Runnng Altium under Parallels on a Macbook. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2014, 10:08:50 am
content: Hi,Anyone else out there running Altium on a Macbook ( under Parallels )? I'm just wondering if theres any tricks to make it work better in this configuration that anyone knows about.RegardsAndrew.

author: DerekG
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2014, 12:08:47 pm
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on May 03, 2014, 10:08:50 amIt runs fine under VMware on an iMac (running Windows XP).

author: geo_leeman
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2014, 07:28:50 pm
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on May 03, 2014, 10:08:50 amI'm running Altium in Windows 7 with Parallels Desktop V9 on OSX Mavericks. I've run it on an iMac, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air with no issues. Two things to note:- Get a windows keyboard to have sitting by your desk. The mapping of function keys to the standard Mac keyboard will slowly drive you insane.- Give up on the trackpad. AutoCAD has really embraced interaction with a trackpad, but Altium is useless without a mouse with scroll wheel.I also have my Windows virtual machine about 6GB RAM and access to 2 of my cores for better performance (in Parallels machine configuration).

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 03, 2014, 09:19:45 pm
content: I've got a windows keyboard and mouse, and i'll see what happens. It certainly seems to run ok, but the 'interface' just seems clunky to me. I put some of that down to that i spend most of my time working with an OSX interface and so it just seems counter intuitive.I spend a lot of time away from my desk, so it is a wee bit tricky to have to cart a keyboard and mouse around all the time.

author: geo_leeman
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2014, 01:58:06 am
content: I hear you. I miss the nice clean interface of OSX and often go through the menu structure and go "Really?", but it does the job. The keyboard is a bit annoying, but I find Altium useless on a small monitor (my MacBook air) expect for very trivial cases. Running on a 27" is the trick. I find not running in coherence mode helps the menu access speed and such.

author: DerekG
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2014, 02:14:08 am
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on May 03, 2014, 09:19:45 pmYou can purchase a "mini sized mouse" & a small bluetooth keyboard. There are also some small roll up keyboards around but check that you like their key actions first.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2014, 09:49:08 am
content: Well, running with a Microsoft Mouse ( found one in the junk box) with a scroll wheel seems to make a massive difference. Really important to make sure that its actually connected to the Virtual machine, rather than to Macos X, other wise some stuff does work. Agree with you on screen size. I have a 27" iMac on my desk, which i use as an external display. My macbook is a 15" and it does push the limits..I'll give the Keyboard a try tomorrow.The dumb thing of course, is I always say i'll do some work while i'm out of the office in the hotel, but really do, either because i'm jet lagged, i have to have dinner with staff / supplier / customer, or i'm on a plane..

author: DerekG
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2014, 10:10:10 am
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on May 04, 2014, 09:49:08 amDon't forget that Altium lets you choose what functions the scroll wheel(s) do (even allowing you to reverse the scroll wheel action if you wish), plus setup a myriad of keyboard shortcut keys.

author: geo_leeman
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2014, 01:28:10 pm
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on May 04, 2014, 09:49:08 amI do the same. Drag a load of work along with me and end up just carting it around. In a pinch though, I've hooked up to a projector and worked.

author: andyturk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2014, 05:48:16 pm
content: Quote from: geo_leeman on May 03, 2014, 07:28:50 pmYep, me too. My setup is a mac mini with two cinema displays. At the moment I've got it set up so that Parallels doesn't show a desktop for Windows, so the Altium window(s) are intermixed with mac windows. For layout, I like to bring up the schematic on the other screen and that seems to push the video "card" much harder. It's noticeably slower with two Altium windows active (even if the second one is just showing text).Apple's magic mouse seems to do a pretty good job. It only emulates left- and right-click, but seems to work OK. I took free_electron's suggestion a while back and got a3D mouse. That thing is really slick.One nice thing about running under Parallels is that all my documents are stored on the mac filesystem--I try not to store documents, code, etc. on Windows. So when I screwed up yesterday and did something horrible to a PCB I was working on, Time Machine let me restore a clean set of files.

author: dfnr2
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2014, 10:14:42 pm
content: +1 for Altium in a Windows 7 64-bit VM under Parallels 9 running on top of Mavericks. Works just great.It works well running in a large window or full-screen rather than coherence or modality. I give the VM 4G RAM and 2 cores, but it ran fine on my older Macbook Pro (2009, core 2 duo) with 3G and 1 core. The 3D rendering was fine on a 2009 MBP (2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, 8 GB RAM) a 2008 Mac Pro (2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-core Xeon + 24GB RAM), and on a new (to me) 2012 MBP (2.7GHz i7 quad core + 16GB RAM).I had been using the mini wireless KB, but finally switched to a Logitech solar wireless. Mouse is a Logitech Performance MX. 3D mouse is a SpaceMouse Wireless. I take a 3D mouse even when traveling if I plan to use any CAD software. The desktop uses a 30" DELL monitor. With the 30", I think there is plenty of real estate for CAD work, including side-by-side documents, cross-probing, etc. The main impetus for another monitor, IMO, would be perhaps pulling up mac OS apps such as Emacs to edit verilog or firmware source while viewing the circuit full screen in the VM.I have used VMWare on Linux before I switched to a mac, and continued using VMWare until I moved from Eagle to Altium in 2009. At that time, Parallels was *much* faster for 3D rendering than VMWare, but it's been a long time, and I'd be surprised if VMWare hasn't caught up.Dave

author: andyturk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 04, 2014, 10:34:33 pm
content: Quote from: dfnr2 on May 04, 2014, 10:14:42 pmI think Parallels is still faster. We have one of the fancy new Mac Pros at work with the beefiest video configuration. I tried running another CAD tool (DipTrace) under both Parallels and VMWare to see which was better. Parallels was noticeably faster. What's weird was that Parallels on my laptop (13" rmbp) was *still* faster than VMWare on the Pro.Maybe there's some sort of configuration that held VMWare back, but the easy choice is to stick with Parallels.

author: geo_leeman
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2014, 12:23:07 am
content: Quote from: andyturk on May 04, 2014, 05:48:16 pmThat's the "Coherence Mode" setting. I've found that it seems to run slower in that setting than with Windows full screen. That could be all mental though. I also keep my projects in Dropbox so I have some version history there as well.That 3D mouse looks amazing! Thanks for the tip.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2014, 06:13:58 am
content: Which one do you recommend, theres 5 to pick from! It looks pretty cool though.Quote from: andyturk on May 04, 2014, 05:48:16 pm

author: andyturk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2014, 01:49:24 pm
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on May 05, 2014, 06:13:58 amI got the basic one, mostly because it was cheaper--and I don't have the desktop space for the bigger ones. Personally, I'd avoid the laptop version because it's not as heavy. You want the 3D mouse to stay in one orientation (and not slide around). The heavy steel base helps do that. It also helps to keep your desktop surface clean so the rubber foot on the bottom of the mouse can get a good grip.

author: dfnr2
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2014, 04:56:36 pm
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on May 05, 2014, 06:13:58 amI can highly recommend the Spacemouse Wireless. It has a really nice heft to it, and no distracting cables. However, before that I used the regular SpaceNavigator, which is superb. I'd say, if the wire doesn't bother you, just get the Navigator. It's a bit cheaper, and you don't have to worry about recharging. If you hate cords, go for the SpaceMouse Wireless.Don't bother with the larger models with the buttons. Even the buttons on the basic models are not that useful (to me).Dave

author: dfnr2
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2014, 05:03:19 pm
content: Quote from: geo_leeman on May 05, 2014, 12:23:07 amActually Coherence is about the display, not the file access.He's talking about file sharing. If you are using Dropbox, then you are using twice the space on your machine--one copy on the Windows drive and one copy on your Mac drive. Better to turn on sharing to allow access to a subdirectory containing your SVN working copy, and any other directories you wish. That way, you only have to store once.I use file sharing so I can use Altium for the PCB design, BOM files, etc., and use the mac for firmware development, documentation, and packaging the builds (with Makefiles, etc.)Dave

author: geo_leeman
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 05, 2014, 05:26:23 pm
content: Quote from: dfnr2 on May 05, 2014, 05:03:19 pmRight... I should have clarified more. I find the Coherence display to be slower.As for the dropbox. I don't have it setup as dropbox on the virtual machine, it's a mapped drive from the Mac.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 11, 2014, 10:31:46 am
content: Ok, made a couple of changes to my mac set up, and its now working much much better than it was;Upgraded to Parralllels V9, from V8, gave the virtual machine 8GB of RAM, and 2 CPU's.. Set the Virtual GPU to 1GB..Its very useable.. Will see if it makes much difference to my crashes as well. Will report back.

author: theatrus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2014, 05:08:26 am
content: I'm currently running on a 15" Retina with the Nvidia graphics. I should try out Parallels - it is totally usable under VMware, but in the past I've noticed Parallels simply does better on the graphics front.