Using a Mac with Windows Virtualization to Operate SB

[gerryv]

Is anyone successfully using a Mac computer running Windows using either Bootcamp, Parallels or VMWare Fusion to run Shopbot control and Vectric software. Come to think of it, has anyone tried but had a bad experience?
Thanks much,
- Gerry

[geometree]

I run partworks on my macbook all the time, both with bootcamp and parallels without any problems. I've never tried to directly control my shopbot though. This same question was asked a while ago and someone said that they were able to control their machine with a mac using parallels, I think. I'm not sure why you'd want to use a mac to control your machine. When a part is running it would be unusable for anything else. Any pc made in the last 10 years is probably up to the task of being a dedicated shopbot controller.

[michael_schwartz]

Partworks (Vcarve pro) ran well on my 4+ year old macbook using XP home via parallels. With enough ram Aspire would probably run ok.

I would recommend at least 4gb of ram if your going to run parallels. I did it with 2 gb but had some problems as a result.

I haven't tried running my shobot with my macbook, as I only have XP home installed as a virtual machine. In an emergency I would probably just end up using my dell inspiron anyway.

I wouldn't go out of my way to use a mac to run a shopbot, unless you already have one sitting around. Then again resale values are high for used apple products, so I wouldn't let a perfectly good mac rot away in my shop.

I am running my bot from a refurbished dell optiplex that has issues which I am likely going to recycle for point of sale use shortly. I am probably going to build a nice bare bones PC to run the bot for a few hundred bucks.

[gerryv]

Michael & Shawn,
Thanks much. I've updated to one of the new 27" iMac's so have an older Intel iMac sitting around gathering dust so I thought I'd check into this. A few weeks back I bought a new triple core PC with 4 gig of ram and Partworks is extremely slow on it for some reason (Maybe win. 7?). It made me think that Aspire could be even slower, being a bigger program. I figured I might as well put Parallels on the iMac and see if it does any better, assuming it worked for others, so this is good news. I'll give it a whirl. Thanks kindly for the feedback. I'll post how it goes when I get to it in case someone else has the same question.

[adrianm]

Something is wrong with your PC (too many background programs, poor graphics card?) as I run Aspire and PartWorks on a dual core with 3gb of ram and Windows 7 with no performance problems whatsoever. Even on large, complex models.

[GlenP]

Hey Gerald. If you bought the new PC at a big box store locally then it probably has Norton Antivirus on it. I take Norton off as it slows everything down and runs in background slowing things down. If you want I can come down to have a look at the computer. I still run a older computer with XP PRo on it and all internet and email, security software off of it. It is a barebones operating system running the shopbot. I do have partworks and aspire on it for minor design or toolpath changes. I like one computer for design and the shopbot computer to be offline of internet and as a cnc controller and nothing else. Works better for me that way. :)