The new Parallels Desktop 6 Enterprise Edition enables IT departments to deploy Windows-based solutions for Mac users with a configurable, policy compliant solution that easily fits into existing business processes.

Mac Use Up In Enterprises

“As Macs become increasingly more prevalent in the workplace, there is a growing need for Mac users to run essential Windows applications that are critical to their businesses,” said Laura DiDio, Principal of research firm Information Technology Intelligence Consulting.

Adding Macs into enterprises businesses has traditionally been a challenge or pain point for IT departments. But users are asking for Macs and more businesses today are using them in their environments. “Savvy businesses are addressing this issue by deploying desktop virtualization solutions that allow them to easily manage their Windows and Mac environents,” said DiDio.

Key Features

Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac Enterprise Edition helps businesses install pre-configured, policy compliant deployments of Parallels. This helps IT proactively enforce a configurable software update policy and well as local server options. That means IT departments can determine when and where software updates are applied to Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac across the organization.

Other features that differentiate this product from the regular edition of Parallels Desktop 6 Mac include:

• Unified volume license activation key — simplifies mass end user license agreements
• Streamlined Business GUI — adds customizable Request Support menu option to direct users to internal help desk resources
• Parallels Desktop for Mac Mass Deployment Application — enables a centralized configuration and distribution of software install packages, including enabling “lights out” deployments
• Annual subscription license — includes software licensing and business class support and more…

To learn more visit them online at: www.parallels.com

Google’s SketchUp modeling program is becoming a standard within middle-school education in the US, the company reports. “Ask any 7th grader if they’ve heard of it and they’ll say something along the lines of ‘SketchUp is awesome!’ The company has produced a short video highlighting the modeling work of students here on YouTube.

Also, Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Evangelist, posted a story about Dassault Systemes’ 3DVIA Scenes and the use of SketchUp models imported into their 3D viewing technology tool. You can simply import a SketchUp model via a COLLADA export-import process into 3DVIA Scenes for virtual exploration with multiple users. You and your colleagues can explore the same 3D environment at the same time using avatars.

Importantly for Mac users, Dassault is working on Mac compatibility for 3DVIA scenes, so this feature is on its way. The company has also built an iOS app. We’ll write more about this new app soon.

T-Splines News

T-Splines has a number of training or introduction events this summer. Events in July coming up include:

• 6 July – tsElements for SolidWorks introduction. Register free here.
• 7 July – Training in London, UK. Taught by CEO Matt Sederberg. Register here.

SIGGRAPH 2011 – Vancouver

SIGGRAPH 2011 this year is in Vancouver, Canada. The conference takes place from 7-11, August, 2011. The exhibition takes place from 9-11, August.

This year Emerging Technologies will feature innovation trends in the area of display and input devices. A Technical Papers video preview can be seen here.

To learn more about the conference visit the main conference website: http://www.siggraph.org/s2011/

Ontario-based OS&B has announced the new Hazard Manager 1.0 for Apple’s iPad. This is a spatially-based “workplace inspector.” It enables the automation of the entry, configuration and export of hazard points recorded on a workplace floor plan. The app can email out date-stamped, user-stamped or x-y geo-referenced .csv hazard data to GIS and CAD or spreadsheet apps.

01 - Hazard Manager for iPad.

Accuracy is improved using floor plan Cartesian coordinates rather than GPS. The program allows health and safety works to do hazards management without trucking along binders and paper, recording pertinent data for their health and safety program. The program requires the upload of a floor plan file. It cannot make a CAD-based floor plan file. It only accepts this floor plan as a JPEG file as well. The GPS-based data is recorded, along with user-input into a layered structure and this data can then be emailed up to GIS or CAD programs. You can find Hazard Manager 1.0 on the App Store.

Other iPad News

We have just learned of Citrix Receiver for iPad. What an amazing application this is. With Receiver for iPad it is actually possible to connect to thousands of PC applications via the iPad and control them at native speeds. You can conduct virtual surgery in 3D or even implement a sophisticated BIM or CAD program. Citrix Receiver for Windows and Mac has been around already and does the same thing but with iPad you can have “always-connected” access to PC applications from anywhere with an AT&T 3G account.

02 - Complex 3D virtual surgery programs running on Citrix Receiver on iPad. This shows you what is possible with virtual desktop/virtual workstation and virtual server technologies.

Here is an image of the virtual surgery application. Very cool interface in the program in general and it looks great on the iPad (as if it was made for it.)

In other iPad News we want to point out to current or potential iPad users that there are many new and interesting iPad applications out there. Some are actually older and we just didn’t know about them. Here’s a list to take a look at:

• Adobe Ideas 1.0 for iPad – Vector drawing and sketching tool. This app looks very promising and with the addition of more sophisticated layer features will really rock! Today you can sketch over photos (think buildings and existing conditions photos and sketching out new ideas for additions, etc.
• goBIM – Now out for iPad as well. The latest release 1.2.1 continues to push the app forward. This is from a small-time developer so it shows you what is possible in this space (BIM on iPad). Just think if a larger company threw some serious programming power at this!
• WebEx for iPad – Join WebEx meetings using your iPad.
• GoToMeeting from Citrix for iPad – Join GoToMeetings using your iPad.
• Things by Cultured Code – very cool business name, btw! Looks really great!

We’ll keep scanning the horizon for superior iPad applications. We realize that many of you just can’t justify buying one until there is that one killer app!

There are several key items announced in this news so read that full report here. 

The CAD Perspective

Despite the fact that in today’s Mac market there are more world-class, industry-leading CAD and 3D applications already running natively on the Mac OS X operating system than ever before doesn’t stop the quests by users and the demand on software makers to provide their Windows-only solutions to the growing Mac market. 

Autodesk’s recent announcements–since Macworld in January–portend to an evolving picture where “virtualization” is a stepping stone for software makers to deliver an interim solution to Mac users wishing to run Windows-only CAD and engineering applications.

The partnership between Parallels and Autodesk is a big blow to VMware; however there are several key Autodesk rivals which VMware could establish a working relationship in the same capacity. SolidWorks Corporation is one such major Autodesk rival, and SolidWorks is one such company that has users who would like to switch over to the Mac. 

There are interesting connections between user-bases on the Mac using native solutions and user bases on Windows-only platforms. One such connection is the partnership between solidThinking and SolidWorks. Many manufacturers have product designers using solidThinking on Macs and product engineering based around SolidWorks running out of necessity on Windows. There are overlaps with such organizations where a user on a Mac would like to be able to access files in both solidThinking and SolidWorks. 

VMware could search out such connections between major CAD and 3D design platforms and form partnerships much as Autodesk did with Parallels. By doing so it would fight off the perception that Parallels is a superior product for handling CAD applications.

VWware Fusion 3 – Further Performance Boosts

The competition between these two formidable virtualization software companies is a boon to Mac users wishing to run both native Mac and Windows applications at the same time on Apple hardware. VMware Fusion 3 adds performance enhancing capabilities in a new and more efficient virtualization engine that is less taxing on the Mac’s CPU, a very important feature for mobile computers running on batteries in particular.

It also sports a 64-bit engine and support for Mac OS X’s 64-bit kernel in Snow Leopard. There is full support for Windows 7, including its Aero interface and Flip 3D task switching. 

Lastly, there is improved support for DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 3 (good for gaming, useless for CAD and 3D) and OpenGL 2.1 graphics–which is essential for running Windows-only CAD and engineering applications on your Mac. Our blog post goes into the CAD story in further detail.

Other Niceties

VMware Fusion 3, which will ship on October 27, 2009, has several other nice features, including a new migration utility that lets you import a real PC’s Windows installation over to a Mac, over the network. This is more flexible than the USB-based solution that Parallels delivers and it is more business-oriented.

There is also a new menu for your Windows apps that appears on the right-hand side of the Mac OS X menu bar. 

To learn more about VMware Fusion 3 go here.

Strata Foto 3D CX has been updated to version 2.0. New in this version includes the ability to create 3D models without the need for a calibration mat. A new curve outline tool enables you to make masks without a clean backdrop. The program has a new 3D model generation engine offering users a more robust experience with greater accuracy. Increased geometry limits now reach up to 20,000 triangles.

Strata Foto 3D CX 2 for Mac and Windows can be purchased for $695.USD but is currently offered for $395.USD. To learn more visit Strata’s website.

VMWare Fusion 2.0.6 Beta 1 Update

While Autodesk may have officially partnered with the Parallels folks, VMWare, a virtualization leader, has updated VMWare Fusion Beta 1 to version 2.0.6. The update helps solve Snow Leopard issues like the mouse losing focus and solves other bug fixes. It also solves slow 3D graphics on Macs with Nvidia graphics cards running Snow Leopard. Update your version here.

progeCAD on Mac with Parallels

progeCAD is an IntelliCAD-based product and is considered the best distribution. The AutoCAD compatible product is now being touted as being able to be run on Mac using either Boot Camp or virtualization software like VMWare Fusion or Parallels. The company has an online video titled, “progeCAD, the AutoCAD alternative, runs on Mac.” To learn more go here.

Earlier in the year Autodesk announced official support for the Mac via Apple’s Boot Camp software. Back in July Apple was pleased to hear Autodesk announce official support for supporting Windows-only Autodesk software via Apple’s Boot Camp technology which enables Macs to run Windows operating systems in a dual-boot configuration. 

Support via Virtualization: Officially!

Now Autodesk officially extends Mac support beyond Boot Camp embracing the Mac with Parallels Desktop for Mac. The design software giant will officially support AutoCAD software, AutoCAD LT, Autodesk Inventor Professional, Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Revit. 

According to information that Architosh has obtained, Autodesk Revit is the most popular Autodesk application running on Apple hardware. 

“Autodesk customers are increasingly working with both Mac and Windows, and have asked us to support Mac virtualization,” said Chris Bradshaw, Autodesk chief marketing officer. “Today we are pleased to welcome Parallels as a partner and Parallels Desktop as our preferred Mac virtualization software.” ”This is the latest step in Autodesk’s ongoing efforts to support our customers on the Mac, who will now be able to use some of our most popular 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software alongside Mac OS X, in addition to the five native Mac applications we currently offer.”

Actually, the number of native Mac applications exceeds five. This new or updated web page on Autodesk’s site lists a total of nine native Mac applications spanning 3D and design, engineering, and film and media. They also include items like Autodesk Combustion and Autodesk Alias software, in addition to the five mentioned by Chris Bradshaw. 

Parallels Continues to Open Up the Mac World

As expected for quite some time, Parallels and its virtualization technology are key enablers for Windows developers to segue over to Mac support and eventually Mac development. That is a process that is underway not just at Autodesk but in many software companies. 

“Parallels Desktop for Mac enables over two million users to run Windows-based applications seamlessly and simply on their Mac,” said Serguei Beloussov, chief executive officer of Parallels. “Autodesk has a long history of creating innovative and industry-leading software for design, engineering and entertainment, and we’ve heard many requests from customers interested in using their Autodesk applications with Parallels. We are delighted to partner with Autodesk to help make this software more broadly available to the Mac community.”

Why Switch Edition – Why Now?

Parallels Desktop Switch to Mac Edition is not only the leading virtualization solution for Mac users seeking to run native Windows applications on their Mac, this new version goes extremely far to help those new Mac users adjust to their new platform of choice. With Mac adoption accelerating, Parallels saw a big opportunity in the market to further boost sales of their product. They decided to do this by making Parallels more than just a virtualization program but a pathway to a happy migration to the Mac. 

“We are seeing an opportunity in the shift in the market overall,” said Mary Starman, Director of Global Marketing, Consumer Parallels, “where the market may have reached a tipping point for Mac adoption. Mac units are increasing quarter over quarter even though the rest of the industry is down.”

01 - New Parallels Desktop Switch to Mac Edition.

Switch Edition for Parallels Desktop will help new users who are brand new to the Mac platform get up to speed using a tool that equates Mac tasks to Windows tasks. And this is all down in a friendly video-based environment. 

Goals: Switch to Mac Edition

The primary goals behind this software are to help users learn the Mac, keep their investments from their Windows world, and enable them to run Windows when they really do need to. 

“What sets this product apart,” said Saied Ghaffari, Parallels Desktop Instructor, “is we invested a lot in tutorials to help users learn.”  Mr. Ghaffari understands exactly what that means in terms of helping users to learn software, he previously worked at Apple and understands his former employer’s cultural standards for ease-of-use. With this product you can come from the world of Windows and learn the Mac in literally a couple of hours. 

02 - Screen shot of the instructional environment. Notice video help instructor, help hints and instructions.

The product employs what the company calls Click and Learn technology. Literally click on anything on the screen and it will teach you about it. Next is you can watch it in action with onboard video instruction and lastly there is the You Try technology which guides you through the process of steps in learning. To see how this works exactly there is a demo video here online. 

To learn more go here: http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/stm/

Unlike the overall 3D market, the CAD market is still–regretfully–intensely Windows-based. Mac users have been crying out for numerous applications for years, such as SolidWorks, AutoCAD, ProE, Revit, and the list goes on. To the benefit of having a Windows CAD inside your Mac is strong–even if it must live inside Windows itself. 

VirtualBox 2.1.4

Sun’s latest VirtualBox 2.1.4 now supports Intel’s VT-x hardware virtualization. This means it taps the specific hardware on the latest Intel x86 microprocessors which allows these chips to do virtualization of operating systems. 

Sun's VirtualBox is a free virtualization software for Mac OS X (intel machines).

The new version of VirtualBox 2.1.4 also gains two features useful to running PC-based CAD apps on your Mac. The first of these is support for OpenGL. Currently this support is in a type of beta mode and is therefore installs in “off mode” but is easy to turn back on. The second feature is 64-bit support. This is less important for those running CAD apps on the Mac in virtualized environments. 

Sun’s VirtualBox may be lagging its main competitors Parallels and VMware’s Fusion but it has one powerful feature in its arsenal: it’s free! This likely means that development will continue to lag unless Sun deems the development of VirtualBox very important. 

Sun’s website for VirtualBox list companion projects in which Sun participates and these include notable items such as: OpenSolaris, OpenOffice.org, MySQL, NetBeans and GlassFish.

Apple VM for PA Semi

Today however Apple may soon be the new owner of a microprocessor design company and it might behoove them to see to it that virtualization capabilities play a front-burner role in the development of new mobile Internet devices (MIDs). Since Apple has been developing its OS X operating system on both PowerPC and Intel x86 for more than six years now, it is capable of deploying OS X on both chip architectures. It has also written OS X for the iPhone and iPod touch on the ARM architecture, a chip architecture dominant in the smartphone and small device markets.

Having OS X on so many chip architectures (three exactly) doesn’t seem too problematic for Apple at the moment and affords them a great degree of hardware flexibility. However developing its own VM (virtual machine) technology and deploying it on some of these product platforms (Mac, iPod, iPhone) will gain them even more freedom in deploying their software and others across all three product lines more quickly.

More interestingly, an Apple VM deployed on future PA Semi PowerPC designs could give Apple a new “angle” into the world of game consoles and mobile gaming — a world now dominated by the PowerPC architecture. This is especially interesting in light of Nintendo’s resurgence and its prolific use of the PowerPC architecture within a few generations of game consoles. A licensing agreement with Nintendo could allow Apple to build a different category of mobile devices that play Nintendo games, courtesy a virtualization machine.

PA Semi – Why Apple Bought Them

Whether Apple will start investing in VM technology for future mobile devices is anyone’s guess. But such a plan could allow a breach into the PowerPC-driven game console world that bring about a flood of new possibilities for Apple.

Though it will take some time to figure out why Apple really bought PA Semi, we would have to agree with Roughly Drafted’s assessmentthat Apple wants to build out more specialized proprietary hardware in order to compete and differentiate its products in the mobile Internet devices market (this includes the iPod, the iPhone and future mobile devices Apple has not delivered to market yet). One thing is for sure. PA Semi brings to Apple some stellar talent and the future of Apple’s products look extremely attractive from this particular — “post-PA Semi” — view.

Related Articles

2002 Architosh report discussed Apple’s moves to low-power PowerPC chips for a plurality of new devices

There are some important distinctions when it comes to 3D games versus 3D programs like CAD and animation program. In the Windows world the vast majority of 3D games utilize Microsoft’s proprietary DirectX technology. On the Mac games use OpenGL, an open-industry standards-based technology for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics. In the professional 3D applications world OpenGL is also the dominant industry standard, as most 3d software companies write cross-platform and many of the largest CAD developers also write for the Mac as well as Windows.

The Atomic article is pointed at Windows games under virtualization. But OpenGL is intrinsic within the acceleration architecture as well. All newer Macs also natively support OpenGL at the graphics card level as this is a core component of the Mac OS.

The Atomic article is excellent on several levels because it does a good walk-thru of setting up your Mac and virtualization environments for optimum performance — which would largely apply to pro 3D apps. It covers memory configurations as well as what type of file format to use under the virtualized host.

A key item the article points out — which will be of value to pro users wanting to test out and run pro 3D Windows apps — is that VMwareFusion allows the user to assign “virtual SMP” on multiple processor cores. Symmetric Multi-Processing is common on many pro 3D apps and the fact that you can tap all the processor cores you have on your Mac under virtualization is a real benefit. To read the full article go here.

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AMD says Apple Good for OpenGL – Apple Pro Apps Offer Window Into Future

Apple iPhone OS Based on OpenGL – Who Will Be First CAD Developer to Put Zoomable Apps On It?

Product Review: Graphisoft ArchiCAD 10 – Virtualization and Other Items

Tidbits: Vista Runs CAD Slower, Maxwell Render, formZ and OpenGL not capable of supporting Vista’s Interface – Huh?