but perhaps he should switch to Parallels based on the following:

My son is a second year architecture student at Pratt Institute.

He has a 17-inch MacBook Pro (2.5 Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT w/ 512MB of VRAM).

Last year he used VMware Fusion 2.0 running Windows Vista with AutoCAD 2009 installed. He had no problems with this set up and was able to use AutoCAD, Rhino 3D and other PC software in the Windows Virtual Machine.

His 13-month license ran out and we downloaded a legitimate FREE education copy of AutoCAD 2010 from Autodesk and using a legitimate software license and activation codes from Autodesk for the student version installed it on his Vista virtual machine on his MacBook Pro. First it wouldn’t run because we need to install updates to Vista which we did. We created an entirely new Virtual Machine on his Mac and installed Vista with SP1, SP2 and all the latest updates. We installed AutoCAD 2010. It would not run. – It would launch, we would get the initial AutoCAD splash screen and then it would slow down and not respond when it got to the default drawing template. The mouse would disappear, reappear and if clicked a message would pop up noting that the AutoCAD was not responding.

We upgraded to VMware Fusion 3.0. We upgraded to Windows 7 and it installed well. Everything seemed to work well. Then we downloaded and launched AutoCAD 2010. Still doesn’t work. It hangs up and does not respond.

I have done safe boots of the virtual machine but that does not work either. I have adjusted the display resolution but that doesn’t work. Other programs such as Rhino 3D work fine and are very speedy. No problems.

AutoCAD 2010 does not work!!!

I have reinstalled Windows 7 and I have reinstalled AutoCAD 2010 several times and it still doesn’t work.

My virtual machine in Fusion is set up as follows:

Processors: 1 processor core (although I have tried 2 also)
RAM: 2.024 GB
Display: accelerate 3D graphics is enabled – Direct 9.0X with Aero
Sharing: One shared folder
Printers Enabled: match default
Auto Protect: disabled
Network: NAT
Hard Drive: SCSI 40GB
CD/DVD: Auto Detect
Sound: Connected
USB Devices: N/A (USB 2.0 enabled & Auto connect on)
Other Devices: Serial Port Printer on

I am currently trying to get a license for AutoCAD 2009 but I am wondering if that will work.

Any ideas here??? Anyone you can refer me to?

Is it Fusion? Is it something that I need to disable or enable in Windows? Should I not expect it to work well? As mentioned the 2009 version of AutoCAD worked well but 2010 we can’t get to install.

I can’t believe that I can’t get AutoCAD 2010 to work on this MacBook Pro. (should I wonder if AutoCAD has made installations on Fusion problematic since they are now partnered with Parallels?)

Thanks

Help!

Like it’s Windows master, AutoCAD is a bloated, counter-intuitive, over-priced mess. They can keep it. There are far better CAD applications on the Mac.

If AutoDesk REALLY wants to support the Macintosh (and every other CAD application on the planet) they should play like good citizens and publish the ENTIRE file format specifications for DXF, DWG and DWF!