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Netlinx Studio & TP Design 4 on a MAC?

mkleynhansmkleynhans Posts: 78
in NetLinx Studio
Hi there,
I am considering getting a MAC Pro and wondered whether any of you guys have figured out if you can run the Netlinx Studio and TPD on them?
I am sure there must be a way.. just wanted to get some feedback before buying one and trying ...

Thanks,

Mike

Comments

  • trobertstroberts Posts: 228
    There are two solutions I am aware of, but have not used either one, as I am a PC.
    1) Bootcamp (mac software that will allow you to boot your computer in windows mode)
    2) Parallels http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/ (mac software that will allow you to install and run PC software right from your mac screen)

    Then you will also need to get a USB to serial converter.

    These are just generic answers, for any PC software on a mac. So I don't know how well or if AMX software performs well using either of these methods. I am pretty sure I remember seeing another thread on this topic, you might want to search the forum some more.
  • viningvining Posts: 4,368
    My main work desktop is a MAC and always boots up in WinXP and I rarely visit the dark side but I can with a couple of keystrokes during bootup.

    I used parallels long ago and it was flaky at best but I was at a customer's house recently who was running windows7 (?) on his MAC, I guess using parallels but it was basically the MAC desktop and he could run all his windows programs. I don't know exactly what he was using, maybe the lastest parallel but it sounded like it was a modified version of Windows for MAC. I was in a hurry to leave so I didn't really engage him to find out what he was talking about.
  • mkleynhansmkleynhans Posts: 78
    Thanks as always chaps, will take a chance!
  • PhreaKPhreaK Posts: 966
    I run a macbook air with parallels for dev tools. You can run in a mode called 'convergence' which allows the OS X windows manager to take care of your Windows apps too. You call also set your file handler mappings to launch windows apps (i.e. NetLinx Studio) by attempting to open specific filetypes.

    For the serial port just by yourself a bluetooth serial adapter. None of those messy cable things.
  • rrdbstudiosrrdbstudios Posts: 160
    I recommend VM Ware Fusion personally :)
  • vincenvincen Posts: 526
    rrdbstudios wrote: »
    I recommend VM Ware Fusion personally :)
    +1 and edited by a company taking care of its customers :) you have also the open source VirtualBox that is working fine on Mountain Lion for running all AMX softwares (I do it since a long time without any issues both on MacPro and Macbook Air ;)
  • annuelloannuello Posts: 294
    I've been running a Bootcamp partition in Parallels on a MacBook Pro for the last 4 years for all my AMX work. This gives me the choice of native or VM booting. All my AMX work is done using Parallels rather than native booting. When I replace this laptop I think I'll give VirtualBox a try. I think my setup is starting to get a bit vintage now: OSX 10.5 and XP. Tell me, what is this "64 bits" everyone talks about? :)

    Roger McLean
    Swinburne University.
  • C.HouliarasC.Houliaras Posts: 53
    I use VMWare Fusion 5 to run Windows 7 x86. Only issue I have is the compiler won't find files that are on the OSX side of the file system, so I just work out of Windows' root drive. (The Mac stuff shows as a network drive in Windows)
  • vincenvincen Posts: 526
    annuello wrote: »
    Tell me, what is this "64 bits" everyone talks about? :)
    Well the 64 bits is no importance for AMX tools but in all matters with Lion and Mountain Lion it's full 64 bits native on Mac since a while ;)
    C.Houliaras wrote: »
    I use VMWare Fusion 5 to run Windows 7 x86. Only issue I have is the compiler won't find files that are on the OSX side of the file system, so I just work out of Windows' root drive. (The Mac stuff shows as a network drive in Windows)
    NSX doesn't like too long paths, so I shared in VMware/Virtualbox the directory where I store all my programs rather than share the root of the drive and it works fine ;)
  • HARMAN_icraigieHARMAN_icraigie Posts: 660
    VMWare here. Mostly do AMX, Lutron, C'tron... in a virtualized Bootcamp win7 partition but have true VM's of win7 and win8 if I need them.
  • jeremyw24jeremyw24 Posts: 10
    I use VMWare Fusion on a Macbook Pro - I run in 'Unity' view, same as convergence mode in Parallels. Makes all the windows programs accessible from the Mac Dock.

    Never had any issues, I connect to systems in Netlinx through my Virtual Machine (Win7 x86) and store all my data and files on connected network drives and my local machine drive, I keep nothing in Win7 itself and have found no problems working this way. Sometimes re-compiling old code I will find it throws an error as their is a weird file path but that is easily fixed.

    I use native Mac for all other computing needs, email, web etc. and other development in xCode, qtQucik and java/php in Eclipse.
  • bogdandrbogdandr Posts: 7
    Parallels

    Parallels works perfect for me - MBP 15" (8GB RAM), Windows XP in Parallels.
    Take care on virtual machine HDD shared space. I run out of memory once and my open project i was working on was compromised. Lucky I was able to download the project from iPad (1 hour before uploaded)
  • RichardHamiltonRichardHamilton Posts: 58
    I use a Macbook Air i7 with VM Fusion and Windows 7. It's a first rate fantastic environment.

    I can move from mac to windows with a swipe, or I can converge the two OSes. In fact, I even have a virtual machine image of a pc i was using 10 years ago with XP. So I effectively have three desktops and legacy support.

    The setup is brilliant. And very smooth. Don't bother with bootcamping, just run dual OS in vm-ware.

    Sure, it might mean paying for a few extra software licenses, but it becomes a powerful system, especially when Xcode is required for some sub-projects.

    Serial ports are fine over USB these days, well, been all good for me with the dongle I'm using.
  • nickmnickm Posts: 152
    I've been using Macs as my development platform for about 7 years now (since the release of Leopard). I've never looked back.

    I'll second the motion to not mess with Bootcamp. On my first MacBook Pro, I set up a separate partition and ran Bootcamp, but I also ran that same Bootcamp partition in VMWare. After just a couple weeks, I found that I never booted into Bootcamp and only ran Windows via VMWare.

    Currently, I have a 15" MacBook Pro Retina running Parallels with a Windows 7 64bit virtual machine along with an older VM running XP that is only there 'in-case'.
  • sonnysonny Posts: 208
    I've been on Parallels with Win7 for over a year. The only issue I have is when I forget to changed Bridge Mode from Wired back to Wireless.
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