wildernessbob wrote:
i don't really know what virtual machine is.
A virtual machine is essentially another operating system running as an application. This can mean different things depending on the circumstances but here we are generally referring to running Windows on a Mac. You can create these virtual machines with either Parallels or VMware Fusion. Either of them costs about $80 as I recall. I have both but have been using Parallels lately. Performance and stability are good.
You will also need to buy a full license of Windows to install. I have found that the OEM copies that you can buy from PC builders supply houses work just fine and cost about half the price. The only functional difference that I've found is that 32 and 64 bit are separate packages whereas the retail versions of Windows 7 Professional includes both.
One thing I LOVE about VMs is that the data/system install is stored as a virtual disk file on your hard drive. This can be backed up like any other file so if there are any problems you can just replace the troublesome file with a good backup. It's also a great way to test beta software or anything you think might cause problems. You can run them in a copy and then just toss it when you are done. In fact just this morning Windows Explorer was giving me some error on launch so rather than waste time trying to fix it I just replaced the VM.
One other thing is that if you are running simultaneous ArchiCADs in Mac and a Windows VM you will have to trade off access to the hardware key (unless you have two). This doesn't seem to cause any problems but the ArchiCAD that doesn't have the key will put up a dialog about it until it gets it back.
