Autodesk® Alias 2011 for Apple® Mac OS® X Hardware Qualification
Last Updated: August 2010

Products
Platform
 Version
Software Date
Build Number
  • Autodesk Alias Automotive
  • Autodesk Alias Surface
  • Autodesk Alias Design
64-bit 2011 March 03, 2010

201003030105-330318

Contents of this Page
General Hardware and Software Requirements
  • Apple® Mac OS® X 10.5.8 or 10.6.2 (10.6.3 and 10.6.4 are unsupported)
  • Intel Core CPU Architecture, minimum 2GHz (PowerPC systems are unsupported)
  • 2GB or greater system memory, 4GB or more is highly recommended
  • 256MB minimum dedicated video memory and supported video card
  • 3 button mouse
  • DVD drive
  • Wacom tablet is strongly recommended for any 2D paint workflows (refer to Tablet Support section in this document).
Please Read
  • It may be possible to successfully use Alias for Mac OS X with a non-qualified configuration, however, Support and Maintenance programs will be subject to the Autodesk Support services guidelines.
  • The configurations shown are subject to change, and additional qualified configurations may be added after qualification testing has been carried out.
  • All systems were tested with the lastest available version of Mac OS X. We encourage customers to remain current with updates from Apple.
  • Autodesk will continue to explore new candidates for Alias for Mac OS X qualification and will monitor the current configurations. For the most recent information on qualification, please refer to www.autodesk.com/qual-charts.
Qualified Hardware Configurations
Color coding legend
✔
 Graphics hardware and driver meet all requirements for stable and acceptable performance in all functional areas of the software.
ο
 Graphics hardware or driver meet some but not all requirements. Limitations exist.
✖
 Graphics hardware or driver not suitable for use with Alias
NA
 Not Applicable
Untested Configuration not tested by Autodesk and at time of press are not qualified for use with Alias. Use at own risk.
Systems consisting of any combination of the workstations and graphics drivers listed below have been certified for use by Autodesk and are fully supported for use with Alias. Please review all documented limitations for a given configuration, in some cases not all functionality is supported.
Graphics*
Hardware
Mac Pro
MacBook Pro
iMac
Macbook
Mac Mini
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600
✖
✖
✖
NA
NA
Mobility Radeon X1900
✖
NA
NA
NA
NA
Radeon HD 2400 XT
✖
NA
✖
NA
NA
Radeon HD 2600 PRO
✖
NA
✖
NA
NA
Radeon HD 4850
✖
NA
✖
NA
NA
Radeon HD 4670
NA
NA
✖
NA
NA
Radeon HD 4870
✖
NA
NA
NA
NA
Radeon HD 5670
NA
NA
✖
NA
NA
Radeon HD 5770
✖
NA
NA
NA
NA
Radeon HD 5750
NA
NA
✖
NA
NA
Radeon HD 5870
✖
NA
NA
NA
NA
Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT
Untested
NA
Untested
NA
NA
GeForce 7300 GT
ο
NA
Untested
NA
NA
GeForce 8800 GS
Untested
NA
Untested
NA
NA
GeForce 8800 GT
✔
NA
NA
NA
NA
GeForce 8600M GT
NA
✔
NA
NA
NA
GeForce 9400M
NA
ο
ο
ο
ο
GeForce 9600M GT
NA
✔
Untested
NA
NA
GeForce 320M
NA
ο
NA
NA
ο
GeForce 330M
NA
✔
NA
NA
NA
GeForce 120 GT
✔
NA
NA
NA
NA
Quadro FX 4500
ο
NA
NA
NA
NA
Quadro FX 4800
✔
NA
NA
NA
NA
Quadro FX 5600
✔
NA
NA
NA
NA
Intel GMA 950
NA
NA
✖
✖
✖
GMA X3100
NA
NA
✖
✖
✖
* Minimum 256MB of dedicated graphics memory is required. Systems running with shared memory are likely to underperform. At time of writing only Nvidia based graphics hardware is supported.
Known Hardware Limitations
Limitations
Affected Hardware Known Limitations
ID
All
 Limitation Crash or hang with hardware shade
357302
Solution Do not install 10.6.3 or 10.6.4 updates. We expect this issue to be addressed in a future update from Apple.
All
 Limitation Slow response times when interacting with manipulators, marking menus and general UI interaction  
Solution Disable ViewCube and even more optimizations can be achieved by running in fullscreen mode.
All
 Limitation Application hang with use of Marking Menus or crash on startup if required system fonts are not available.
350787
Solution If you are using font manager software be sure to enable Tahoma, Tahoma Bold, Lucida Grande and any other system font.
All
 Limitation Shading maps with file textures may look incorrect in Hardware Shade
297444
Solution Use procedural textures or do not use pure white values in the file texture
All
 Limitation Intermittent incorrect tablet input causing inconsistent stroke behavior. This occurs if there are many queued mouse events needing to be processed.
319445
Solution Undo stroke
All
 Limitation Hardware Shade with Spotlights results in extremely slow performance.
316369
Solution This is a bug in Apple's OpenGL driver. Apple has been notified of this problem.
All
 Limitation Slower selection performance with Anti-Aliased surface display. This is more noticeable with large datasets
Solution Disable driver controlled Anti-Aliasing in driver control panel or Application control Anti-Aliasing through Preferences->General Preferences->Draw
GeForce 7300 and Quadro FX 4500
Limitation Display artifacting and inconsistent shading results with Nvidia GeForce 7300 and Nvidia Quadro FX 4500
311419, 311658
All
 Limitation Hardware Anti-Aliasing has little effect on some hardware and can cause some mild UI artifacting.
320384
Geforce GT120
Limitation Base shader color does not appear in hardware shade with Linear Reflections enabled in Environment  
 
Advanced Hardware Rendering Features in Alias


Using the advanced capabilities of modern graphics hardware it is possible to produce higher levels of realism when using the Hardware Shade functionality within Alias. These features enable more accurate reflection mapping and other effects in hardware. In order to achieve these results in hardware your graphics card and driver combination must fully support the OpenGL Shading Language (GLSL) which is part of the OpenGL2.0 specification. The following table lists features that require GLSL support. In most cases Alias detects incompatible hardware and will not expose these advanced features.

Per-Pixel Shading Mode must be selected inside the Hardware Shade options in order to see the advanced shading capabilities.

Alias 2011 Hardware Shade Functionality
OpenGL 2.0/GLSL Driver Support Required

Self Shadows

No

Shader Glow
No

Displacement Mapping
No

Planar/Camera Projection Mapping (Color, Transparency)
No

Depth of Field
No

Ambient Occlusion Calculation and Display
No

Cube Map Reflections
No

Image Based Lighting
Yes

Blinn Shading
Yes

Bump/Specular Mapping
Yes

All Projection Types (Color, Bump, Transparency, Specular)
Yes

Linear/Spot Lights
Yes

Advanced Virtual Ground Plane Reflection Control
Yes

Advanced Virtual Ground Plane Shadow Control
Yes
Shading Maps
Yes

Environment Reflections
Yes

Wirefile Compatibility Chart
Alias
Supported File Formats (not all formats available on Mac OS X)
Format
Read
Write
 Notes
Wire
 ✔ ✔ As of version 10.0 of Alias (formerly known as StudioTools) wirefiles are backward and forward compatible with newer versions of Alias. StudioTools 10.0 and later will read wirefiles written by prior versions, however, prior versions will not be able to read v10.0 or later wirefiles. We have provided the from100to97.exe translator that will convert 10.0 and later wirefiles to v9.7.x wirefiles.
Autodesk Inventor
✖ ✖  
Open Inventor
✖ ✖  
IGES
 ✔ ✔  
STEP
 ✔ ✔  
DXF/DWG
 ✖ ✖  
DES
 ✖ ✖  
NEUTRO
 ✖ ✖  
CATIA CAI
✖ ✖
CATIA v4
 ✖ ✖  
CATIA v5 R11-R19
✖ ✖  
Unigraphics NX3- NX6
✖ ✖  
PTC Granite
 ✖ ✖  
OBJ
✖ ✖
VDAFS
✖ ✖
VDAIS
✖ ✖
JT
 ✖ ✖
JAMAIS
✖ ✖
C4
✖ ✖
Illustrator
 ✖ ✖  
EPS
✖ ✖
ProE Render
 ✖ ✖
  
STL
 ✔ ✔ Binary and ASCII formats supported.
Anti-Aliasing

Anti-Aliased display in Alias can be achieved using one of the following methods:

Anti-Aliasing Controls and Settings
Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA), Driver Controlled Graphics driver Anti-Aliasing control is set to override any application settings. The entire Alias window is anti-aliased. There is no distinction between a OpenGL viewport and rest of the application. Benefit: Amount of oversampling only limited by card resources and graphics memory resulting in extremely smooth shading. Anti-aliased display is persistent
Drawback: It is not possible to toggle anti-aliased display. Can cause noticeable degredation in interactive performance.
Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA), Application Controlled
 This allows for Alias to use a 4x Full Scene Anti-Aliasing from the graphics card. Only modelling windows receive the Anti-Aliasing visual and can be toggled ON and OFF. This is enabled inside of Alias: Window Display->Shaded Anti-Alias.... 'Allocate Hardware Anti-Alias Resources on Startup'. Benefit: Only modeling windows receive the Anti-Aliased display resulting in less visual artifacting. Can be toggled ON and OFF. Anti-aliased display is persistent
Drawback: Can cause mild degredation in interactive performance.
Camera based Anti-Aliasing
 Anti-Aliasing is controlled entirely from within the Window Display->Shaded Anti-Alias.... Software Anti-Alias options and is only applied when Hardware Shade or Diagnostic Shade is enabled. The results are additive to any existing FSAA if enabled in graphics driver. Benefit: Not dependent on graphics card and can easily be controlled within Alias without restarting. Various quality settings can easily be specified for very high quality smoothing.
Drawback: Anti-Aliasing is only active during idle camera positions. It is disabled during camera moves and animation (playblasts do receive Anti-Aliasing). Expect delays when used in conjunction with other Hardware Shade effects.
Tablet Support

Alias has been tested and confirmed to work with the Wacom Intuos series of tablets (see driver level below)

Active Tablet Displays: Alias has been tested and confirmed to work with the Wacom Cintiq 18SX and Cintiq 21UX Active tablets. A DVI compatible graphics card is required to use the Cintiq series of tablets.

Dual Monitor Configurations: Dual monitor configurations may cause incorrect cursor behavior when spanning multiple monitors. Refer to Dual Monitor Support below for more information on running Alias with dual monitors.

Tablet Driver Notes/Limitations

Wacom Driver: 6.1.2-5

Limitation Intermittent problems with cursor offset after changing Wacom tablet properties
Solution/Workaround Solved by minimizing and restoring the Alias main window.
Limitation 5 button mouse cursor not in sync with paint stroke after initial driver installation with Intuos2
Solution/Workaround Reinstall tablet driver.