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Hello everyone,

A Couple of years ago i had a windows computer and one day the thing said it was not a legal version, where after ALL my data( foto's and artworks,...) where lost.
I whent to look at a mac and since thad day i did not have a problem any more even better it files most thing for me. (i'm not saying anyone of the two is superior, so lets not get into the hole battle) saying thad, i want to start building a laser and would like to ask everyone witch parts i should buy to make it run smooth out of my mac. And of course these are coupled to some software. I saw with a bit of googleling thad there is a LaserPro DirectPrint MAC AI Plug-In for 300 somewhat dollar (do i can't even find where to buy it. And now i want to know what other people here have already found in there missions . I also saw DSP CO2 Laser Engraving/ Cutter Controller. And am a bit intrigued by this controller, could be a big timesaver. But Os only older windows, witch i read is almost always, as the newer versions don't like you to use there controllers/printerport.

Thanks Heeps.

If your Mac has an Intel CPU, then you can boot into Windows with Bootcamp. Or, invest a little cash and buy Parallels. Then you can either boot into Windows, or use Parallels to run your Bootcamp Windows install as a virtual machine inside OS X, or have multiple virtual machines with different versions of Windows (or other OSs) if that floats your boat. Parallels works pretty well. I'm not sure how you'd get on if you needed something like an old school COM or parallel port. You may be able to get a USB based converter.

joskerel wrote:Hello everyone,

A Couple of years ago i had a windows computer and one day the thing said it was not a legal version, where after ALL my data( foto's and artworks,...) where lost.


Thanks Heeps.

Hi Joskerel,

I will maybe disappoint you but unregistered windows will not destroy your data. Unless a secure erase has been done. Data can be recovered. Even with an hdd failure that can happen on MAC too data recovery is possible and most of the time easy. If you trashed your hdd too bad. But if you kept it the recovery can still be done.

Sorry I cant help on your main current issue.

I will maybe disappoint you but unregistered windows will not destroy your data. Unless a secure erase has been done. Data can be recovered. Even with an hdd failure that can happen on MAC too data recovery is possible and most of the time easy. If you trashed your hdd too bad. But if you kept it the recovery can still be done.

Sorry I cant help on your main current issue.

I know that problems of a computer or always sitting in between the screen and chair, my mac knows that and prepairs itself for that, thanks Steve Jobs (R.I.P)

Hi Heeps

I run my laser from my macmini (2008). I initially used lasersaur hardware which worked really well but currently it doesn't support rastering - unsure if using visicut with lasersaur might solve that.
In the meantime, I bought a lightobject controller. The lasercad sofware runs very well using the virtualbox emulator (free) and a copy of windows xp - this saves the real hassle of booting into bootcamp every time you want to cut. I just run lasercad in a free floating window, so it merges in with the mac os ok (mac os it ain't though ) I use it on USB now.
For file creation, I generally use Illustrator cs5, then export as dxf for lasercad using the pc/mac shared folder. This fixed process works well enough to be useable on a daily basis. I don't particulary like having to use windows, but currently there are not a lot of options available. The lightobject controller works well - its just a pity that the software interface and import hasn't been upgraded as expected. To that end, I would also look at some of the other offerings - a colleague uses the shenhui controller which looks exactly the same (no ethernet though - not a problem as the usb works fine) - their software interface is much nicer and some of the imports also work better and dont crash. It wont get updated in a hurry, but who cares - unless they come up with a mac version

Cheers

Neil

I second Virtual Box as a good option for running an app inside of the OS proper rather than dual boot. I think dual boot is too much of a pain personally. I've used Virtual Box for running Linux VMs inside of a Windows desktop many times.

With that said, I'm very interested in hearing more about the controller your friend is using. Got a link or something you could PM? Thanks!

-Mike

What are the specific system requirements to run Windows on Mac system ?

Any intel mac.

I run XP under VM Ware's Fusion on a 2.8 Gig hz core duo iMac with 4 Gig of memory.

I have Fusion configured to limit it to use 1 processor and 1 Gig of memory. If you don't constrain it, Fusion will allow XP to use up all of the iMac's memory or at least that was true with Fusion 3.

Running the vm's limited to one processor you won't see any affect on OSX performance but if you allow Fusion to run on all processors XP affect OSX's performance.

This controversy often sparks heated arguments to say the least. Moreover, there have also been instances of fights, vandalism and worse over which is the best. Windows users claim that Mac users are arrogant, citing that old "computer for the rest of us" advertising while Mac users claim the same about Windows users. Who really cares?

The truth of the matter is that both are about the same. All they are, are different GUIs; slightly different ways of opening applications. Once the application is open, the only differences might be whether you use a single button mouse or a multi-button mouse, and even that difference vanishes with third party hardware.