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.
![Download iworks for mac free Download iworks for mac free](/uploads/1/1/9/8/119846559/559494647.jpg)
If you bought your Mac in the last year or two, don't bother buying this software. But if you have an older Mac you.may. be able to use it. Case in point: I have a Mac Pro which can't run Appleworks. It's an older Mac Pro, circa 2009, using the Snow Leopard operating system. AppleWorks 6 works the way people think and work — and that extends the capabilities of the people using it. AppleWorks is a compactly designed and elegantly engineered multifunctional program with a remarkably small memory requirement.
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.
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.
Free I Works For Mac Os
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
Office For Mac Free
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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.
Screenshots
Description
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 files. eDrawings is an email-enabled communication tool that dramatically eases the sharing of product design information. You can load and send files via email to collaborate more effectively with everyone involved in product development, including people who are not regular CAD software users to interpret and understand 2D and 3D designs.
eDrawings enables 2D & 3D product evaluation and collaboration through the MarkUp, Measure and Section tools. With dynamic sectioning collaborators can see any internal or external view of the design they require and mark-up enables them to give precise and contextual feedback.
Features:
* Intuitive and easy-to-use user interface
* Open 3D (EASM, EPRT, SLDASM, SLDPRT, IGES, IGS, JT, STEP, STP, IFC), 2D (EDRW, SLDDRW, DWG, DXF) and associated files from: email attachments, cloud storage services (Dropbox™, SkyDrive®, Google Drive, YouSendIt®, and others), web and FTP sites, network drives
* Zoom, pan and rotate your 2D or 3D CAD data
* Interrogate designs and collaborate with precision using Measure, MarkUp and Section functionality
* Animate 3D standard views as well as 2D drawing views.
* Browse your assembly components tree, configurations and drawing sheets
* View your designs in full screen and double tap to fit it on screen
For more information, visit:
http://www.edrawingsviewer.com
eDrawings enables 2D & 3D product evaluation and collaboration through the MarkUp, Measure and Section tools. With dynamic sectioning collaborators can see any internal or external view of the design they require and mark-up enables them to give precise and contextual feedback.
Features:
* Intuitive and easy-to-use user interface
* Open 3D (EASM, EPRT, SLDASM, SLDPRT, IGES, IGS, JT, STEP, STP, IFC), 2D (EDRW, SLDDRW, DWG, DXF) and associated files from: email attachments, cloud storage services (Dropbox™, SkyDrive®, Google Drive, YouSendIt®, and others), web and FTP sites, network drives
* Zoom, pan and rotate your 2D or 3D CAD data
* Interrogate designs and collaborate with precision using Measure, MarkUp and Section functionality
* Animate 3D standard views as well as 2D drawing views.
* Browse your assembly components tree, configurations and drawing sheets
* View your designs in full screen and double tap to fit it on screen
For more information, visit:
http://www.edrawingsviewer.com
What’s New
Bug fixes
Support for SolidWorks 2021 file formats
3Dconnexion device support
Support for SolidWorks 2021 file formats
3Dconnexion device support
1 Rating
Large assemblies load at last!
eDrawings on Mac has always crashed loading large assemblies (anything >10Mb), this release is the first I have used that is useful in this regard. Hallelujah!
A loading dialogue would be a further improvement rather than just the spinning beachball, but not crashing is a good improvement to start with.
A loading dialogue would be a further improvement rather than just the spinning beachball, but not crashing is a good improvement to start with.
Developer Response,
Hi User,
Thank you for getting in touch regarding the app. If you have time,
Can you provide some further information, for example, some screenshot or video demonstrating the issue at your end by creating a Service request on below link:
http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/ed/edrawings-support.htm
Thanks,
eDrawings Support Team.
Thank you for getting in touch regarding the app. If you have time,
Can you provide some further information, for example, some screenshot or video demonstrating the issue at your end by creating a Service request on below link:
http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/ed/edrawings-support.htm
Thanks,
eDrawings Support Team.
Handy viewing/measuring/annotation
I’ve been using edrawings for many years on the mac to view, measure and annotate .dwg drawings from others and to review my own .dwg outputs from SketchUp etc. Great to have it on appstore now, usability of the interface is good, it is more intuitive than earlier versions but some things still a little obscure so 4 star not 5. Free so superb value!
Developer Response,
Hi Tomhhd,
Thank you for your feedback. We are Glad that you liked our app.
If you need assistance with eDrawings app feel free to contact eDrawings Support on below link: http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/ed/edrawings-support.htmStay
Stay tuned for our next release.
Thank you for your feedback. We are Glad that you liked our app.
If you need assistance with eDrawings app feel free to contact eDrawings Support on below link: http://www.edrawingsviewer.com/ed/edrawings-support.htmStay
Stay tuned for our next release.
Works for me
I was a bit put off by the other reviews, but as it's free I thought I'd give it a try. For me it works - I just want to be able to view DWG files and layers, and that it does just fine!
Information
macOS 10.12 or later, 64-bit processor
Supports
Family Sharing
Up to six family members will be able to use this app with Family Sharing enabled.