Apple Mac Users

dylan

Hi guys,

Well I am very close to purchasing a Mac after the last 10 years on a PC.
I am considering the new 17" Macbook Pro with processor upgrade and I am lucky enough to receive the very good Student discount!

I have a few questions.
When using a mac with SU, is there a big difference in the key combinations used for commands. For example, the pc uses ctrl/move for copy. Is the mac the same? I am sure I once read it has more combinations of keys to use SU for various commands. I don't want to complicate my use of SU. Is there a list of Mac keyboard commands around?

Also, Bootcamp for windows programs, is this pretty straightforward to load? There are times when I will need Autocad, so will obviously have to run via Bootcamp. Does this run things as well as a pc does?

Any tips or advice you mac users have?

Stinkie

I cannot help you on the key combinations - it's been a while since I used SU for the Mac.

As for BootCamp, it's not an emulator, so there is no performance loss. I've been running Vista on my Mac Pro for over a year now, and I haven't experienced any problems. Everything runs very smoothly.

Setting up BootCamp is easy. It's gotta be, 'cause I got it to work properly!

dale

Same key combinations except substitute the command for control on virtually everything. Otherwise Command C= copy, Command V = paste, command Z, they are all the same. Try here for a list of keyboard shortcuts, which of course you can also customize.http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

jeff hammond

here's the SU7 reference card for macs
http://dl.google.com/sketchup/gsu7/docs/en/SketchUp7RefcardMac.pdf

kmead

Keep in mind all of the SU commands can be whatever you want them to be.

As for bootcamp, it will make your machine a MS Windows machine running the installed OS. There is no emulation whatsoever involved as its the same processor as in any similar Dell or HP product. In some tests a Mac that is running MS software can be some of the fastest MS Windows machines available.

The biggest negative about changing platforms is the cost of upgrading/sidegrading software.

Get a license for Cocktail, Macaroni or some other utility to do minor maintenance and customization of the system.

Good luck and enjoy your new purchase.

jeff hammond

@kmead said:

Keep in mind all of the SU commands can be whatever you want them to be.

actually, that's not quite true.. orbit, for instance, is ⌘-ctrl-mousebutton and you can't change it.. pan is the same thing but you also have to add the shift key.. there are others like that too..

@unknownuser said:

Get a license for Cocktail, Macaroni or some other utility to do minor maintenance and customization of the system.

Onyx.. it's free.

Edson

hi dylan,

congratulations on your decision to buy a mac. you will not regret it. my advices to you are:

i would buy a 15" macbook pro and a 20" or 24" screen. besides making for a great working setup (this is the way i work) you would have a lighter laptop to take on the road.

to run windows on your mac i would go with VMWare Fusion or Parallels (about 80 dollars each) because they allow you to switch from mac to win without rebooting. bootcamp is great but it forces one to reboot every time you want to change OS.

buy extra memory from a vendor other than apple. it would be much cheaper.

the migthy mouse is a great buy. its tiny scroll ball is unbeatable.

other than that, go fot it.

regards.

broomstick

I am a very recent switcher, and I must say I enjoy my Imac 24 a lot. The only thing that takes me aback is that other than Kerkythea and Artlantis, there are no professional rendering solutions... if you don't want to learn Maya, wichi I do not at the moment.

The keyboard is really nice, and working on a big screen is really a plus.

Bootcamp is very easy to install, just be sure to print the manual prior to using it

Cheers!

jeff hammond

@broomstick said:

The only thing that takes me aback is that other than Kerkythea and Artlantis, there are no professional rendering solutions...

there's also maxwell and you can run vray via cinema4d... cheetah3d is worth checking out also.. hypershot, strata3d, modo also run on macs..

coming soon though is vray for sketchup OS X which will run natively on macs
http://www.vray.com/vray_for_sketchup/buy_vray_for_sketchup_mac.shtml

there are plenty of rendering options available for macs

Edson

@broomstick said:

The only thing that takes me aback is that other than Kerkythea and Artlantis, there are no professional rendering solutions... if you don't want to learn Maya, wichi I do not at the moment.

there is also podium, vray for sketchup, etc. there is plenty of choices for rendering on the mac.

dale

And of course any windows oriented renderer if you run windows via parallels, etc

Double Espresso

@unknownuser said:

Hi guys,

Any tips or advice you mac users have?
quote="Dylan"]Hi guys,

Any tips or advice you mac users have?
@unknownuser said:

Hi guys,

Any tips or advice you mac users have?
/quote

I've been on Macs for 15 years and run three including two MacBook Pros.

1 - Go for the 17", it's not much bigger and the extra screen real estate pays off, you will miss it if you add a larger second monitor and also use the PowerBook as a standalone. I have a 24" Samsung and they work great together - there are also switchers that allow you to add two external monitors.
2 - I also use a MAC Bluetooth mini keyboard - amazing, and Logitech Bluetooth mouse (personally I have never liked MAC keyboards and mice) Go wireless whenever possible.
3 - As far as Sketchup goes - I am left handed and customized all my shortcuts - very easy to do.
4 - I also use Podium and find it fast and seamless on MAC. As a point of interest - I also run stuff like Photoshop CS4 and FinalCut...
5 - Max out the Ram.
6 - Be careful about using freebie maintennance progs like Cocktail - I personally think people use them too often, they are not a magic bullet and if they go sideways they can cause headaches.

My guess is that once you get into MAC and build your software you will faze out PC - good luck,
DE

Jean Lemire

Hi Dylan, hi folks.

At home, I use a iMac 24" with a wireless keyboard and wireless mighty mouse. I am still using the Tiger OS (10.4.11). I have no problem with SU. I can keep a few dialog windows open while getting a large modeling window. When I get back to work, on a PC and a 19 inches monitor, I am not that much thrilled. The machine is quite transportable at 25 pounds (or 11.3 kg). Of course, if you need a real portable machine I wouold suggest a 17 inch MacBook.

The extra screen size compared to a 17" or even a 20" is very valuable. You can use a word processor and view two pages side by side. Spreadsheets show you a huge amount of rows and columns. For video editing or photo viewing, it is amazing. Plus, at 1920 x 1200 pixels, it allows you to use it as a TV to watch movies in HD (1920x1080).

Just ideas.

dylan

Thanks guys.

Well I really plan to get the 17" Macbook Pro over the 15". The weight difference is so little on these new models and the extra battery life of the 17 is a big selling point.
I do already own a nice Dell 24" monitor so could hook this up to the macbook if needed I guess.

As for the ram, it comes with 4gb which I am happy with. The cost of another 4gb is very expensive even through Crucial and can be something to consider in the future.

@unknownuser said:

there is also podium, vray for sketchup, etc. there is plenty of choices for rendering on the mac.

I do have Podium for SU and would like to continue with this, not sure if I have to pay again though!

@edson said:

to run windows on your mac i would go with VMWare Fusion or Parallels (about 80 dollars each) because they allow you to switch from mac to win without rebooting. bootcamp is great but it forces one to reboot every time you want to change OS.

How do you find SketchUp or Autocad runs with these programs because I assumed this was running in emulation. Is there a big difference?

@unknownuser said:

[actually, that's not quite true.. orbit, for instance, is ⌘-ctrl-mousebutton and you can't change it.. pan is the same thing but you also have to add the shift key.. there are others like that too..

I guess you can still orbit from middle mouse button only and pan/orbit from SU icons?

jeff hammond

@unknownuser said:

I guess you can still orbit from middle mouse button only and pan/orbit from SU icons?

yeah, you can still do it that way.. personally, i like using the keyboard.. for one, doing it that way means i'm not changing the tool i have selected (i can orbit in the middle of drawing a line and the linetool stays active instead of switching to the orbit tool).. two, i always work with one hand on the keyboard.. i only visit the toolbar for an obscure tool.. in the long run, this alone will noticeably increase your drawing speed.. also, i don't use the middle button because i tend to zoom in/out while i'm orbiting..
i actually have a five button mouse with one of the side buttons set to orbit but i still prefer doing it with the keyboard..
regardless, my point wasn't about any of that.. i was just stating that all SU commands can not be assigned to a keystroke.. some of the keystrokes are set by the programmers and can't be altered.

Edson

@unknownuser said:

I guess you can still orbit from middle mouse button only and pan/orbit from SU icons?

this is when the mighty mouse is unbeatable. orbiting with any other mouse is not a smooth operation because of the size of the scroll wheel. with the MM you can orbit almost as if you were not pressing any button. and if you press shift while orbiting you can pan without leaving the tools you were using before.

broomstick

@unknownuser said:

and you can run vray via cinema4d...

This I have to check out. Vray runs on C4D on macs?

@unknownuser said:

coming soon though is vray for sketchup OS X which will run natively on macs
http://www.vray.com/vray_for_sketchup/buy_vray_for_sketchup_mac.shtml

This is extremely good news!!

dylan

Well there is no turning back now, the order machine has been ordered! One MBP17
Unfortunately I have to wait 7-10 days
I could not buy it directly from a Mac store because I wanted a processor and hard drive upgrade. I also opted for the antiglare screen over the glossy.

I am really looking forward to getting my hands on this and moving over to Mac.

ideas_arte

@broomstick said:

@unknownuser said:

and you can run vray via cinema4d...

This I have to check out. Vray runs on C4D on macs?

@unknownuser said:

coming soon though is vray for sketchup OS X which will run natively on macs
http://www.vray.com/vray_for_sketchup/buy_vray_for_sketchup_mac.shtml

This is extremely good news!!

YES....!