So, I installed the latest version of Parallels and a fresh copy of Windows 10 into the virtual environment and then set about making SOLIDWORKS work! You will note that this machine has Intel Iris Graphics (specific to the Mac) and not a certified graphics card for SOLIDWORKS. I have a mid 2014 MacBook Pro, which I’ve been using as a test bed. We’ve installed and configured this on plenty of Apple Mac computers now and I have to say the response from the end users has been amazing.

Innova Systems Technical Director, Ed Hawkins, explains The virtual or generic drivers don’t offer the level of performance needed to run SOLIDWORKS correctly. 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. 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. 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. 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). This allows the full use of the hardware (RAM and graphics card) you have in your Apple Mac for Windows. 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. We used to recommend the Bootcamp route, which involves installation of Bootcamp and then Microsoft Windows on the partition Bootcamp creates. The simple answer is that SOLIDWORKS do not develop an Apple Mac version of the software, so we can’t install SOLIDWORKS natively.

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.

Parallels for mac solidworks