Running Rhino for Windows on a Mac?

I’m thinking about going Mac for my next computer. I have T-Splines installed and don’t use it a lot, but when I do it comes in handy. My impression is that Rhino for Mac wouldn’t run it.

Would my best option be to keep Rhino for Windows and run it with Parrallels or Boot Camp?

Thanks,

Barbara

Hi bheller- I’d go with Bootcamp- some users are running Parallels with minimal problems, so it can work, apparently, but if you get a solid state drive on your Mac, rebooting to switch between OSX and Windows on Bootcamp is very fast and the whole thing is so much less painful than in the past… well, it is working pretty well for me.

-Pascal

Thanks, Pascal. I was definitely thinking solid state.

Barbara

If you want the full power of your computer, then Bootcamp is the best option. I, however, have been using Rhino with Parallels exclusively (including T-Splines). There are a few quirks, but display issues mostly and really nothing overly problematic. The ability to share files and switch applications easily is the key thing for me…plus I’m not a super-heavy Rhino user, so this config really works well for me even though McNeel doesn’t officially support it. It is, true, though, that the new Macs with SSDs boot like lighting! Can’t speak for Rhino on Mac running T-Splines…it’s not officially released yet in any case, and I don’t know if the plug-ins for Windows will work on the Mac platform.

Deborah

Don’t mean to hijack, but it’s kinda on-topic:

So does anyone have any warnings/horror stories to share about upgrading the Mac OS to mountain lion (from snow leopard) in order to use the macRhino?

Mostly running windows 7 thru bootcamp, and miss the ability to access Rhino when on the other side since the system requirements have changed. I’m tempted to do the update, but am not convinced that my computer won’t go up in smoke with the upgrade.

Any experiences out there? good or bad.

Thanks,
Ernest

My biggest grip about upgrading from Snow Leopard (which I was quite happy with thank you very much Apple), was essentially being forced to upgrade to Mountain Lion to stay current. Bugged me to no end that they cut out support for legacy apps (no Rosetta any longer) and I have a beautiful HP scanner that’s now sitting idle because HP in their infinite wisdom has decided not to write a Mac driver for the current platform. That plus ejecting me from MobileMe, which was also working just fine.

But as to your actual question, the upgrade process was actually rather painless with minimal problems. And quite honestly things are a little smoother now. I don’t think you need to worry about the upgrade so long as your computer is up to spec. The more memory the better for a virtualized environment, though. I’d say 8 GB is a comfortable minimum. I have 16 on my iMac, though 8 works just fine on my 13" MacBook Pro Retina…with an SSD the file swapping issue is very transparent. I currently have a 10 GB swap file! Unthinkable with a hard drive, but the SSD is so fast it’s nearly as good ad DRAM and disk swapping happens nearly invisibly.

Deborah

Alrighty - that’s a good enough endorsement for me. Thanks Deborah.

I’ll just get my current project wrapped up before I do it!

Ernest

AND (needless to say) back up everything before you make an OS upgrade!

Have any of you had any issues with updating Windows on a Mac?

For me it had to be Bootcamp because I need to use Rhino Gold. I use 64bit Windows 7 Pro.

I also do work at home so I needed a laptop that I could move to whatever screen I was using. I had a 13in 2012 MBP and it was quite sluggish and only has built in graphics. I purchased an i7 15 inch MBP with 16GB ram a 500gb HDD and designated graphics card.

I pulled the optical drive out and moved the HDD into there and placed a new SSD in the main drive bay. OSs and apps on the SSD drive and all my files on the HDD which is Mac formatted. Hard to get an SSD big enough.

The main drive bay has a faster bus speed than the optical bay on my MBP so it was important to put the SSD in that bay.

I leave all my 3dm files on the HDD (Mac formatted) drive and access them from Windows with no problems after 3-4 months. I installed Paragon for Mac and Paragon for Windows to avoid any permissions issues from editing files on a Mac partition whilst in Windows. I open and edit my 3dm files using both Rhino for Mac and Windows.

One thing that really annoys me about Bootcamp is rebooting. My MBP is usually out of sight, clamshelled and hooked up to a screen and a wireless keyboard…after restart by the time the computer sees the keyboard it is usually too late for the held down option key to be recognised and for me to select the Bootcamp drive.

Other than that I am really happy to stay primarily in Mac and when I do use Rhino in Windows this machine is more than fast enough for me… and on the Mac side it is really fast with my Adobe suite and the like. HTH