MacBook Pro questions for new laptop

[Ross101]

Hi All

 

I’m finally upgrading my old Macbook Pro (15”, Retina, Mid 2014, 16GB Memory, etc). Its been good so far, but it's hit the wall with X13. I’ve had to stay with X12 in 2021 because I’ve not been able to produce 3D views with X13 on it.

I’m trying not to buy an overpriced and over-achieving new laptop, but likewise I want it to produce 3D views and run well for the next 5 years or so. I should add that I don't do ray tracing or other presentation views, just simple 3D renders.

 

Also, I want to stay with Mac, so changing back to PC isn’t an option for me. 

 

I’ve read the Chief Architect system recommendations for Mac, which are in summary:

·      32GB RAM

·      1TB SSD Storage

·      CPU with 4GB+ of video memory and 6+ core

 

There are posts on ChiefTalk about MacBook issues that I’m trying to make sense of, but some are old posts, I know Apple has changed its chips from Intel and it quickly gets technical beyond my knowledge, so I’m asking advice from any MacBook users here. 

 

1.     Should I get an M1Pro or M1Max? (It looks like the M1Pro will be more than enough for my needs…. I’m not producing high-end video YouTube stuff).

2.     Should I get a 14” or 16”? (I plug my laptop into a BENQ external monitor when using CA. A lighter and more portable 14” laptop is attractive, but there may be factors I’m unaware of here)? 

3.      Are there any other issues with a new MacBook laptop that I should consider?

 

I'd really appreciate any input before purchasing.

 

Happy New Year!

Ross Young

Katoomba, Australia

[rgardner]

9 hours ago, Ross101 said:

1.     Should I get an M1Pro or M1Max?

I would recommend the M1Max for future proofing as much as possible.

9 hours ago, Ross101 said:

2.     Should I get a 14” or 16”?

I would recommend the 16" as I have found that is the sweet spot of small enough for portability but large enough for working on in the field.

9 hours ago, Ross101 said:

3.      Are there any other issues with a new MacBook laptop that I should consider?

They are a great machine and I would strongly recommend upgrading ram and video as well as HDD to best possible.  If you are using this professionally invest for the future.  If a $500 upgrade now seems daunting imagine if in 2 years that makes the difference from upgrading to the latest version because it is outdated...

[Ross101]

Thanks Ryan,

This helps.

I’ll get the 16” (my current 15” is OK for client visits but bigger will help). 
I’ll look at the cost of the M1Max upgrade and probably bite the bullet for future proofing as you suggest. 
 

Nobody having any issues with the latest MacBook Pro and CA? I understand that real time ray tracing isn’t possible but I won’t need that. 
Thanks

Ross

[Michael_Gia]

2 minutes ago, Ross101 said:

Nobody having any issues with the latest MacBook Pro and CA?

I had some issues with 3D stuff when X13 first came out but not anymore. 
 

I don’t have the latest M1 type but it’s been great so far. 
 

I would however take rgardner’s advice and future proof yourself if possible?

Happy shopping!

[Ross101]

Thanks Michael,

It looks as if 3D has been sorted out, which was one of my concerns.

X13 hasn't worked in 3D on my current, admittedly ancient MacBook (perhaps we've got too used to computers "just working" these days ... ).

I'll start going through the options. 

[para-CAD]

I just received my M1 Max 24 DEC, (max'd out), and it does everything in chief except for the Real-time ray tracing in PBR.

 

The problem I'm having is that I'm getting an SEH error whenever performing certain random tasks. In the last two weeks I've had four crashes total. Now I just hit command S every 20 or 30 seconds, like a twitch, to save my work in case another crash pops up on me.

 

I've submitted a ticket to the tech-support guys along with the crash dump log that goes to Apple. It ended up being over 1000 page PDF worth of technical information.

I don't think it's the computer's fault......something's up though.

[Ross101]

6 hours ago, para-CAD said:

 

The problem I'm having is that I'm getting an SEH error whenever performing certain random tasks. In the last two weeks I've had four crashes total. Now I just hit command S every 20 or 30 seconds, like a twitch, to save my work in case another crash pops up on me.

 

Not so good, and hopefully this gets sorted. 

Thanks for sharing this.... anyone else having issues with MacBooks and X13?

[para-CAD]

[para-CAD]

well.....everything was working great for about 4 hours.  I tried to open a recent file from the list under File and this happened:

 

Also, I was copying text from a county website and when I would paste it into a Rich Text window, I received this message:

 

"Failed to find a font on your system to match ".AppleSystemUIFont"

 

I haven't messed with system fonts on this almost 3-week old machine.......seems odd.

[MoeGia]

I'm not sure about the first message.

 

For the second, you'll need to install the missing font on your new computer.  Maybe you can go back to your old machine and copy/paste the font to the new one.  I don't know how it works on Apple products, but that's what I would do on a PC.  

 

Or, if the font is only from the Country website, paste it into a text document and change it to a system font, then paste into Chief.

 

[Chrisb222]

On 1/8/2022 at 1:40 PM, para-CAD said:

I tried to open a recent file from the list under File and this happened:

 

That has been happening to me for years and several versions when opening a Layout using Open Recent. Plans open fine. I just don't use Open Recent for Layouts.

 

That said, I'm still using X12 until I sort out a hardware upgrade path...

 

On 1/8/2022 at 1:40 PM, para-CAD said:

I haven't messed with system fonts on this almost 3-week old machine.......seems odd.

 

I had a font problem after a CA upgrade a few versions back that never got resolved through tech support. Had to change ALL text elements in ALL templates etc to a different font. Very aggravating, and I suspect was a CA-caused conflict. The font worked fine in all other programs.

[para-CAD]

Thanks for your comments.  The font issue only cropped up when I would copy/paste text from Snohomish county's website............way weird.  

 

I will skip the open recent feature......thanks again.

[rgardner]

On 1/17/2022 at 2:55 AM, para-CAD said:

Snohomish county's website.

Most likely Snohomish County is to blame..  I blame them either way.  haha

[Jongleur]

Have been using X13 on my 8GB mini for 6 months with only one issue: switching between programs might make the cursor disappear when returning to CA. Though i can't remember it happened since moving from Big Sur to Monterey.

Was using X12 on an old Mac Pro 5.1 with Radeon RX580 just fine but Mojave wouldn't run X13

 

The pasting issue may have to do with the system's private font being unavailable for general use. I too have to paste it into a text editor and copy it again, as I can find no keyboard command for Paste Without Formatting or similar in Chief.

[DefinedDesign]

I find with my Macbook that I need to paste all text copied from a website into text edit and then copy from text edit and paste into the software program I am using.  It eliminates a ton of issues for me.

Curious how your Macbook is performing, thinking about getting a new MBP but I just hate that CA doesn't support Ray Trace on a MBP.  I love this feature and feel it is necessary to help a client visual themselves in the room. It makes our business look like the top professional in our area.  I despise PC - the Mac ecosystem is the best.  

 

Would LOVE to see what a 3D image looks like on your new MBP.   

[rgardner]

2 hours ago, DefinedDesign said:

I just hate that CA doesn't support Ray Trace on a MBP

Clarification.  You can Ray Trace on a MBP.  

 

"GPU real time ray tracing requires a Windows computer with an NVIDIA RTX or an AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card"  So no PBR RTRT on macbook at this point but you can still CPU RT.

[para-CAD]

Update:

 

Ever since the latest Chief update, X14 has been running smoothly on my M1 MAX MBP except for the occasional loss of toolbar icons.  

The worst was when I was laptop only on the kitchen table in a client's home, when I lost all the toolbar icons.  

That made doing real-time edits during the presentation much more unprofessional.....but I survived.

 

All in all, chief things are much more stable now on macOS.  

I've even upgraded to the public beta of Ventura and everything seems solid.

 

I wish every success to you.

[rgardner]

15 minutes ago, para-CAD said:

occasional loss of toolbar icons.

Have been working very closely with TS on figuring this out.  I have been two weeks without an issue on toolbars after making some adjustments.  1 big one was using blank spaces in the toolbar to space out the different toolbars.  Another has to do with locking in the side windows on the second screen with a specific closing and opening method...  Hopefully that issue is solved as they found something that supposedly was going into the patch that came out two days ago.

[DefinedDesign]

On 7/22/2022 at 1:16 PM, rgardner said:

Clarification.  You can Ray Trace on a MBP.  

 

"GPU real time ray tracing requires a Windows computer with an NVIDIA RTX or an AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card"  So no PBR RTRT on macbook at this point but you can still CPU RT.

 Oh my!  This is great news, thank you!  What is the difference between a Ray Trace and a PBR RTRT?  Sorry I'm not super techie 

[DefinedDesign]

On 7/22/2022 at 4:14 PM, para-CAD said:

Update:

 

Ever since the latest Chief update, X14 has been running smoothly on my M1 MAX MBP except for the occasional loss of toolbar icons.  

The worst was when I was laptop only on the kitchen table in a client's home, when I lost all the toolbar icons.  

That made doing real-time edits during the presentation much more unprofessional.....but I survived.

 

All in all, chief things are much more stable now on macOS.  

I've even upgraded to the public beta of Ventura and everything seems solid.

 

I wish every success to you.

Thank you!!!

[rgardner]

2 minutes ago, DefinedDesign said:

 Oh my!  This is great news, thank you!  What is the difference between a Ray Trace and a PBR RTRT?  Sorry I'm not super techie 

Pbr RTRT or Real Time Ray Trace was a new feature that came out for X13 with the new rendering engine they changed to.  It is an instant ray tracing that is close although not instant.  It is only available on that one subset of GPUs even for PC.  Everything you were able to do prior to X13 for rendering is still available and even some new features that came out in x13 and x14 and works quite well on the m1 chip.  X14 is now natively run on the M1 chip.