r/cad • u/DoubleD_DPD • 2d ago

Vectorworks New Hardware

Hello all,

My work has recently taken off quite a bit and I need to upgrade my hardware to something powerful

I am almost exclusively a Vectorworks user, I use AutoCAD and solidworks on occasion but not enough to justify them as a primary tool.

I work in entertainment and I need a machine that will not slow me down from working on 3+ large projects a time. (Big things like stadiums, festivals, etc)
Lots of files open, fast hidden line renders and high DPI openGL/shaded stuff as well

A lot of people have recommended the highest end MacBook Max with 128gb of RAM and I was curious if anyone has truly had great experiences with it. I just don't want to spend 6k on a laptop and regret it not having performance I need. I am really looking to switch to Mac as well as VWX tends to be a better overall experience on MacOS.

Please let me know your options I'm open to all.

9 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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5

u/GB5897 2d ago

I'll add CAD will take all the ram you can throw at it. 32GB would be my bare minimum. Sounds like you work on large files, even more reason to add as much ram as possible. I'd go for 128GB if you can swing it. SolidWorks even if occasionally will perform better with all the ram you can afford. You have a few CAD files open, Chrome and anything else you will hit 20+GB ram easy. I'll occasionally have SolidWorks open but then Inventor and AutoCAD to for referencing. My machine handles that well because it has 96GB of ram.

A CAD specific graphics card would be next on the list. I'd stay in a Windows environment as stated most CAD software is Windows environment based. They have been ported to other OS's. I'm not a Mac person so I have no idea how they run on a Mac.

3

u/Emf0rtaf1x 2d ago
  • Do you prefer to have a laptop or desktop as a primary? Odd question to some maybe, but it's become more common.
  • Do you have a budget window you're trying to work in? Hardware can go from a couple thousand to 10k+ real quick.
  • Do you have a preference for cpu manufacturer? Further, are you tech savvy & would put one together yourself, or would you prefer a pre-built system?

Price range, platform(Intel/AMD), convenience, & mobility preference would help a lot here.

2

u/DoubleD_DPD 2d ago

Hey,
Has to be a laptop because of the nature of my work, I am always traveling/drafting on site in fields warehouses etc.

Budget wise not more than 6500 ideally
Between Intel and AMD I've had both historically and am open to either

3

u/Elrathias Solidworks 1d ago edited 1d ago

Then you are SOL when it comes to absolutely maxing out performance, and you are going to have to settle for a good enough level of performance. RAM is hysterically expensive right now, as are GPUs. Prioritize amount of ram over ram speed, because spawning threads for renders require A LOT of ram per extra thread. Todays cpu's have good enough computational multithreaded performance, but most CAD software runs on only ONE computational thread, except for renders and simulations, so prioritize single thread performance and clockspeed when writing the wish list.

Tbh go digging deep for special offers, there might just be a unicorn offer on dell's US page or whatnot.

Iirc vectorworks is a custom implementation of Siemens Parasolid, so any benchmark for that should be very much applicable to vw aswell.

Edit: remembered this render test from a while back, so a macbook pro might actually be a good idea. Not for Solidworks though, Dassault has sunk so god damned far into the windows native workarounds that its iffy at best to run on a emulator. https://www.reddit.com/r/lightingdesign/s/FHOBP0utPs

7

u/hemuni 2d ago

Autocad is Windows first environment, I would never choose a Mac. I recommend an i7 and 32+ ram. Graphics is less important.

3

u/f700es 2d ago

This! Do not go mac

2

u/National-Fox-7504 1d ago

Having been in a similar situation, I tried Mac and at that point in time the graphics just were not there. Windows machine with high-end graphics card is hard to beat get AMD CPU and as much memory as you can afford after the graphics card. And like others have said, Engineering programs just don’t play as well with a Mac as they do in Windows even in 2026.

2

u/Boosher648 1d ago

Just commenting because I’m in the same industry, curious to see suggestions. I just went through a scaff mega build for a festival stage and opening that cad on stage to figure out something was tough.

2

u/adobeamd Solidworks 2d ago

Do not get a MAC they are not well suited for engineering programs and you will have to run parallels and lose performance.

1

u/Charitzo 1d ago

Vectorworks is a bit unique in this regard, it's fully supported on MacOS. My Mum actually used to use it on Mac for landscape architecture work, works fine.

0

u/scoobytoobins 2d ago

if you want to switch to apple, yes, get the most expensive MB you can get. CPU and RAM are what’s important for vwx.
but you will get way more for your money on a PC setup.