Boot Camp (not available on M1/M2 Macs)īoot Camp is free in macOS but only allows you to run either Windows or macOS at one time.

There are two ways to install SolidWorks on a Mac: When Will SolidWorks Be Available For Mac?.How to use RealView & OpenGL in SolidWorks on M1/M2 Macs.How to use RealView & OpenGL in SolidWorks on a Mac.Run SolidWorks on a Mac With a Virtual Environment Here we show you how to install Solidworks on both Intel and M1/M2 Macs and give you a few tips about how to improve the performance of SolidWorks when it’s running on a Mac.

Note however that Boot Camp does not work on M1 chip Macs. Thanks to the Parallels virtual machine, you can now switch between macOS and SolidWorks running in Windows at anytime.Įven better, Parallels recently added support for running Windows on M1 & M2 Macs so that you can run SolidWorks on an Apple Silicon M1 or M2 chip Mac including on the latest version of macOS Ventura.Īlthough Parallels only supports running Windows 10 for ARM on M1 and M2 Macs (Windows 10 for ARM is a specially adapted version of Windows for ARM chips like the M1/M2), Microsoft has added Intel x86 emulation inside Windows 10 ARM to run software that requires Intel chips like SolidWorks.Īlternatively, if you still have an Intel Mac, you can install SolidWorks using Boot Camp if you don’t need access to macOS while you’re using SolidWorks. However the good news is there are ways to install the Windows version of SolidWorks on macOS including SolidWorks 2021 on M1 and M2 Macs. I suspect you will just need to download the free trial.There’s plenty of amazing CAD software for Macs nowadays but unfortunately SolidWorks for Mac still does not exist. Even if you find people who have tried it, make sure you get a 'yes' on the specific software of interest to you, and that they have controlled similar hardware to yours (SGP and LuSol). Joelin, I'm not aware of anyone who has tried it, so you may not get too many useful responses.

Then, if it works, and the performance is satisfactory, great! Parallels does have a 14 day free trial, so the OP could probably figure out whether it works for the specific software of interest without any financial exposure. I'm not aware of anyone having given it a go. That was historically where VM Ware and Parallels struggled, even on x86 based Mac's. The challenge was always the fact that you need to not just get the software running, but also connect to external hardware. It's still running Windows ARM, though the emulator should allow software that hasn't been compiled for ARM to run. I believe the latest Parallels can runs Windows 11 and the apps that run on it: M1

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