I use a 27in imac running both vmware and bootcamp. With bootcamp it's just another windows box...runs fine. I mostly use it with vmware and works slower but still OK but does sometimes have video issues. I've turned off 3d acceleration and seems to behave better. In both cases ram is everything..max that out!

Skipping Girl, you can head over to http://revittotd.com/ and watch some of the videos there. They are all performed inside of Parallels on a Macbook Pro running Windows 7. The latest ones are with 2012.

What I've noticed with Botcamp is that the performance is better, but you'll have issues with absolute file name locations and network locations (or at least i did) to the point where I had to switch back to parallels. I also use parllels because I use Mouseposé which shows my mouse clicks and that's a Mac proggy

Wtihin Parallels you'll see slightly reduced performance compared to bootcamp but it is usable. With the latest parallels version I was even able to use all of the new video card features which is nice. Large projects (read 120mb or larger) are going to give you some issues in loading, but for the most part you should be able to work in that. Now, this MBP only has 4gb of ram, which means Windows 7 is running on 2gb. Imagine if it were more (which it will be soon, hopefully).

Hope this helps!

.Carl

Also see this thread in the hardware sub-forum

Carl,
are you having any trouble with Ambient Shadows in Parallels? I am running the newest build on my 2010 iMac i7, and in both RAC 2011 & 2012 turning on Ambient Shadows turns the entire black. I had no such problems with an earlier build and 2011. That said, there where issues with Ambient Occlusion just not working at all when 2011 first came out, and Parallels did issue a new build that addressed the issue.

As for the OP, my experience is that Parallels works great, especially with smaller projects. Performance is impacted, especially graphics, so eye candy is slower that it would be in BootCamp. But as long as you give the VM enough RAM it is rock solid. More so I think than "native" Windows because you just have less installed. I have Revit and CutePDF and Snagit. Everything else is Mac based, so Windows is just asked to do less, and seems to be the happier for it. And I much prefer to use Acorn over Photoshop, iWork over MS Office, Mail over Outlook, etc. Hopefully the new Parallels will make more use of the graphics card, the same way it now uses the CPUs. Something along the lines of the Direct Assignment mode available in Parallels Workstation now.

Gordon

Just an aside to this,

I read in the latest issue of aec magazine by Martyn Day:
There have been many people asking if there is going to be an Apple Mac version of Revit. I can clearly state that Autodesk currently has no plans to write a specific OSX release. As part of a major behind the scenes reworking, Autodesk is breaking down its products and rewriting them to be platform independent, i.e. not based on Windows. In time, Revit will be ready to be delivered over the web or via a number of other ways, which will mean it will run on any platform. For now, Autodesk’s AEC team considers that this will be the way that Revit will appear on the Mac.

http://www.aecmag.com/

It's funny that you mention this Gordon, cause I just opened an older project that had to upgrade to 2012 the other day to export to DWG and noticed the black . Being in a hurry and it not effecting the export, I just did my thing and closed it not bothering to investigate the issue.

However, on every new project I've started in 2012, it has not been a problem *rubs chin thoughtfully.*

Very interesting, Carl, because I noticed it on the Example files, and have yet to test on a fresh file. Good news if so. Even if it does suggest that the file upgrade process is a bit flawed. If anything, it puts the ball in Autodesk's court, which likely means no effort at all.

Gordon

Could also mean I need to actually test more vigorously before answering. I'll check and post back

Thanks guys! Great replies. I shall persevere with my Mac then.