To understand the difference between both in more detail, check out our article on the best way to run Windows on Mac. Parallels is also the only way to run Windows on an M1 Mac. With Boot Camp on the other hand, you have to shutdown your Mac and restart it in Windows.Īlthough Boot Camp allows your Mac to devote all of its resources to running SolidWorks (thus in theory giving you smoother performance) both Macs and Parallels have become more powerful in processing speed and RAM size meaning SolidWorks now works almost as well using Parallels as it does using Boot Camp. Using Parallels means you don’t have to restart your Mac when you want to use SolidWorks – you can just switch to macOS as you do when you want to use any other application.

Parallels is by far the easiest virtual machine to setup and use and works on the latest M1/M2 Macs to install Windows ARM. Virtual machines like Parallels are not free but allow you to run macOS and Windows at the same time which is far more convenient as you can switch between your Mac and Windows in one click. It does not work on Apple Silicon M1/M2 Macs though so it’s not an option to run SolidWorks for M1/M2 Mac owners. 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. There’s plenty of amazing CAD software for Macs nowadays but unfortunately SolidWorks for Mac still does not exist.

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