Howdy friends,
Do you have any recommended specs for CAD workstations? We are looking to upgrade and would like to know what others (particularly opera companies) are doing, especially if you are doing more 3D rendering.
We are also using two different CAD packages, AutoCAD and VectorWorks, between our Technical and Lighting departments, respectively.
Also, how do you handle mobility for these users? Do you do a beast of a laptop, or multiple workstations?
CC
Let the people use what they're most productive with! I manage our organization's Tessitura installation, and do it from a Mac running Windows 7 in VMware. I'd have to spend years relearning all of my usage patterns, tricks, and hacks to regain the same level of productivity if I was forced to use Windows exclusively.
Mac users actually outnumber Windows users at my organization (using Tessitura). They do all of their Tessi work in a Remote Desktop Services session. Transactional machines for the box office are Windows.
7 64bit OS, Intel i5, 8 gigs of memory will run vector works and auto cad. We haven't had any complaints. With a nice GPU you can improve the rendering, but it isn't necessary if you have the resources to share.
Travis
I’m very interested in hearing responses on this one as well… especially more on the Mac vs Windows argument.
The majority of our organization uses Windows, and I’ve been trying to move production/shops over to Windows as well. They tell me that VectorWorks just doesn’t work as well on Windows, but maybe we’re just buying the wrong hardware. My hardware consultant recommended an HP zBook Mobile Workstation for one of our design team, well beefed up according to the VectorWorks requirements. But I still hear some complaints about it not being a Mac.
Thanks!
-p.
Patrick Schley Academy Services Manager
FIRST STAGE
Transforming Lives Through Theater
325 West Walnut Street | Milwaukee, WI 53212 (414) 267-2942 direct | (414) 267-2976 fax
Interesting. Our Lighting department in particular has complained VectorWorks w/r/t Windows as well, but our old lighting designer and staff had no problems with VectorWorks on Windows. Then there's our AutoCAD Tech people who want Windows 8 (we're on 7) and want no part of a Mac.
In a vacuum, I wouldn't care whether it was Mac or PC. But I don't have the audit, imaging, configuration, and support infrastructure that I have with the Windows side. I used to be an Apple consultant many moons ago, so I know those tools are out there -- a Mac server and mobile device management are on our roadmap. But they're not available to me yet.
Good to know that an i5 will work for AutoCAD. I've been more concerned about the recommended graphics cards, as that really restricts what you can purchase, particularly for a laptop.
Our existing hardware is two years old and exceeded what our scenery houses were using last year, but we've had a number of complaints. That said, anything new we get will have SSD, and I think that alone will go a long way towards increased performance, given the use of scratch disk. I've been tasked to find a "no performance compromises" workstation that is also the size of a MacBook Air, is a tablet, runs *all* the software, and has a unicorn standard. :)
That said, we're also looking at the Zbook series:
14" laptopi716 GB RAMAMD FirePro M4100 (not on the AutoCAD list)
Then for the big drafters, a big desktop
Z600 workstationi7 quad-core16 GB RAMQuadro K2200 (on the list)