Apple Silicon

betazero

We won’t have to wait and wait and wait anymore for processor upgrades but it’s only been 6 months seems like a year for M1. I want a new bigger imac. My current is showing it’s age. I think we will have to wait a couple more months.

Michael Mayer

I think we will have to wait a couple more months.

I hope not.
At least the larger Macbook Pros.

Mike Kramer

It's very frustrating not knowing when the 14" & 16" MBP or M1x or M2 silicon are going to arrive especially with my 2018 MBP keyboard needing replacement. It has been 18 months since we got the 16" MBP so the MBP is overdue for an upgrade.
If we have to wait until maybe November I am tempted to jump in and get a MBA in the meantime as it has a good keyboard, no Touch Bar (really annoying not having a dedicated Esc key) and no fan and can drive my LG 5k screen. When the new machines arrive I can give the M1 MBA to my wife to replace her 2020 i7 Intel MBA.
Meanwhile we wait in hope.

betazero

Yea I am frustrated too but see it working towards the larger MBP and iMac. I do not want an M1 in my 30" or whatever it will be iMac so I am willing to wait a bit. I want more memory and maybe some more high end features ( hardware raytracing? ). I still wish the front Apple logo was there on the chin (or no chin) and it was an LED that you could change the color of. That way too it would light up your keyboard at night... Or just have backlit keyboards.

Why not just get an external keyboard and extend your waiting ability?

Michael Mayer

I don't get it too.
Any MacBook has a lit keyboard sind decades.
But there is nothing for desktops from Apple.
(I do not mind cables as I usually do not move my keyboard very much ...)

And each time I search for 3rd party keyboards and set a filter for lit keyboards,
it will show only ugly models which look like having 20 mm key travel.

I am also excited how a new serious iMac will look like.

betazero

Yea I hope they have serious colors too. I like the back colors of the new iMacs but not a fan of the front. Would probably just get silver. Yea the only lit keyboards are for kids and gaming. I would rather have a wired lit apple keyboard. Mine is never unplugged. Probably would be cheaper since no batteries or Bluetooth. Also, they need a pro wired mouse instead of the magic paperweight. Something the shape of a Logitech mouse.

Mike Kramer

The butterfly keyboard problem only recently started and is not very bad (keys repeat especially r, c and I ) but it made me think more urgently about getting an AS Mac. If the M1x Mac's are going to take some time to become available I would like to get some experience on a M1 Mac (probably MBA) while it is not my main production computer.

Would still get the new AS Mac probably 16" when it became available as it should be able the drive a third screen.

I work from home with the laptop directly below the large screen so the keyboard position is directly in front of the two screens. I easily could borrow my wife's bluetooth keyboard if necessary especially if it were short term. I also have my old 2015 15" MBP and 4 k screen available so will use that when I take the 2018 MBP in for a keyboard replacement.

Mike Kramer

Ordered a 8/8/16/1TB M1 MBA today so will soon be able to see how BricsCAD runs on AS for myself.

Michał

Is it worth waiting for the V22 versions or is it better to buy the V21? I wonder if the V22 will be native or still via Rosset..

Michael Mayer

I pray V22 will be native ARM, Metal .... and ... Unified RAM optimized ....
It should be still 4-5 months until a V22 though.

I see that latest V21.2.05 did not fix all OpenGL problems.
And GUI behavior for me is still a mess.

And BTW, in BC dark mode, I can't read DYNDIM numbers,
white font on relatively bright macOS highlight color, no matter which I choose.

betazero

The color switching of my cursor was driving me crazy in Bricscad. I am just using Autocad until a new version of Bricscad. Although I do have to deal with NLS warnings in Autocad from exported Sketchup DWGs...Still not as bad as all the little glitches in Bricscad.

Hoping that V22 comes out with the bigger iMacs/Macbooks That would be good timing. Start saving me money!! 200 bucks a month hurts

EdwardC

"And BTW, in BC dark mode, I can't read DYNDIM numbers, white font on relatively bright macOS highlight color, no matter which I choose." I addressed this with the support team at Bricsys but they did not have any solution. V21.2.05 seems to be working O.K. with the occasional crash. At the moment if I am working on something that I can't risk I use my ARES Commander application which is rock solid on the M1.

Michał

I spoke with reseller and he try convince me to buy V21.. I wasn't sure etc.. and then he say that V22 should by ready September/October this year. So better for me waiting 2 month after finish trial and buy V22 But he don't confirm native version.

Michael Mayer

My reality at the moment is crappy large Revit or IFC files provided by clients.
And it does neither work for me on the big PC, nor on the low level M1 Mini.
(Although it is not slower or limited at all on the M1 Mini)
For now, like the last 3-4 years, I have to still stay with Vectorworks.
VW can deal with the crappy large files somehow, and runs equally on PC
and Mac/Rosetta.

Mike Kramer

Loaded BricsCAD-V21.2.05-1-en_US on my M1 MBA and so far all looks good but I have not used it for work yet. Not loaded Communicator yet either.

2018 MBP is back with new keyboard, battery and now updated to Big Sur. Also working well after update.

Michał

Fev day ago I buyed lite version (only 2D). And there is fev issue but program is my base right now. I just get used to these problems..

Michael Mayer

For me there are still a lot of issues with V21.2.05.
Some general Mac issues (?) like GUI, some more
ARM/Rosetta related like "OpenGL" issues in
2D Wireframe Style (without OpenGL ?) and
feature parity issues.

Mike Kramer

Updated to V21.2.06-1 and installed Communicator V21.2.06-1 on my M1 MBA today

I had not tired communicator before now as I was having some problems with Communicator V21.1.06 on my Intel machine.

I then updated a simple drawing and imported a STEP file with no problems at all apart form the fiddling with the GUI - which I also have to do on my Intel i9 MBP.

Seems to run very smoothly - but the load is admittedly not very demanding. MBA still feels cool to the touch.

So, so far so good. In fact I am quite tempted to make this my main work machine.

Michael Mayer

For me V21.2.06.1 has frozen after first start and trying to open a blank file.
But I am already on macOS 12 Monterey Public Beta.
Luckily it worked after a second attempt.

Also I noticed, with V21.2.05 already (?), that macOS version finally got the
RVT Importer. This is great !
Now I only miss the Datasmith Export.

Seems to run very smoothly

I am still impressed that moderate or even larger 3D Projects, (60-300 MB)
as long as they are reasonably healthy, run smoothly on such a M1 device.

Michael Mayer

Seems to run very smoothly

Here too.
The OpenGL fix is mentioned in .06 Release notes.
And so far it feels pretty stable for me.

Max 50 MB DWGs here, but selecting/visibilities feels a bit laggy on M1.
And larger files do not realistically work on the M1 Mini.

But am I the only one who misses his File Tabs ?
(Beside the usual GUI issues on Mac)

Michael Mayer

Hmmh,
Vectorworks arrived with a native - and latest Apple API optimized - Apple ARM version.
That is really a step forward. All Rosetta overhead gone and RAM usage, according to
Activity Monitor more realistic values as for Intel Macs. Which means about 2.5-3 times
less use of shared Memory. So I can now open my largest Projects and
navigate totally snappy.

Just when switching Layer Visibilities of large Files, Graphic Caching kills all fun.
I think that is still the limitation of M1 max 16 GB shared Memory.

Interestingly they did not delay the GPU updates for Windows Version as announced.
Instead they now also went directly directX for the Windows. Which is now also got
significant snappier. May have been a lot of work but clearly worth the effort,
from a user perspective

So I am pretty excited if Bricscad also manages to bring a native and optimized
Apple ARM version of V22.
Would make 1000-1500 $ M1 machines valid "Workstations" for standard 3D and BIM
project sizes.

Mike Kramer

I am working with a large model of a plant (3.05 GB in dxf, 253 MB in .ifc and 528 MB in dwg) and on my i9 32GB Ram, Radeon Vega Pro 20 GPU with 4 GB Ram MBP it took about 5 minutes to load and about 35 seconds to just change a view on BricsCAD V21.2.06 (for example from zoomed in to a tank to the previous zoom of the whole plant).
On the M1 (16 GB Ram) it loaded in 2 min 40 secs and does a view change in about 1 second or less. Quite amazing difference in times. Get similar times on the V22.1.02 Beta on the M1 on Rosetta 2. So the shared Ram on the M1 really works well. Both computers running MacOS 11.6.
Makes me very tempted to change my production computer over to the M1 as my main screen is the 5k LG ultra fine in both cases and I have no programs that don't work on the M1. Especially given that the MBA has a fixed escape key (not on the ###!! Touch Bar.)

Michael Mayer

on the M1 on Rosetta 2. So the shared Ram on the M1 really works well.

There is an official statement on help file ?
Something like, Bricscad will bring a native Appel ARM version in "a" coming release.
I hope for V22.

My experience was that not only a native Apple ARM version will improve M1 experience
dramatically but also that a DirectX port for Windows will also have notable acceleration.

Mike Kramer

In V22 the help file link is to What's new in V21 and under "Supported Operating Systems" it states MacOS 10.13 or higher and in the Notes it says that "Mac OSX is supported only on Intel-based hardware at this time.", so nothing specific for V22 yet.
Here's hoping there is a Universal (Intel + Apple Silicon) version in V22!

Michael Mayer

Yes, the statement could also mean Apple ARM/Metal support for V36 or later.

But I still hope for V22 ....

Michael Mayer

Hell freezes over :

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/10/14/apple-joins-blender-development-fund/

Michael Mayer

OK,

M1 Max, up to 2x CPU performance, 4x GPU performance and 4x Memory (and speed) more
than my 16 GB M1 Mac Mini. Sounds like suitable BIM Laptop.

Mike Kramer

As you say it looks like the new Apple silicon (M1 Pro and M1 Max) will be a big improvement over the M1 which is already stunningly good for the power consumption. Geekbench scores here https://www.macrumors.com/2021/10/18/first-m1-max-geekbench-score-surfaces/
And the M1 Max can run 4 displays, although the HDMI port is 2.0 not 2.1. That makes it a very good option especially with 64 GB universal RAM. Even the M1 Pro can run 2 more displays.
Just hope the V22 launch on 27 October includes the AS or Universal version.

Michael Mayer

I fully agree.

And the full specced MBP 16" is $6,000.
And if you already have the 8 TB SSD, you may also want 3 of Apple#s Pro Displays,
$6,000 each (without Stand ?).
So about $25,000 per seat, including another 4k TV.

Just hope the V22 launch on 27 October includes the AS or Universal version.

Would be pity if not ....

EdwardC

Loaded up V22 today, not native to the M1. Had a few crashes, dynamic input box is too big and still almost impossible to read. I’ll have to give it a 2/5 review. I’m actually going to uninstall and relegate my CAD work back to my Win 10 workstation.