What is SOLIDWORKS
Download eDrawings for macOS 10.14 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. eDrawings Viewer is the only CAD viewer for Mac which delivers a premier 3D viewing experience for non CAD professionals. EDrawings Viewer enables anyone to quickly and easily view, print and review native eDrawings and SOLIDWORKS files in addition to AutoCAD DWG and DXF. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were rivals, peers, was it poor foresight to not make the SOLIDWORKS platform Mac compatible? Not So Easy There is a mythological lore that surrounds Steve Jobs and a lot of that has to do with pop culture and his portrayal in movies or books but all of that insight into the beginning of Apple does tell us a lot about. Download new versions, service packs, and add-ins for SOLIDWORKS, Simulation, PDM, and Free CAD Tools (eDrawings, Composer Player, SOLIDWORKS Explorer). Solidworks free. Download full version with crack 64 bit 2020: The program supplies the programmer to produce things and maps depending on their fields. Additionally, Safe Solidworks torrent permits the programmer to sketch a 3D architect and design may draw on the plan of buildings. SolidWorks 2020 Crack Windows & Mac: And SolidWorks 2020. This free software by Autodesk, Inc. Can be used as a browser based 3D designing and modeling tools that will be suitable for 3D printing purposes. You can imagine anything and draw it quickly.
Developed by Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS Corp SOLIDWORKS is a computer-aided design modeling tool (CAD), that helps to plan, design, and visualize all assets connected to construction, etc. SOLIDWORKS has all modern functions and tools for generative design, work sharing, visualization, etc. Over two million Engineers and Designers choose SOLIDWORKS, so if you one of them, please read our article below if you wish to run it on your Mac.
Why SOLIDWORKS doesn’t run on Mac?
There are several reasons why some apps don’t run on Mac. It may be an incompatibility with Mac or macOS version. Also, MacOS Catalina and Big Sur don’t support 32-bit apps. Most apps developers developing new, 64-bit versions of the apps but, despite it, there are still hundreds of apps that can only run on 32-bit Macs. In our case, the reason is that SOLIDWORKS native Macintosh version simply doesn’t exist. At present moment there is no information about the release date and the possibility that SOLIDWORKS will be available for Mac.
How to run SOLIDWORKS on Mac
The most popular solution for running SOLIDWORKS on Mac/MacBook is virtualization software. Despite the fact, that emulators usually use much of the resources of Mac, some of them, for example, Parallels, Virtualbox, or VMWare can help to run different programs on OS X with minimal losses in the performance of your machine. Moreover, some of them compatible with Directx 11, which can help to run graphically demanding apps and games. Also, you can change desktops and copy any files between your Parallels program (Windows Desktop) and OS X freely. Both Student or architecture versions can be run easily.
Running SOLIDWORKS through Parallels
If you wish to run SOLIDWORKS on Mac, Parallels Desktop can be a solution. This is software for Windows virtualization on Mac with the full support of DirectX and GPUs. It allows you to install Windows 10 on Mac with a couple of clicks and switch between macOS and Windows instantly. You can run Windows just like on a regular PC and install SOLIDWORKS on your Mac/Macbook.
Running SOLIDWORKS though other virtual machines
Another popular software is VMware Fusion. It is a software hypervisor that allows running virtual machines like guest operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, NetWare, and Solaris. Fusion can drive heavy, GPU-intensive applications and games with top 3D graphics. Fusion now provides hardware-accelerated DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1 capabilities to virtual machines.
Also, the most well-known free alternative programs are VirtualBox, Wine, Proton, and QEMU, but you will be required advanced skills to run SOLIDWORKS by them.
Running SOLIDWORKS on remote server
If you have a powerful Windows-based server, and a wide-scale internet connection, another method is SOLIDWORKS running on Windows on a Server machine (in the cloud, or remote desktop) and looking at the screen from your Mac.
You can use TeamViewer, or other software for this purpose.
Running SOLIDWORKS on Windows 10 using Boot Camp
BootCamp allows users to choose the system to work in on startup, however, you won’t be able to switch between systems like in Parallels. Note, that you need no less than 64 GB on the hard disk of your device. We recommend having 128 GB of free space. After Windows installation completes, your Mac starts up in Windows and opens a ”Welcome to the Boot Camp installer” Window. You will need to reboot your machine every time you switch from Mac to Windows and vice versa. To set up Windows via BootCamp, please, do the following:
For OS X El Capitan 10.11 or later
Mention, that for MacOS versions prior to OS X El Capitan 10.11 you will need to create bootable Windows USB.
- Download Windows ISO file
- Open Boot Camp Assistant (Go to Applications >Utilities)
- Define the Windows partition size choose downloaded Windows ISO file
- Format Windows partition and go through all Windows installation steps
- When Windows boots for the first time follow on-screen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers)
Software Alternatives
If all steps were unsuccessful, or you wish to run native software instead of SOLIDWORKS. There is professional software that allows users to export projects to SOLIDWORKS and import projects from it, as well as create similar projects in similar fashion. Among the best alternatives are TurboCAD for Mac, ArchiCAD for Mac, eDrawings, FreeCAD.
This is a fairly long-standing issue we come up against on the Innova Systems technical support desk, and also while talking to prospective customers about SOLIDWORKS. The simple answer is that SOLIDWORKS do not develop an Apple Mac version of the software, so we can’t install SOLIDWORKS natively.
We used to recommend the Bootcamp route, which involves installation of Bootcamp and then Microsoft Windows on the partition Bootcamp creates. The issue here is that if you need to access the Apple Mac Operating System (OS), you would need to shut down windows and boot up the Apple Mac OS, because they cannot be running simultaneously. This allows the full use of the hardware (RAM and graphics card) you have in your Apple Mac for Windows.
The alternative solution that we used to steer people away from is Parallels, a virtual machine software that allows you to run another OS inside the Mac OS (inside a window). The reason for not recommending this is that you are sharing the resource of the machine with two operating systems, thus not necessarily having the required resource to run a demanding program like SOLIDWORKS.
There were also historic problems with not being able to use the graphics card properly which would result in exceptionally slow performance when selecting things. This is due to most Macs not having certified graphics cards for SOLIDWORKS and parallels using a virtual graphics card driver or the default Windows driver. The virtual or generic drivers don’t offer the level of performance needed to run SOLIDWORKS correctly.
Innova Systems Technical Director, Ed Hawkins, explains
We have now installed and configured this on over 20 users’ Apple Mac computers and I have to say the response from these people has been amazing.
I have a mid 2014 MacBook Pro, which I’ve been using as a test bed. The specs are listed below:
You will note that this machine has Intel Iris Graphics (specific to the Mac) and not a certified graphics card for SOLIDWORKS.
So, I installed the latest version of Parallels (version 10) and a fresh copy of Windows 10 into the virtual environment and then set about making SOLIDWORKS work!
It’s pretty easy to get Windows installed, as Parallels guides you through that process very nicely. You can specify how much of the machine’s resource to give to the Windows OS – which is where a high spec Mac will stand you in better stead. It is always a good rule of thumb to assign half the available RAM to the Windows OS, so in my set up, I assigned 4GB of RAM.
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The difficult bit is making the “Use Software OpenGL” button inside SOLIDWORKS become accessible. When you first install SOLIDWORKS, this button is ticked and greyed out, so we can’t turn it off. In our opinion, SOLIDWORKS is unusable at this point, as selecting geometry and navigating the software is too slow to be productive.
With a bit of effort, and some registry modifications, I was able to untick the OpenGL box, allowing us to use the graphics card to a much higher potential. The difference in performance was huge, and it allowed me to select and navigate the software much, much faster. One limitation that frustrated me early on was the lack of RealView Graphics (Accurate reflections and appearances), so I set about solving this problem too. I’m happy to report that RealView works perfectly on a properly specced Mac Book Pro!
Of course, this isn’t necessarily a new solution – Parallels has been around for some time, and installing Windows on a Mac for as long. The difference with our solution is that we can make SOLIDWORKS behave as well as a normal windows PC. No more slow selecting or poor rotational speed.
Above is a screenshot of the working set up, albeit in Window mode, not full screen. I have this running at a resolution of 2560 x 1600 in full screen mode and it is functioning very well. Please note: the specification of my Mac, and the resource I can assign to Windows is far from ideal. It would be recommended for people who are creating fairly simple parts with up to 100 features, and assemblies containing up to 500 components. Any more than that, and I think it would struggle.
In summary, the Parallels solution is now recommended by Innova Systems. We are confident of this working well in a production environment, but the spec of the Mac is key to the success. Along with our modifications to the registry in Windows, of course.
Video: See SOLIDWORKS running on Apple Mac
Video: How to run SOLIDWORKS on Apple Mac Computers
Get in touch with us to find out more
Are you based in the UK and interested in running SOLIDWORKS on your Apple Mac? We can demonstrate our configuration to you via a Team Viewer session, or if you prefer and are interested in purchasing SOLIDWORKS we can come out and show you live with some of your data.
Call us on (01223) 200690 or complete this form to organise a consultation
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Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2015 and has been updated to feature new information on our process.