My point exactly. I needed a newer video card last year so I bought one and switched it. Same to be said with NICs and sound cards. I do not want a machine with hard wired components.

I honeslty believe it is so Apple can try to force hardware updates. Say you need a newer version of X (whatever cat name it is this year) but your video card is not up to snuff. Well just buy a new iMac. No thanks. The $100 a year updates for OSX is bad enough to me. IMHO

I would think that the responce in the hacker community of installing X on non Apple hardware would open their eyes. They could be a software company, really they could. Sell software and iPods. I would bet on a market share jump from under 5% to 15% or so in one year of releasing OSX to the masses. Though they would have to step up to drivers issues and such. That would be a challenge.

@unknownuser said:

exactly. the high end macs are amazing machines. no wonder most advertising agencies (at least their image processing depts) and video production companies use mostly macs.

my question is: why do not apple allow us who are not such power users to have machines that could be upgradeable? i do not need a super machine like the 8-core mac pro but i do need more than my emacs with a meager video card (32 Mb).

my current machine is an imac intel with a 128 Mb video card. but what if i need more than that in the future?

cheers.

Exactly my point Edson. I have an older Mac and it works fine as does my 2 older PCs as well as my current PC. They all "just work". I can use both just fine but I just prefer the PC (I guess I just prefer AutoCAD). Yes, you are stuck with what Apple wants you to have unless you buy the highend tower, which I don't need. I would imagine that this helps get Apple products selling. Need a better graphics card in your iMac? Well pony up and buy a new model. Only the high-end iMac can upgrade graphics and still imagine that it is expensive. Atleast now with the Intel macs we can buy upgrades to the CPU without having to be restrcited to a hand ful of vendors.

@unknownuser said:

hi glenn, come to think of it, you are damned right.

i have been a mac user for 12 years but only recently it dawned on me that unless you own the top apple model (the cheese graters) you are stuck with what they but inside the box. sometime ago i wanted to get a faster graphic card for one of my emacs but could not as it comes soldered to the motherboard (which cannot be upgraded either, by the way).

so far i have been quite happy with the many macs i have owned but what you mention is indeed a limitation. one wonders why apple does not do the obvious thing. perhaps now that they moved to intel they will start thinking differently.

cheers,

I honestly don't see how mac users have all of these "problems". BSODs and crashes left me the day I left NT 4.0 and went with Windows 2000 and XP has been even better. I simply don't have any issues. In fact to me windows just seems to be in the background, I see my applications and what I am doing.
I do wonder why Apple (Jobs) won't make a consumer tower? Why should non pro users be restricted to minis and all-in-ones? Dell, HP and others can make a Core2Duo box w/ XP for under $700 why can Apple make one for under $1000? (that's including the OSX tax ) They would sell like hot-cakes! I would consider getting one but not a mini or all-in-one that is restricted to upgrades (limited ram slots, non upgradable graphics, built in monitors) no thanks. Come on Steve make a consumer tower.

@daniel said:

Your welcome. Glad I could b helpful. Maybe that should be a request for the next version - a "change insertion point" option.

I think so. As you way be can tell I have an extensive Acad background and I think that having the ability to set the insertion point at time of block/component creation would be a great asset. Thanks again for the assistance

@daniel said:

Load your component into your model, right click and select "change axis". After changing the axis, if you look under the "in model" tab in the component browser, you will see your component with the revised insertion point - it will have the same name as the original component followed by #1 (#2, #3 and so on). You can then right click on it in the browser and select "save as" and save it to your component library.

Thanks Daniel. I must have missed the "change axis". I right clicked on the component and didn't see this. It was late and I am not surprised that I didn't see it
Thanks again

Is there a way to set a component's insertion point? This is pretty easy to do in AutoCAD but I just can't seem to find a way to do this in SU. Does anyone know of a way to set these? TIA

Glenn

That's actually a descent card. It scores better than my Quadro FX3450 here

@archi rag said:

hi, its an Nvidia Geforce 7900 GS 256, not 128 (my mistake)
someone also told me it might just be the processor speed thats slowing it down although modelling more carfully/purging unused, etc. should def keep things running smoothly
thanks for all your comment/help this forum is far eaier to navigate than the google groups one

@archi rag said:

i have posted this on the sketchup pro forums site as well sorry to spam :S
hi i dont really know a much about computers but i want to improve the way my sketchup models run, at the moment i have
intel core 2 duo 2.4
2Gb RAM
& an Nvidea 128mb Gc
im assuming its the GC thats letting it down but wasnt sure which one to get i have mainly used Nvidea ones before and have been happy with the way they perform, any advice?

Well what model is your graphics card? Is it a GeForce or a Quadro? What model GeForce or Quadro? Just getting one with more ram might not always be a good thing if you are not also getting a better GPU on the card. Say you have a 128 mb Quadro FX1400 but swap it out for a 256 mb GF 7300 GS, not a good idea. Look here...

(www.gpureview.com)

I also agree that nVidia cards seem to be better but just research what you have before you make a purchase
Good luck

I tried the cab one over at the RudyDepot but not what a friend is looking for. I have turned another person on to SU (free version for him) and he is looking for a good imperial cabinet script. Anybody got one? TIA

Wow, that seems very cool!

@stu said:

Thanks Glenn.

I'm trying to cover all options......how about partitioning the hard drive, loading XP and dual booting....with all the Vista problematic apps. on the XP side??

Or how about getting really serious......formating Vista from the very start and loading a legit OEM version of XP Pro....OK, that's spending $200 to get peace of mind

And all you Mac guys had just better keep quiet!

Why did you get Vista to start with? Honestly most of the Vista horror stories are largely "self-inflicted".
Well the Macs went through this when moving from OS9 to OSX. It happens to us all at some point or another.

I have installed Acad 2007 on my boss's Vista Business laptop. Run in XP compatibility mode with administrative rights. It works fine after that. Good luck

Oh I like these too. Thanks for sharing

Well I think a 6200 is the best that you will find for a PCI based computer. The 6200 should be a little better than the 5500 but if you get a new monitor with both DVI and VGA inputs why even buy a new card unless it's just to get the wide-angle view. The 6200 seems to be a little better than your 5500 on GPUreview.com - http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=437&card2=439
not much but a little better. I say go for it and then save for your new system after Xmas. If you have a home for your 6200 later then that's OK.
Good luck

Thanks for the tip Ron. 20/20 is a cabinet layout program. I did a short part-time stint as a kitchen designer and we used 20/20.

(www.2020technologies.com)

@rons said:

Your welcome all.

Glenn,
They are from acad files. You can get them right from Kraftmaid. I will have base, wall, vanity, furniture and entertainment cabinets posted here soon. There are many many many cabinets. If you download the acad file you will have to reverse all of the faces on each one. This is the only downfall.

What is 20/20?

Cool Ron, I will be doing a kitchen redesign soon for my mom and these will come in handy. One question, are you drawing these or exporting them from some cabinet software like 20/20? Very nice to share though

Hi Masta, I recently bought a new Dell 22" wide panel LCD. It works great with SU. I did buy a new video card before the monitor as I was sure my FX5200 would not run in wide view with my new monitor. I went with a GF 6600GT card. Seems to run SU just fine for most models. The good thing is the Dell 22" monitor has both DVI and VGA inputs on the back and can be swithced with the front panel button. I used this feature when I had my old PowerMac 6500 plugged into the VGA port and would just switch over the input and puch the PC's keyboard and mouse over and use the Mac's keyboard and mouse. I don't think the FX-5XXX series can do wide aspect viewing so be careful if you plan on getting one of those. The 6200 card is pretty low tech. I would wait and use this $$ on a new system instead of spending $$ on a PCI based system. I think you would be better off getting a new system with a built-in video card (anything other than Intel graphics) and then a better PCIe card down the road a bit. Good luck with whatever you decide