Switching from PC to Mac Ecosystem - any regrets?

[StagehandPv]

All, 

 

Not a question on hardware specs, but the platforms themselves.

For those of you who have moved from PC to Mac, any regrets concerning your Vectorworks efforts?

Any regrets concerning the switch on platforms overall?

I use iPhone & iPad, but use PC based machines. So switching to Mac for a complete Apple based ecosystem sounds like a good idea.  Looking for any insight you guys may have to share.

 

Thanks!

Pv

[Jeff Prince]

I spent over 20 years on a PC for my professional work.  No regrets (or blue screens of death) since moving to Mac.

 

I used an iPad extensively prior to making the switch.  Life is much easier now as I can move seamlessly between the desktop and iPad for much of my needs.  I also replaced Adobe with Affinity, so there is a huge advantage there using a Mac/IPad compared to the PC/IPad situation.

 

Overall I feel the switch has led to fewer issues, greater productivity, and more joy in the design process.  All that equates to higher profits too.

 

I will occasionally get a pinwheel of doom while using vectorworks, but that is something to do with asking vectorworks to do something complex that fails on the PC too, so more of a VWX issue than Mac/PC.

 

If you do the switch, read up on how best to use ICloud for all of your devices and relevant workflows.  This is really the key to getting the most out of the system.

[StagehandPv]

Thanks a ton Jeff!

I'll be visiting my local Apple store soon to have a look at the MacBook Pros in person.

[zoomer]

VW is one of the few Apps with long time Mac Support and maybe a 50/50

Mac/PC User base. VW works totally fine on Macs.

 

I switched to Apple in 2007 with the Intel Switch that allowed my to use

my Windows Software. First with Bootcamp, later with VMware and Parallels

VMs only until I finally switched to cross platform Apps and Mac completely.

I never ever regretted to switch to OSX.

Just that starting with 2013 did no more offer the workstation hardware

(Mac Pro cheese grater( that I expected)
Therfore I suffered with Apple terribly until 2020 when Apple announced

the M1 SoC.

 

During that time

in 2018 I build a PC but had to realize that I would never be able or want

to work with Windows again. Linux did not work either.

So I suffered I went on with macOS instead and went suffering because of

the missing Apple (affordable) Pro hardware.

 

M1 Pro and Max were quite ok (only).

But with M2 Max and Ultra now proper scaling, I finally feel confident again.

[Anders Blomberg]

I too used to work in a windows environment for many years. Now I'm raised with a Mac as a child so I'm very familiar with the system, not so much with windows. That being said I really didn't have too many issues using the windows machines and was rather pleasantly surprised with the OS nowadays. There was an IT department managing the computers though so I didn't have to care about that. Since starting my own business I decided to go back to a Mac as I'm more comfortable with that and enjoy it more. The ecosystem also makes it super simple to switch between devices. When hiring my first employee ( a civil engineer) in January we decided on getting a windows machine for him as he's heavily dependent on Civil 3D and Novapoint. It might not be ideal but has so far worked very well without to much hassles. We run Sharepoint as a file server.

 

I'd say being able to use a Mac at work is making my job more enjoyable but there are som downsides I see:

• I'm missing out on software that is pretty much ubiquitous here, namely Revit, Civil3D, Novapoint and Bluebeam. I also miss out on path tracing in Twinmotion, but believe I can use a virtual machine for that if needed.
• When hiring almost everyone is familiar with Windows, that makes a switch to Mac for them an expense I might not be interested in taking.

I might switch to a PC for work in the future because of the above but things are working well enough at the moment so I'm currently staying put.

[Cookie]

I was mac user for years and I have huge regrets switching to pc with 32 gb ram and rtx 3060 ti. Yes from mac mini m1 with only 8gb ram. Because both systems was smooth but macos looks and is way better in terms on functionality. It's worse in app availability however I had all apps I needed and I'm just not used to windows at all. Also biggest problem is that pc is loud as a plane it's so annoying. Mac is 100% silent. 

[zoomer]

On 8/3/2023 at 4:58 PM, StagehandPv said:

For those of you who have moved from PC to Mac, any regrets concerning your Vectorworks efforts?

 

Not at all.

I think VW runs on Mac at least as good as on PC, if not better.

(But honestly I started VW after switching from PC to Mac)

 

For Mac in general,

my first years after switching to Mac where absolutely great from 2007 to 2012.

But honestly all following years seeing degrading of Mac Mini, degrading of OSX for

iOS/iPadOS compatibility, missing "Pro" hardware offers, "what is a computer ?" adds,

questionable price worthiness, diminishing support from 3D Software because of Nvidia

Cuda and OpenGL support, collapsing butterfly keyboards, .....

Frustration got endless.

 

But it is ok or better again since Apple's switch to ARM.

Plus another 3+ years to a finally mature to a M3 (and +) Max/Ultra version of a Mac Studio,

which should hopefully arrive during the next 4+ months.

 

But for VW, if a Mac fits generally for you - for VW itself, a no brainer.