM on Catalina (10.15.n), all up to date.
I have a Kensington trackball and a 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse. They work well.
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
2.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
running Windows 10 in a Parallels VM on Catalina (10.15.n), all up to date.
I have a Kensington trackball and a 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse. They work well.
Axiocersus
New Member
Hi Telescopi, I have a similar vintage MacBook Pro (Mid 2014, 3GHz, Dual-Core Intel Core i7, 16GB 1600MHz DDR3, Intel Iris 1536MB, running Windows 10 in a Parallels VM on Big Sur) and Alibre is just barely usable, extremely laggy, very slow updates, very slow switching from 2D sketcher to 3D, assembly rotations (of very simple block models) lag by seconds and are completely non-linear. It runs much worse than the 2021 SolidWorks behemoth I am transitioning from (which also suffered a bit of lag at times but my issues with Alibre at 10x worse) and I am completely puzzled . I am encouraged to hear that you (and others) are experiencing no problems so I hope mine are somehow configuration related. Thanks for any advice you may have.
Clayton.
Clayton.
Axiocersus
New Member
Just an update to say that I applied all of the optimizations described in the online Documentation but using the Legacy graphics pipeline setting made all the difference. Is now completely responsive, no lag. There must be a driver mismatch when using the Parallels Display Adapter and the newest V23 graphics pipeline.