Autodesk Products + Mac OS

Ideate, Inc. gets many questions about the use of Mac operating system (OS) and Autodesk products. There are Autodesk products, like AutoCAD for the Mac, which run natively on the Mac OS. However, many Autodesk products, including Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Navisworks, run only in a Windows OS environment. There seems to me an ever increasing number of Ideate customers with Mac laptop and desktop hardware.

PROBLEM: What are the ways to use Autodesk products in a Mac environment? What workflow does Autodesk support? 

ANSWER: There are two ways to use Autodesk Products on a Mac.

1. Apple Boot Camp This is free for Mac users. This provides for a ‘boot’ level decision for the user. You either boot into Windows or you boot into a MAC operating system. The total RAM on the computer is available to either Windows or Mac. Some users have found boot level decision problematic if they are using both Mac and Windows programs (because you have to reboot to go between Mac and Windows). 
2. Virtual Machine The two most popular products are Parallels and VM Ware. Either of these two programs cost under $100. The virtual machine approach allows you to run Windows ‘inside’ of the Mac OS. You can get about 75% of the RAM allocated to Windows, so having enough RAM is important. Users are able to run both Mac and Windows programs at the same time. 

What Workflow Does Autodesk Support? 
In the post ‘Parallels + Fusion + Boot camp + Autodesk Products’ from Autodesk, Autodesk Technical Support outlines the three ways to implement and which methodology is supported. Also note the work-around for those who prefer to point the virtual machine to the Mac Boot Camp partition. 

Ideate will continue to monitor this situation and will keep you informed.  

Don’t forget to look through the great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2014 releases for Revit Structure, Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Navisworks, Civil 3D, AutoCAD and more: ideateinc.com/2014

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David Haynes, NCARB, PMP, LEED AP
Ideate Director of Consulting

David is a Registered Architect, Project Management Certified Professional, who previously had his own architectural practice and was President of a commercial design-build construction company for 15 years. A graduate of University of Arizona, he has worked as an Architect, contractor, developer and as a national construction manager for a national retailer. David currently provides business process analysis, virtualization and change management solutions for AEC clients across the United States involved in the design and building industry. Follow David on Twitter: @dhaynestech

Get it. Know it. Use it.

eLearning – Upcoming Classes

Join the Ideate Tech Experts for eLearning – live online classes that provide your entire organization with easy access to premium education. 

Upcoming classes include: 

4.15.13::
Civil 101: Civil 3D for Beginners
4.16.13::
Revit 201: Site Tools
4.23.13::
Ideate 101: Network License Manager

Each class is designed to give you specific, improved results in a particular topic. You can interact with the instructor right from your own office, while eliminating travel time. Because the class schedule rotates, you can easily select your topics of interest and choose the day which best meets your schedule.

Click here for class descriptions, times and registration link. Questions? Contact education@ideateinc.com

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What's New in Revit MEP 2014: What's Your Angle? Ability to Constrain Angles in Revit MEP

Revit MEP 2014 has some great enhancements, one of the best is the new ability to constrain MEP angles. 

One of the most common questions that I receive while delivering Revit MEP training classes here at Ideate, Inc. is how to “lock” angles in Revit MEP like you can in AutoCAD MEP. New functionality has been enabled that allows for the restriction of available angles when adding or modifying pipe, duct, conduit, and cable tray. The controls have been added to Mechanical and Electrical settings. Piping may now be limited to specific angles while duct, conduit, and cable tray may be limited to specific angles or incremented angles. 

While this feature could probably be used for other reasons, we built this feature targeting the following use cases: 

• Add pipe, duct, conduit, and cable tray layouts with the “Use specific angles” setting enabled. Add or remove angles from the list as you go. 
• Add duct, conduit, and cable tray layouts with the “Set an angle increment” setting enabled using any appropriate angle value. 
• Use the Duct/Pipe Sizing, Generate Layout, and Connect Into tools with restricted angles. 
• Modify layouts by dragging elements, changing type, and reapplying type after limiting the angles that may be used.

Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2014 releases for Revit Structure, Revit Architecture, Civil 3D, AutoCAD and more: ideateinc.com/2014

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Bill Johnson
Ideate Senior MEP Application Specialist

Bill has over 20 years experience in applying AEC design solutions for large commercial companies. A graduate of Pasadena Institute of Technology, he has worked for TEECOM Design Group, GTE/GTEL, Greg LeDoux and Associates, and Scottish Power in England. Bill has also had the opportunity to act as Lead AutoCAD Designer for multimillion dollar communication sites which have included structural, electrical, HVAC, conduit, cable plans and equipment layouts. He has a Sustainable Design Certification from the University of California at Berkeley.

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Revit 2014 Feature Review: Allow Parameters to Vary Across Groups

This new feature in Revit 2014 is very timely as we had an Ideate support case just last week regarding this issue! 

This feature is for all of us who have ever been editing a schedule and received this error:  

You want to edit that door or plumbing fixture that is part of a group, but Revit 2013 (and earlier) would not permit an instance-based change except while editing the group. This has meant that you could not, for example, assign a unique paint color to a door, or assign a barcode value to a toilet or light fixture, if it belonged to a group. Now, with some caveats, this is possible in Revit 2014.

If you’re interested in giving this a spin, this video covers the basic of how to implement this new feature.



The limitations of this feature are:

1. It works for project and shared parameters only. It does not work within the Family Editor
2. It works only for text-based parameters. It does not work for yes/no or dimensional parameters
3. It does not apply to most built-in parameters such as “Comment” though it does work for “Mark”

This is a nice feature that will definitely support those who are managing lots of group-based data, such as apartment unit plans, hospitals, or office furniture layouts.  
 
Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2014 releases for Revit MEP, Revit Structure, Civil 3D, AutoCAD, Navisworks and more: ideateinc.com/2014

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Glynnis Patterson is a registered architect and the Director of Software Development at Ideate, Inc. In a previous life Glynnis spent many hours looking at blueprints with a scale, highlighters, and a scratch pad to develop detailed cost estimates.