[Radiance-general] Radiance tool and Atrium daylight

Rob Guglielmetti rpg at rumblestrip.org
Tue Mar 27 16:41:32 CEST 2007


Giulio Antonutto wrote:
> Please also consider the Mac option.
>   
I've gotta back up what Giulio said.  I struggled for years to get a 
decent, working Linux/Radiance installation, with limited success.  I 
spent more time learning Linux than radiance, and everyone knows, you 
need lots of time to learn the latter!  When Greg Ward mentioned that 
the latest version of radiance compiled on his mac (December 2001), I 
shot him an email asking for more info about this new Mac OS that could 
compile c code!  True to form, Greg obliged with lots of info, pointers, 
etc.  A couple weeks later I had a PowerBook and a working Radiance 
installation (a fast one, I might add) and was rpicting to my heart's 
content. 

Five years and one laptop upgrade later, I'm still quite happy.  
Especially for a one-machine solution, the Mac is a great way to go.  As 
Giulio pointed out, if you have to have AutoCAD (or any other 
Windows-based program) you can run Parallels on the Intel-based 
MacBooks/MacBook Pros; it's really great.  And you'll find all kinds of 
interesting tips, tools and tricks with Radiance on this mailing list, 
many of which require compiling code, or running a shell script, or 
whatever.  This is all so much easier on OSX since a full, compliant 
UNIX subsystem lies underneath the pretty desktop interface of OSX.

Of course you can get more horsepower for your dollar with a homebuilt 
AMD solution running Linux.  If budget is the driving force, then you 
may want to consider that route, and others on the list here can offer 
some advice in that arena.  Good luck either way!

- Rob



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