Mac on Intel

Ashlar-Vellum™ Support for Macintosh on Intel

Updated November 13, 2007 Austin, TX - The Ashlar-Vellum development staff has almost completed the native universal binary versions for the Mac to run on both the PowerPC and Intel platforms. Please be aware that this issue affects every graphics software producer in the world. It is not just Ashlar-Vellum who is wrestling with this issue.

The universal binary will be part of the upcoming v8 for Cobalt, Xenon, Argon and Graphite v8 SP1. In the meantime, how do you run Ashlar-Vellum software on the new Intel Mac machines?

For many people our software works seamlessly with acceptable performance under Leopard using the Rosetta emulation and a RECENT release of Graphite, Cobalt, Xenon or Argon. Specifically, you MUST be running one of the following to work well on an Intel Mac:

• Graphite v8 sp0 (v8.18) or later
• Cobalt, Xenon or Argon v7 sp2 (v7.6.616) or later

For others, there are several interim technologies available including Boot Camp, Parallels Workstation and VMWare Fusion. You will still need to be running one or more of the versions listed above for best results.

Rosetta Emulation under Tiger & Leopard

Cobalt, Xenon, Argon and Graphite have all been tested under the free Rosetta emulator under Tiger and later under Leopard.

We found several issues with specific machines under Tiger. These were reported to Apple and were resolved in Leopard.

Recent optimizations on Rosetta now allow the 3D modeling products to run with reasonable performance on OS X 10.5 (Leopard) using the Intel, Core 2 Duo and Xeon processors. When the emulator is functioning properly, speeds are about one third of what can be expected when our software is implemented natively as a universal binary or running under Boot Camp. On a 2GHz machine, this is the equivalent of an old 867 MHz processor of about 3 years ago. When Rosetta is not running properly under Tiger it will be immediately obvious because it will take several seconds just to select an object, particularly if the Design Explorer History Tree is open. Apple has resolved the issues in Leopard.

Boot Camp

Apple Computer has released Boot Camp as part Leopard which allows you to choose either OS X or Windows when booting your computer. This makes Ashlar-Vellum’s unique hybrid license especially valuable since it lets you load both the Mac and Windows versions on your single machine.

You must purchase your own copy of the Windows operating system. We’ve tested it under XP Pro and other users have tried XP Home. Both work successfully, providing excellent performance for all Ashlar-Vellum software products. We have not tested older versions of Windows.

There are several issues of which you need to be aware. First, because your Mac will have a split personality, there are some issues moving files back and forth between each side. When running Windows under Boot Camp, you will not be able to see your Mac hard drive. When running OS X, your Windows hard drive will be read only. You can circumnavigate this issue using a CD, a flash drive or by placing your files on a server. Also, because different fonts are available under Mac than are provided with Windows, there may be some font substitutions. Use a font, such as Arial, which is available on both platforms to avoid this issue.

Boot Camp is included in Leopard or is available free as a Beta for Tiger from Apple at: http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/.

Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac

The $79 Parallels Desktop allows Microsoft Windows to run in a window under OS X. Familiarity with Window is plus. Like Boot Camp, you will need to own a copy of the Windows OS. But unlike Boot Camp, file sharing is somewhat easier. Because you are only running one machine in the literal sense, the Ashlar-Vellum hybrid license can be installed and run on both sides as necessary.

Performance with version 3.0 build 4560 is good for all Ashlar-Vellum products Each operating system needs a full complement of RAM with at least 512MB. Installing the full 2GB is recommended (1GB for each side).

Finally, the same difference in fonts that are available under Mac than under Windows applies here. Again, we recommend using a font that comes standard on both platforms.

Parallels Workstation 2.0 for OS X does not have direct hardware support for Open GL so it is not recommended for running Cobalt, Xenon or Argon, but works acceptably for Graphite.

VMware Fusion

Like the older 2.0 version of Parallels, VMware Fusion does not have direct hardware support for Open GL making its performance unacceptable for Cobalt, Xenon or Argon but all right for Graphite.

Like Parallels, VMware allows Microsoft Windows to run in a window under OS X and has the same issues as those mentioned above.