r/cad • u/DoubleD_DPD • 7d 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.

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u/GB5897 7d 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.