Discussion: OCAD on a Mac (yay!)

This might be old news, but I hadn't seen anything... so this is a heads up for current (and future) Mac-using O mappers out there.

I just bought a MacBook (which is intel-based) and was able to get OCAD up and running during my lunch break. It's easy to run OCAD within Mac OS X by running Windows inside of Parallels Desktop for Mac ( http://www.parallels.com/ ). Basically, I can have a window open inside MacOS X that is Windows running OCAD. See screenshot.

I think that Catching Features would run if one were to install Boot Camp and dual boot Windows, but I don't believe in rebooting, so someone else will have to try.

I tried some other solutions, like installing Darwine (OCAD "runs" but is totally unusable) and some Linux installs (blergh), and this is the most straight-forward. Unfortunately, it's not free, since you have to own Windows and Parallels was just a trial. But, it's a solution. Better one computer than two...

I've had my MacBook for about a month, and have installed Boot Camp. Haven't tried OCAD yet, but Condes runs fine with an underlying OCAD file. I don't anticipate any problems with OCAD itself when I get around to installing it.

And I'd forgotten all about Catching Features! Maybe I'll get it and post a report later about how well it runs.

You missed a boulder just south of the trail junction near the western tip of the open area.

I'm not on your buddy list?!

Join the waiting list.

Has anybody succeeded in getting OCAD (and/or Catching Features) working on Linux?

Never tried, but I've used wine with a number of things and it's always worked. (And before Boris chimes in, that's wine the UBuntu emulator, not alcohol. That helps too though.)

I tried an Ubuntu Linux install in Parallels and it didn't work, but the idea was to try OCAD with Wine in Linux in Parallels on a Mac. I think it might be more fun to install Ubuntu in Windows with Parallels on a Mac, to run OCAD with Wine in Linux within Windows running on a Mac. But maybe that's just too far.

Does OCAD even work in linux with WINE? I get the impression that the original WINE is much better than darwine.

Are there any disadvantages to Boot Camp and parallels? You can't have boot camp and your Mac software running at the same time, is that right? Anything else?

I've been running OCAD on Virtual PC (which runs right in OSX) without any problems. Virtual PC is a bit slow, but it never bothered me with OCAD.

Let me get this straight... Does this discussion mean that latest Apple ads are lying about how that you can run anything on Mac from PC world without a problems???...;)

John - they're making a native version of Virtual PC, which means it should be very zippy on the intel macs.

Boot Camp vs Parallels:
Boot Camp - allows you to dual boot; have to pick OS at startup. Advantage is speed. Disadvantage is that you have to reboot... and, of course, only one OS at a time.

Parallels - makes a virtual computer environment inside of Mac OS, so you can run other OSes "inside" of it, without partitioning your HD or rebooting. It's a little slower than boot camp, and you have to split resources - I allocate about half my RAM to Parallels for Windows XP.

The best solution looks to be "Crossover", which isn't out yet (due July 31). It's basically a commercialized hyped up implementation of WINE, which means you'll be able to run Windows programs in Mac OS without any of that other stuff. They're even working on real graphics capabilities...

Gawd, 10pm on a Friday night and I'm writing about computer stuff. Can you guys help?

im still programming, thats weird, friday night, 9pm

Thanks for the great explanation Cristina!

Catching Features is running fine on my MacBook using BootCamp. FWIW, I have a 2.0 GHz processor, with 1 GB of RAM.

And although I am getting (slightly) better at the game with practice, I am still getting lost WAY more often than I should. (Just like in regular orienteering...) Do any of you Catching Features pros out there have any helpful tips? I'm having the most trouble just running in a straight line, on a "bearing". I assume that you slow down every time you look at the map and compass, so I'm trying not to do that as much as I do in regular orienteering, but as a result, I find myself veering off my intended route of travel quite easily.

Hi!

Googled this today. I tried Ocad on WINE on linux. Version 8 works well, 9 doesn't start due "Error in version number". Now it seams to work equally well in Crossower for mac (commersial wine package).

But... I noticed that file saving/opening for course setting files has big problems on both linux and mac. I reported this to ocad via email. Anyone had any luck on course setting and wine?

Does WINE run under OSX?

yeah, it's called DarWINE. Crossover for Mac is the commercial expansion of WINE for intel-based Macs. The crossover types have a comparison chart at the bottom of this page.

BTW, for Mac-heads who play CF: I just tried the CF demo with Crossover and it appears to work perfectly fine! The graphics must be no problem compared to other games they wanted to support. I haven't tried competition play yet as I don't have my full version info with me, but I imagine it will work.

So, with OCAD and CF working, no reboot required, I can now officially retire my PCs. Anyone want a Dell? ;-)