Running eCabinets on a Mac

A Mac can run eCabinets software within a virtual Windows machine, with the occasional hiccup. July 25, 2010

Question
I am running Windows XP on my Mac via Parallels. I have been using eCabinets, mostly with good results.

The one glitch I have had is printing from the line drawing editor. When I take a room, wall, cabinet or assembly to the LDE, it is smaller than the printable area. I know I should be able to highlight the area, hold down the shift key, and drag the mouse to enlarge or reduce what I would like to print. This does not work with the Mac. No matter what I do, when I hold down the shift key, all I am able to do is rotate the image.

I have gone to the eCabinets forum asking the same question and the only response I get is to hold down the shift key. Please, any other ideas?

Forum Responses
(CAD Forum)
From contributor S:
So why don't you use your eCabinets on a PC with Windows XP?


From contributor G:
You have to highlight the cabinet, then hold down the shift key and both buttons on the mouse, then drag the mouse toward you to enlarge.

From contributor K:

I will repeat the same answer I gave you on the eCabinets forum. This is the correct way to do this. If it does not work on a Mac, it is not a glitch in eCabinets - it is the fact that you are trying to run eCabinets on an unsupported operating system.

Follow these directions:
If you are sending a room to the LDE, you must click on the Select Room Mode Icon to be able to zoom.
If you are sending a wall to the LDE you must click on the Select Wall Mode Icon.
If you are sending a cabinet you must click on the Select Cabinet Mode Icon.
If you are sending an assembly you must click on the Select Assembly Mode Icon.

Once you have clicked the appropriate icon, mouse over your room (wall, cabinet, or assembly) and the object will highlight red.
Single left click and it will select the object and turn green.

Hold the shift key and press both mouse buttons simultaneously and drag the mouse to zoom.
Hold the shift key and hold the right click button and drag the mouse to pan.
Hold the shift key and press and hold the left mouse button to rotate.


From the original questioner:
Thanks again for the input. I use Macs because that is what I have. I don't own a PC and won't purchase one for a drawing program.

I don't think the problem is with the software; I agree that it is with trying to run it on the Mac. I'm hoping to figure out how to make that happen. The things that work on the Windows platform don't work on the Mac platform. I am hoping it is something that can be worked out.

I've found the eCabinets software very easy to use. I was able to lay out the first project fairly rapidly. But this printing problem is frustrating me. Perhaps I won't be able to resolve it. That would be unfortunate. Maybe there is a Mac or Parallels forum where someone has had a similar issue. I'll give that a try.


From contributor K:
Contact Dean at Thermwood. He works in a PC world all day but nights he plays with his Mac. He can probably help if he has time.

From contributor M:
You need to enable right clicking and have a mouse that supports clicking both buttons at the same time. Buy a PC USB mouse, like a Logitech. Install it while you are in Parallels. Mac will ask if you want to "connect this device to the Mac or to the virtual machine," so select the virtual machine. Now you will have a mouse that behaves like a PC mouse in the PC VM.

If you are using an Apple Mighty Mouse or the touch pad on a Macbook, there is no way to click left and right mouse buttons simultaneously. Also I believe you can add custom keyboard inputs to the Parallels virtual machine menu. The same drop down menu that offers ctrl+alt+del and other Windows key combinations. But that would probably not work because you can't hold the key down.

So get a regular mouse, connect it to the PC Virtual Machine (not Mac or both) and you should be golden. When you do this, the mouse will not work in the Mac environment, but I think you can use two mouses, or you can "release the mouse" so it will work on both systems.

For all you PC guys, the reason we use Macs is that Mac is a much more stable and trouble free platform. XP runs much better in Parallels, because the OS is dedicated to running eCabinets or Cabinet Vision. Windows just can't handle the real world of computer usage. If you surf the net and install a dozen other programs, it gets slower and slower, and then it starts crashing and suffers from the impossibly long restarts and the sleep feature quits working, etc.

I used the best PCs on the market. My last was a Dell M90 that was maxed out. A $3000 engineering workstation that was used exclusively for work. After 8 months it started acting up, after 14 months I was looking at having to format the drive and reinstall XP. So I decided to try Mac. I will never buy another PC.

Interesting enough, the Cabinet Vision rep in the Texas area uses a Mac also. That was the last straw for me to toss the PC. Of course, Planit does not recommend that.


From the original questioner:
Contributor M had the closest answer. I bought a Microsoft mouse today. This evening I was able to use it to zoom the drawings I had created with eCabinets. This is what I had to do. When the prompt in Parallels asked if I wanted to connect to the computer or the virtual machine, connecting to the virtual machine did not work, but when I connected to the Mac, the mouse was able to work.

When I opened the file in eCabinets and went to the Line drawing editor and opened one of the pages, double clicking and holding down the shift key allowed me to zoom in and out.

For those who are wondering about running eCabinets on your Mac, I would say give it a try - this printing issue has been the only thing that stumped me, but thanks to this forum it seems it is resolved. I look forward to being able to use and learn the eCabinerts software.

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