PC or Apple ?

When Apple switched to intel processors you can run either operating system. I've never found CAD software that I liked that ran on MAC but since I've switched to Apple I've never had a virus.
You can boot the machine in either MAC or Microsoft or run Microsoft virtually in the MAC domain.
I reboot in Microsoft to use my drafting software but don't have and internet connection set up. No Viruses. For surfing and general computer work boot up in MAC and surf away.
The 27 inch screen on an iMac is pretty easy on the eyes when your drafting.
Greg
 
If you are using real commercial CAD and CAM software, the price of the computer to run it on is pretty inconsequential at current prices regardless of the operating system unless you are going for the highest end of the spectrum. Current lower end PCs and Macs in the $500-$1000 range are pretty good on all counts and will be more than enough for a casual (or even price conscious professional) user. If you are going to set up a monster CAD system, the video card and monitor will cost quite a bit more than the computer. Then you get into the digitizing tablets and such. If you plan on sitting in front of a professional quality CAD/CAM station, you can hit the $10K mark without breaking a sweat or even getting into the really cool stuff.

Now, are you going to use the same machine for CNC control? If you are, then Apple OSX is not going to be the first choice as I am not aware of any CNC control that runs on it. The only option I am aware of for using a Mac for CNC control is with systems with embedded controllers that you just send the G-Code. Mac computers are also not going to be able to use parallel port type controllers. PC computers may not come with them any more but you can get a parallel port card to add one to it. Laptops not so much but laptops are pretty grim for CAD/CAM work anyway. You want lots of screen real estate for that.

As others have said before, choose the program you want to use first. If it is available on only one platform, then you have no choice anyway. If it is available on multiple platforms, then it will really just amount to which one you like better.
 
f350ca said:
When Apple switched to intel processors you can run either operating system. I've never found CAD software that I liked that ran on MAC but since I've switched to Apple I've never had a virus.
You can boot the machine in either MAC or Microsoft or run Microsoft virtually in the MAC domain.
I reboot in Microsoft to use my drafting software but don't have and internet connection set up. No Viruses. For surfing and general computer work boot up in MAC and surf away.
The 27 inch screen on an iMac is pretty easy on the eyes when your drafting.
Greg
Click to expand...


Greg raised a good point about the size of the monitor. I agree, get the biggest monitor you can. My current main machine is a fairly high-end HP workstation laptop that has a dedicated graphics card. I run full-blown industrial CAD applications (Alibre/Geomagic), BobCAD-CAM, and QuickBooks accounting software simultaneously. I also run MathCAD and LabView and that will push the computer over the edge. It's an Intel i5 and I had to upgrade to a solid state drive and 16GB of RAM to run all this. It keeps-up the three main applications just fine but, a 15.4" laptop monitor is not big enough for the CAD and sometimes CAM work. I plug into an external 22" monitor and that helps. Sometime soon, I'd like to get a dedicated "desktop type" computer with dual monitors for the CAD/CAM system for the times when I roll-up my shirt sleeves and really dig in.

FYI: My Mach 3 controller is a dedicated box based on an Intel DN2800MT motherboard with a dual-core Atom processor, 4GB memory and 120GB solid state drive. It runs Mach 3 with ease.


Ray
 
As a die hard Apple customer, since the Apple 11c, and have never owned a PC, I would say...

PC.

Apple supplies 5 % of the markets, which gives you a pretty good indication of available software for your needs.

Yes, Apple is cool, and is easy to use, but you don't need that, you want something that works out of the box, simple.

Cheers

Ian
 
Ray C said:
Greg raised a good point about the size of the monitor. I agree, get the biggest monitor you can.
Click to expand...

Not just the biggest, but the one with the most pixels!
There are mammoth TV screens which don't go over a painfully 1280×720 (HD 720p) resolution, with pixels the size of a Lego brick.
A 30" with a resolution of 2560×1600 can be found for around $1000, which is reasonable if you consider the zooming/panning time you can save.
The price increase, however, is not linear with the resolution: the Barco 21.3", 2800×2096, is priced over $10,000 by Dell.
Currently I'm using a 3200×1080 desktop, split between a 22" wide monitor at 1920×1080 and an old 17" at 1280×1024. There is a step in the lines, specially at the bottom of the screens, but I'm used to deal with that… and generally I keep drawings or images on the 22" and menus, toolbars, etc. on the 17".
The window manager I use allows multiple desktops, and I have 9 of them in a 3×3 array, so if I want I can enlarge a single window up to 9600×3240 pixels, but it becomes a bit hard to work in that way…
 
If you do not go the 27" Apple route with dual boot, then build your own machine. The reason I mention this is when you purchase a pre built machine by one of the big vendors ie HP, Dell etc, they do not use a generic version of Windows! It is tailered for their hardware and this is to discourage people from opening their boxes and changing things. Later down the road you may wish or require to upgrade some of the hardware, having a regular version of Windows will remove much of the issues that come with replacement hardware. Been there done that. Quite recently at work and at a friends place as well.
My current PC at home, is Ubuntu 12.04 first, dual boot Win 7 when I need Autocad or some photo software, and a big beautiful screen. At work I have an older Win XP system with AutoCad 2000 and CNC operating system with a 24" screen.The higher the native resolution that better.

I have the biggest screen in the shop, much to the displeasure of the shop foreman! :victory:

There is a running betting line on when he will request a new screen for himself! lol
Pierre
 
Didn't mean to start a S%*t storm, I don't currently own a CNC machine, but would like to eventually.
I've always had a PC, but have lately considered switching to an Apple. Getting really tired of the garbage Microsoft keeps pumping out.
I currently have a 5+ year old Dell running Vista. At work, they just upgraded to Windows 7. I've also heard Windows 8 is a nightmare for a desktop since it was designed for cell phones and tablets.
Any new computers seem to be loaded with a bunch of crap which runs in the background slowing everything down and I'm not computer savy enough to be able to disable it.
When it comes time, I've considered having a computer built for and dedicated to just running whichever CAD/CAM software I decide on.
 
pdentrem said:
If you do not go the 27" Apple route with dual boot, then build your own machine. The reason I mention this is when you purchase a pre built machine by one of the big vendors ie HP, Dell etc, they do not use a generic version of Windows! It is tailered for their hardware and this is to discourage people from opening their boxes and changing things
Click to expand...

Many years ago, before the "invention" of AJAX, it happened to me to write a Perl program using common web pages as interface, so it can run on its own small Linux server (the "server" was just a 486 recovered from the attic, without any screen or keyboard!) and every computer on the LAN could access it without the need of supplemental software installation.
The interface used standard http headers to activate all the functions of the program, but there was one of the connected computers giving odd results with every browser I used.
I analyzed the traffic coming out from that machine (I don't remember if it was a Compaq, HP, Dell or some other high end brand) and I discovered it was merrily sending out custom http headers containing a bunch of data, like machine serial number and so on, for an alleged "maintenance report". But it was sending those info to every web server in the world!!!
Think to a CNC machine adding by itself your own cell phone number to every piece it machined… would you be happy of that?
Since then, I always suggest homemade computers, even if a bit more expensive.
 
JP: I got forced into buying a new laptop to run the diagnostics software for a couple of my cars (VCDS for you VW/Audit/Skoda et al guys). It had Win8 on it and I had an instant dislike for it on boot up. Without touch screen capability, it's a disaster in my opinion. The solution was to download and run ClassicShell. It sets things up to look like the front end from Win3 to Win7. Easy install and for me makes things run with much less aggrivation.
 
Always about the program I descrived above… it was for a friend who is growing sweet basil and had just the need to print bills and to gather results from them.
We started in the '90 with a FoxPro database, and it ran perfectly on a single 486.
When Fox Software was bought by Microsoft, we try to convert the database to the less expensive Access, but it was a resource hog, five times slower than the older database.
Also, my friend moved from basic farming to "basil mashing", to supply some pesto sauce local makers with a product converted just a few hours after picking (sweet basil oxidize quickly and become dark when mashed, so the fast you work it the better is the result).
Did you ever see a sweet basil field? Here is one, almost ready to be picked:

sweet_basil_field.jpg

While my friend was improving his "picking machine" to make it faster (he is mechanically skilled, too) I made that Perl+MySql program told before, to keep trace of everything, even things not required by law but useful for a farmer (including the weather and temperature when the basil was picked). I even add a PDF generator for bills, which automatically send them via e-mail too.
At that point the procedure went beyond an hobbyist phase, and I passed it to another friend who has a small software house.
The last "hack" I made was pretty hardware based: my friend bought a Zebra high-speed printer to label his sauce buckets, but it had just Windows drivers.
Being a serial printer, I "sniffed" the signals sent by Windows and wrote a very simple C program sending to the printer signals in the same format, but taking all the data from my database (my version made fancy drawings, too :biggrin:) rather than having to compile every label set by hand.
The printer salesman was pretty impressed by that… but he told me the most of their income was from computer assistance (machines "tuned" by the usual know-it-all "computer genius" using the same PC for both working and keeping viruses on the net) so they prefer to keep their printers just under the most lucrative Windows…

sweet_basil_field.jpg
 
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