Autocad on OSX

[Tesla]

Hi all,

An architect friend of mine has recently bought a 24" C2D iMac (I think it's ~2.6ghz and 4gb mem) which I set up for him.

He evaluated a version of Autocad 2011 (2012 doesn't run on 10.5.8) but the reliability was dreadful and the interface largely changed from the Windows version he ran before (2010).

I have suggested going down the Bootcamp or Parallels route but have no experience of running Autocad on either. He'd likely upgrade to the latest version of Autocad when I set it up for him.

Anybody have experience of running Autocad in a windows environment on a Mac? How is performance with either option?

All of the software in question offer trial versions so I can try before buying anything. Just don't want to waste loads of time setting one option up to discover the other is much more productive or faster.

Parallels would be beneficial for quickly switching to other OSX programs and email etc.

Thanks guys.

 

[SimonR]

I know that our principal CAD Tech uses the latest version of Autocad on his 27" i5 imac at home. He originally tried it using parallels, but it would occasionally catastrophically crash, corrupting his files. He ha subsequently moved to using a Win7 Bootcamp partition and has found it rock solid.
I have been discussing his progress with him on a regular basis, as I have another client who wants to use an imac for Autocad work and was waiting to see whether parallels or bootcamp was the best option.