What happened to Atlas RTS?

[davefoxx]

Have you tried running it in a VM?

I haven't because (a) I'm not the most computer literate person, (b) cost, and (c) the concern for overloading the hard drive with two operating systems.

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Easy solution...stop using a Mac! 

The S.

Nice to meet you Iain...

[ednadolski]

I haven't because (a) I'm not the most computer literate person, (b) cost, and (c) the concern for overloading the hard drive with two operating systems.

I don't have a Mac myself, but I understand that Parallels is pretty reasonable, like $50-$75 or so for the personal version.  IIRC there is a free version of VirtualBox for Mac as well.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'overloading', but you should be able to fit a VM in 4-8 Gb, or less.   If your drive is that low on space, then you probably need an upgrade anyway.  Alternately, you could install on an external USB drive.


Ed

[DKS]

I will invest in Anyrail in a second, if the developers ever release a version that works on a Mac.   

Have you got a friend with a PC laptop you could borrow for short periods?

[Bob Bufkin]

You can get a PC laptop or mini dirt cheap these days.

[mcjaco]

I'll put my vote in for AnyRail.  Worth every penny.  Once you get it figured out (which isn't a long process), it's very intuitive. 

[C855B]

I don't have a Mac myself, but I understand that Parallels is pretty reasonable, like $50-$75 or so for the personal version. ...

It's just not that easy. Both Apple and MS have been messing around with their respective OSes to the point where running cross-platform requires a bunch of ducks to be in rows, and this takes a fair bit of money. While he can technically run Boot Camp for free and boot into Windows 8, Dave would have to pay to upgrade his Mac to OSX 10.8, which I would definitely not advise on a six-year-old Macbook. It would be seriously underpowered for the task (sez the guy with a stack of Macbooks gathering dust on his office shelf). Oh... he would also have to buy a full Win8, after paying for the new OSX.

Parallels simply provides a virtualization environment for an existing Boot Camp. Without Parallels, you have to boot in and out of Windows, which is what I do to run Anyrail. My experience with running Windows in a VM environment has been consistently bad, and I don't recommend it, especially for UI-intensive programs such as CAD/drawing applications.

With an older Mac, if your life depended on running a Windows application, your choice, basically, is to replace the Mac with newer model for big $$$ and then you still have to buy and install Windows, or just suck it up and buy a cheap Windows laptop for much less money.

There is a not-totally-awful Mac-based MRR app, RailModeller. It has some nice features, probably the biggest reason I don't use it is the free-form drawing tools (to illustrate benchwork and scenery) were too limited for my tastes. It might suit Dave just fine.

[johnhale]

The battle about software support (in this case Anyrail) on the Mac is not a battle of one platform being better than another.

The issue is market share. Macs are a very good platform, but still account for less than 10% of the market share of computers worldwide. If you are a software developer, you spend your time, effort, and investment money on the platform that will provide the largest return on investment. Same is true for manufatures in the Model Railroad industry, most are in it to make money. So they invest their time and effort in the scales that will provide them the largest return on investment.

John

[Ed Kapuscinski]

If I were a software vendor in 2013 working on a "leisure time product", I'd be seriously thinking about making an IOS or Android version for tablet use...

[ednadolski]

My experience with running Windows in a VM environment has been consistently bad, and I don't recommend it, especially for UI-intensive programs such as CAD/drawing applications.

Most Mac users that I have talked to have told me that Parallels runs pretty well.

Under VirtualBox I can run AnyRail and DraftSight (for 2D CAD) in a Win7 VM, and while the performance cannot be equal to native, I find it acceptable.  Your system should have VT-x and EPT enabled, which you will probably have to set from the BIOS.   It helps to have enough RAM (I typically assign 1G per VM) and to use a pre-allocated virtual disk, but otherwise I don't do much else to try to increase the performance.

Ed

[davefoxx]

It's just not that easy. Both Apple and MS have been messing around with their respective OSes to the point where running cross-platform requires a bunch of ducks to be in rows, and this takes a fair bit of money. While he can technically run Boot Camp for free and boot into Windows 8, Dave would have to pay to upgrade his Mac to OSX 10.8, which I would definitely not advise on a six-year-old Macbook. It would be seriously underpowered for the task (sez the guy with a stack of Macbooks gathering dust on his office shelf). Oh... he would also have to buy a full Win8, after paying for the new OSX.

Parallels simply provides a virtualization environment for an existing Boot Camp. Without Parallels, you have to boot in and out of Windows, which is what I do to run Anyrail. My experience with running Windows in a VM environment has been consistently bad, and I don't recommend it, especially for UI-intensive programs such as CAD/drawing applications.

With an older Mac, if your life depended on running a Windows application, your choice, basically, is to replace the Mac with newer model for big $$$ and then you still have to buy and install Windows, or just suck it up and buy a cheap Windows laptop for much less money.

Again, I am not the most computer-savvy person out there, but this addresses a lot of my concerns.  Are there ways to get around these issues?  Probably, but that's too much to deal with just to get Anyrail to run on my Mac.  If I really had to have the program now, I would just buy a cheap PC with Windows.  But, I've got better things to spend money on right now.

There is a not-totally-awful Mac-based MRR app, RailModeller. It has some nice features, probably the biggest reason I don't use it is the free-form drawing tools (to illustrate benchwork and scenery) were too limited for my tastes. It might suit Dave just fine.

I have used Empire Express on the Mac, and it's okay.  For example:


I would much prefer Anyrail, but, as stated above, that will have to wait.

Thanks, guys,
DFF

[DKS]

If I were a software vendor in 2013 working on a "leisure time product", I'd be seriously thinking about making an IOS or Android version for tablet use...

[C855B]

Most Mac users that I have talked to have told me that Parallels runs pretty well.

...

You lose roughly 15% of your horsepower under virtualization. It's apparent to me, at least, and there are also peripheral and comm support issues that don't necessarily suit everyone's support needs. My experience with Parallels was it gets quirky when you start layering complex network support such as traversing multiple VPNs. Admittedly, that was a version or version-and-a-half back, but it was enough to make me not waste my time trying again with the current releases. No problems running native under Boot Camp.

Several of our developers have commented that one of the best machines for running Windows is a Mac under Boot Camp. I can't disagree - very smooth, much smoother than my Dell Latitude. If it was possible to trust Windows' seriously poor security (not to mention every f------ hacker in the world trying to break your machine!), it would be tempting to make it the primary environment on my PBPro. When it comes to cyber-security, there are advantages to running a minority platform.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Several of our developers have commented that one of the best machines for running Windows is a Mac under Boot Camp. I can't disagree - very smooth, much smoother than my Dell Latitude. If it was possible to trust Windows' seriously poor security (not to mention every f------ hacker in the world trying to break your machine!), it would be tempting to make it the primary environment on my PBPro. When it comes to cyber-security, there are advantages to running a minority platform.

It's really funny you say this. One of our developers is a HUGE Microsoft fan. We jokingly call him their regional sales rep. His laptop of choice? A Macbook pro using Boot Camp to run Windows 8 (I think 8, maybe 7). He went so far as to stick a windows sticker over the glowing apple. I asked him about it, and he said the exact same thing. The hardware really IS top notch.

[mmagliaro]

You can try RailModeller (runs on a Mac).
http://www.railmodeller.com/

I tried it out for a while a couple of years ago, and as I recall, I liked it, but eventually I settled
on AnyRail because it was easier to use.

(big +1 on AnyRail... Awesome program... so easy to use that I'm surprised that it's NOT offered for Mac,
because it fits the personna of Mac software).