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Mac Silicon OS and VW


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I have VW 2021 only on M1.

 

I did not have that reawakening with Enterprise ever before

on Trash Can with Big Sur or earlier OS.

 

Usually I have the old Space Navigator connected to Mac.

And that is so sensitive that it would awake the Mac when

I slightly knock on the desk ....

 

But preventing from going to sleep is a total new experience

for me. So far Enterprise was problem free.

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On 2/18/2021 at 12:17 PM, zoomer said:

 

 

 

Oh, that won't be that easy !

(Although not impossible)

Officially there is only support for 2 external Monitors on M1 Mini.

(1 external Monitor each for MB Air and Pro)

 

This may help :

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/02/15/displaylink-manager-native-m1-support/

 

I've now got three monitors working just fine.

The hard bit was working out which cables/adaptors to buy.

One of them arrived in the post half an hour ago, I plugged it in, downloaded the Displaylink manager from their website, and it worked first time. Maybe I was lucky.

 

When I look in the mac's "system report" the three displays are listed as normal; I thought that maybe only the natively connected ones would show here, and the other one would be hidden behind some kind of DisplayLink interface but it's not. I can arrange all three as normal in the Mac settings. Maybe I am yet to discover some bugs but I'm impressed with how well this works. As you'll see from the screenshot, none of my monitors are 4k, so it is not the most challenging setup.

 

For the record for anyone else interested in trying this, here is how I have them connected:

- Main monitor direct to the HDMI port in the Mac mini

- Monitor 2 is connected "natively" but via an adaptor (this one https://www.startech.com/en-gb/cards-adapters/dkt30chvcm £15 for a secondhand one on eBay) on the VGA port. That adaptor is plugged into one of the Mac mini's USB-C ports.

- Monitor 3 is plugged into a docking station (this one https://www.startech.com/en-gb/cards-adapters/usb3sdockhdv £40 secondhand on eBay) and this is the one that uses DisplayLink. That docking station is plugged into the USB3 port on the other adaptor (I didn't really think this would work but it does) and that means that I still have a free USB/thunderbolt port on the M1 which I will very likely use for a fast external SSD (because I went for the M1 version with only 256gb SDD).

 

1459306244_Screenshot2021-02-22at11_31_23.thumb.png.46ac3a8e384cba4a5e864ac8d482d4dc.png

Edited by line-weight
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Unfortunately I have to put my transition to M1 on hold for now, because of the problems I'm having with the 3dconnexion spacemouse.

 

I've tested VW2020 and VW2021.

 

There is the problem of random jumps to space, that has been described by others.

 

But there's a more general problem, that navigation using the 3dconnexion device is just a bit unpleasant because it is jerky and not smooth. If I use it for a while, and then go back to my old mac pro running VW2018 and Mojave, my old machine feels much superior just because it allows me to smoothly navigate in 3d.

 

I'm not sure if the problem lies with Big Sur, with the M1, or with Vectorworks. I am a bit tempted to point the finger at Vectorworks, because when I tried VW2021 on my old machine, I also felt the navigation was jerky.

 

A bit frustrating, because there seems to be nothing I can do except wait until there's a sign that things get fixed. This is not the first time the 3dconnexion device compatibility has caused me problems upgrading - there were various problems that showed up with VW2017 if I remember correctly.

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In the past I never noticed any differences between Mouse or 3D Navigator's

View Navigation. But in the last 2 years, so long before Big Sur or Apple Silicon,

I sometimes saw in very crowded files, that one or the other input method lagged

while the other works smooth.

I think ist started with mouse input lagging while 3D navigator was still smooth.

 

Lately I saw it the opposite way, mouse no issue, 3D Navigator nearly unusable.

 

I just can't remember when and where, if VW, Bricscad or Modo, Windows, Big Sur or M1, ....

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11 hours ago, zoomer said:

In the past I never noticed any differences between Mouse or 3D Navigator's

View Navigation. But in the last 2 years, so long before Big Sur or Apple Silicon,

I sometimes saw in very crowded files, that one or the other input method lagged

while the other works smooth.

I think ist started with mouse input lagging while 3D navigator was still smooth.

 

Lately I saw it the opposite way, mouse no issue, 3D Navigator nearly unusable.

 

I just can't remember when and where, if VW, Bricscad or Modo, Windows, Big Sur or M1, ....

Hm, it's something I see in VW2020 and VW2021 (but not VW2018) when I try on my Mojave mac pro. And then on the M1 it seems worse again.

 

So, is it something I just have to live with if I move on from VW2018.

Edited by line-weight
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  • 4 weeks later...

Are some of you saying that you have the latest mac mini?

 

Thinking about upgrading but everything works fine...

 

2133622882_ScreenShot2021-03-17at7_19_30AM.thumb.png.9bfb0937aadd038ab9ef7269b9a0e0d1.png

 

My gut is telling me that what I have is still better than the current mac mini.

 

Comments?

 

 

lets say compared to the following:

 

825065113_ScreenShot2021-03-17at7_27_07AM.thumb.png.c608890c522dac3a850fd7340cb0288f.png

 

What a headache

Edited by digitalcarbon
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34 minutes ago, digitalcarbon said:

Are some of you saying that you have the latest mac mini?

 

Thinking about upgrading but everything works fine...

 

2133622882_ScreenShot2021-03-17at7_19_30AM.thumb.png.9bfb0937aadd038ab9ef7269b9a0e0d1.png

 

My gut is telling me that what I have is still better than the current mac mini.

 

Comments?

 

 

lets say compared to the following:

 

825065113_ScreenShot2021-03-17at7_27_07AM.thumb.png.c608890c522dac3a850fd7340cb0288f.png

 

What a headache

See @zoomer's post here:

 

 

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It is likely that the next generation of Apple Silicon will be out by summer. I say you should wait. If you needed a machine today (e.g. your machine burned up in a fire) I would suggest M1. But if you have a machine that is close to the M1, why spend the time to switch when you will just regret not waiting a couple more months.

 

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after waiting for an M1 iMac for almost 8 months, I finally couldn't bare my slow iMac 21.5 2015 and decided to get a new iMac.  I got a mid 2020 iMac 27 the mid range model and bumped up the RAM (via amazon) to 32 GB.  So much relieved now that Vectorworks works pretty well!  I can use this for the next 2-3 years until Apple and Vectorowkrs achieve a proper transition to the new technology, and would definitely buy the newer M2, M3... model when available in future.

  • Like 1
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Today I took the leap and moved from my old mac pro to an M1 mini. This was prompted by the release of 2021 SP3 which has hopefully sorted out the "random jumping" problem affecting 3dconnexion devices, which is what was stopping me from moving so far.

 

The migration process was easier than I expected. Just migrated from a time machine backup of my old machine, and no really major issues.

 

Over the next few days I guess I'll get to find out if there are any nasty hidden surprises but fingers crossed...

  • Like 2
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@JuanP could you better explain what NV's "official" position on Vectorworks under Rosetta is now? 

 

The M1 statement appears to exist in lieu of official support; while it states approximately nine months of ongoing testing has occurred and that the outstanding issues found under Rosetta have been resolved with the latest Big Sur release, it still concludes, "Our QA team is continuing to test Vectorworks and Vision, and we will keep updating this information on a regular basis. It's not clear how the entirety of the M1 statement is meant to be read now, it's not clear when some items, like the Big Sur note, were added, and it's not clear what is meant as "official" when the following note appears midway through the statement:  

 

Note: Please be advised, that if you plan to use any of the new Macs, we as of this date do not have official testing results to share with you. We recommend you follow this thread and check back for our official updates on testing results.

 

The current situation seems deliberately confused and inconclusive; on the one hand you appear to give quasi support for Apple Silicon, by stating that the best part of an annual cycle has now gone into QA testing with no remaining issues, while on the other hand providing no "official" confirmation of that support. This, I assume, is meant to be read as a "buyer beware" caution. Presumably your QA team, or legal, have good reason for preventing a statement of "official" support? Given the duration, could we know what that reason is?

Edited by M5d
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Back to the M1 itself...I've now got an external SSD to supplement the meagre 256GB internal one that I opted for.

 

Trying to figure out all of the USB variants that now exist is a bit of a nightmare. The disk I have advertises itself as USB3.2 gen2x2 compatible with a speed up to 2000MB/s which is not far short of the 20Gb/s that UBB3.2 2x2 is supposed to be capable of.

 

The M1 mini says its two rear thunderbolt ports are "TB3 / USB4" and I assumed that USB4 (which allows up to 40Gb/s) would not be a limiting factor on that USB3 speed... however it turns out that it is - it restricts it to the USB3.2 Gen2 speed of 10Gb/s.

 

It seems that if you want >10Gb/s then you need a TB3 or USB4 disk or enclosure.

 

Anyway, I have measured around 900Gb/s on the disk which is probably plenty fast enough for anything that I need; just a bit annoying that the USB protocol has now become as far as I can see a complete mess which makes it very difficult to figure out what is actually going to work with what.

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It was often mentioned that USB or IO speed in general on M1 can be very poor.

It will be unlimited if you use a Dock at one of the USB/TB ports.

 

I have my standard SATA SSD in a TB2 enclosure, plugged in by Apples

USB/TB3 to TB2 adapter, which isn't fast either ....

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3 minutes ago, zoomer said:

It was often mentioned that USB or IO speed in general on M1 can be very poor.

It will be unlimited if you use a Dock at one of the USB/TB ports.

 

Does that mean a TB4 dock, plugged into the TB port, and then the SSD plugged into the dock? And that should take advantage of the full disk speed?

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10 minutes ago, line-weight said:

 

Does that mean a TB4 dock, plugged into the TB port, and then the SSD plugged into the dock? And that should take advantage of the full disk speed?

 

I am not sure if TB4 needed or just TB3 dock,

but some offer some additional TB outputs, USB C, all kind of USB A, HDMI, ....

and everything was said to reach speeds as expected.

 

Just directly using USB A ports will be slow.

Unclear if Hardware or only a Software Problem with M1.

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34 minutes ago, line-weight said:

 

Does that mean a TB4 dock, plugged into the TB port, and then the SSD plugged into the dock? And that should take advantage of the full disk speed?

 

As far I have understood, the M1 Mac mini knows TB3 and USB 4, but not TB4. So I suppose that having a TB4 dock would be only a waste of resources.

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AFAIK

M1 USB C may be ready for TB4.

Some said this is just a legal thing, although Apple developed TB with Intel.

While USB 4 standard includes (free?) TB3.

 

So it could be that M1 will offer TB4 one day or at least later M devices

will likely. I don't know how long such Docks will be in use but maybe

a TB4 model is not just wasted money.

 

I heard that OWC had a great Dock offer, and therefore is sold out .....

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