Running RoofWright on a Mac

RoofWright is the market-leading conservatory and sunroom design, sales and manufacturing product for your computer.

Although most of our customers use RoofWright under Microsoft Windows on a PC or laptop, if you are fortunate enough to own an Apple Mac or Mac Book, you too can take advantage of RoofWright for your business.

How Does It Run?

RoofWright is not a native OS X (or Classic OS 9) application. It was designed for Microsoft Windows, and so far there is no version that will run directly under OS X.

However, with the advent of Intel-based Macs, it is now very easy to set up a Microsoft Windows environment on your Mac into which you can install RoofWright, complete with drivers and working dongle!

To begin, you need to set up the Windows environment. There are three major products that allow you to do this, two of which will allow you to run a Windows environment within OS X and one which allows dual-booting of Windows with OS X. Both methods have pros and cons as described below. Note that in all cases, you will have to have a full copy of Microsoft Windows and install it by following the instructions provided with the chosen product.

Running Windows within OS X

This technique is called virtualization and means that you don’t need to restart your Mac in order to run Windows.

The recommended product is called Parallels Desktop and is available to purchase from:

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/

An alternate product is from a company called VMWare, and is called Fusion. This is available to purchase from:

http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

How it works…

Each of the two products mentioned above work in a similar manner. Their purpose is to “pretend” to be a self-contained PC, but is in actual fact an application running under OS X. Windows is installed into this “pretend” PC, and since it behaves like a real PC, Windows doesn’t know that it isn’t!

Each of the products contains Windows drivers which automatically install after Windows has been set-up.

Note: If you don’t have a separate, licensed copy of Windows already, check the website of the product you wish to use (Parallels of VMWare) as they may have a bundle deal containing a pre-setup copy of Windows which may be cheaper and easier to deal with.

Running Windows alongside OS X

A different approach is to install Microsoft Windows directly onto your hard disk alongside your OS X installation. This technique is called dual booting and means that you are actually installing Windows on your Mac hardware directly. The benefit to this is that you can utilize the full power of your Mac, including the graphics card for superb 3D. This approach therefore gives the best performance and experience of RoofWright. The downside is that you have to restart your Mac to switch between using OS X and Windows, and may involve risking an upgrade to your OS X version as described below.

The only recommended product for this is called Boot Camp and is part of the new Apple OS X 10.5. As such, you may need to upgrade your Mac to the latest OS X version to use Boot Camp.

For more information about Boot Camp, see the official Boot Camp product page

Installing RoofWright

Regardless of which method you choose, once Windows has been installed and set-up (with all appropriate drivers), you can install RoofWright from the RoofWright CD by following the instructions supplied with it.

The only difference between the methods chosen is with regards using the USB dongle provided.

Since Boot Camp takes over the whole machine, all USB devices will have been identified (as with any normal PC) so you don’t need to do anything else. Under Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion however, you need to tell them that you want your “Pretend” PC to use the dongle rather than OS X.

This is very easy to do, and is described below:

Make sure that your RoofWright dongle is plugged into one of your Mac’s USB ports and once the installation is complete, you need to do the following. The instructions are for Parallels Desktop, but is very similar in VMWare Fusion:

• Click on the Devices drop-down menu, and then USB and finally HASP HL. A tick will appear next to this item to signify that Windows is now in control of it rather than OS X.

At this point, you will see that Microsoft Windows begins to install the drivers for the HASP, informing you after a short delay that the dongle is available for use.

From the shortcut on the desktop of Windows, you can now run RoofWright, complete with correct license level on your Mac!

And Finally…

This document has been provided to give anyone interested in running RoofWright on an Apple Mac computer some options. Hopefully, this will help you identify which is the best option to suit your needs.

In terms of comparable pros and cons of each approach, please bear in mind the following:

• Best Performance – Boot Camp. Windows runs directly on your Mac hardware and has the best 3D performance of all methods.
• Most Risky – Boot Camp. To use Boot Camp you MUST be running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) from Apple. If you don’t already have this, you need to purchase a copy and upgrade your OS X version. It is strongly recommend you back up all your data before upgrading, if you decide to pursue this approach. Note that it also partitions your existing hard disk, so you have less room available for OS X.
• Less Disruptive – Parallels Desktop/Fusion. Both of these can be installed and run without having to change your OS X installation. Since Windows can run inside the virtual environment while OS X is running, it also means you can carry on using OS X and OS X applications while using RoofWright.
• Most Prone To Viruses/Attacks – all of them! Just because OS X is very unlikely to be prone to viruses and malicious attacks, don’t forget the Windows is! Regardless of which approach you choose, it is still Windows that you are using and so all approaches are as prone as others. It is recommended that you install anti-virus software in your Windows environment as soon as possible to reduce this risk
• Cheapest - Boot Camp. You need to purchase a license for Windows regardless of the method used, so Boot Camp is often the cheapest option as you don't need to buy another product (such as Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion).

Need Help?

Whichever approach you choose, the installation of the product and Windows is supported by the relevant companies (Apple, VMWare, Parallels or Microsoft) and not RPS. This document is provided to give you information and options, and does not imply any liability in terms of supporting the set up of your Windows environment.

We will however support RoofWright, including the installation and use of it, within your Windows environment (subject to your maintenance contract with us).

Please also note that we cannot be held responsible for any loss of data or other problems caused by installing or use of any of the products mentioned. As always, we recommend you back up your data before attempting an install of any of the products mentioned – with special note toward Boot Camp.

Frequently Asked Questions

How well does RoofWright perform on a Mac?

This depends on the approach you use to install Windows.

Boot Camp provides the best performance as Windows is running with direct control of your Mac’s hardware, including your graphics card. This is especially true if your Mac has an NVidia or ATI graphics card in.

Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion do run slower, but still admirably (and perfectly acceptably). This is because it has to share all the Mac resources with OS X at the same time. The amount of memory you allocate to your “Virtual Windows” also has a big effect, so it is recommended that you have at least 1Gb of RAM in your Mac (preferably 2Gb), with half allocated to Windows.

In terms of 3D performance, Parallels Desktop has better (faster and more reliable) support for OpenGL 3D than VMWare Fusion - this is why it is the recommended product. And although neither is as good as Boot Camp in terms of 3D performance, both will provide a good RoofWright experience.

I have an older non-Intel Mac. Can I use RoofWright on it too?

In a similar way, yes. Unfortunately neither Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion run on PowerPC-based Macs. However, you can purchase Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac instead which works in a similar way.

Details can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=virtualpc

How many Virtual PCs am I licensed to run RoofWright on?

There is no difference between the licensing restrictions on a physical PC and a virtual PC. The dongle controls the license, and since this can only physically be attached to one computer at a time, you can install RoofWright on as many computers (and Virtual PCs) as you like, but you can only run RoofWright on the one with the dongle attached.

With regards Virtual PCs specifically, you can only “attach” a USB device to a single Virtual PC at a time, so the restriction works the same way as with the physical PCs.

Running Microsoft Windows in a window on my computer looks odd. It’s not quite the seamless effect I would like to show to my customers – can I do anything to improve this?

Until RoofWright is ported over to run under OS X directly, it is always going to look a little “bolted on”.

However, to help improve the impression given, Parallels Desktop has a feature called Coherence.

When enabled, Coherence hides everything from your Virtual PC except the application window. This can make it look like you are running the applications directly from within OS X.

There are also a number of options, settings and preferences in Parallels Desktop which may help too. For example, there are options to control whether your PC applications show in the Dock when running, whether you can add a shortcut to a PC application to your OS X desktop, and various others.

I have been to Aladdin’s website to get the latest dongle drivers. Which do I need – the Windows drivers or the OS X ones?

Running a Virtual PC can get confusing, but the best way to think of it is this – your Virtual PC is pretending to be a self-contained PC. As such, any drivers, software or updates you download for it must be able to be installed in Windows. You should never need to install the OS X HASP drivers to get the dongle to work in the Virtual PC – just the Windows drivers.

How is my maintenance contract affected if I am running RoofWright on a Mac rather than a PC?

Our technical support department has good experience with Apple Macs and OS X, so will be able to help you find the best way to run RoofWright in your situation. Support for the use of RoofWright is exactly the same for both Mac and PC users (there is no difference in terms of advice etc).

However, our support teams cannot give assistance installing or using anything other than RoofWright. If you need help installing or setting up OS X, Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusion or any version of Windows, you need to speak to the appropriate company.