about 3rd party softwares

  1. how can I download third party softwares ( such as Revit ) in MacBook Air m1 and 2. Is windows parallel safe and is it paid? or (how can I get in free if paid)

MacBook Air Apple Silicon

Posted on Jul 15, 2022 12:21 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 15, 2022 12:48 AM

By third-party softwares, do you mean Windows applications? Revit is currently not available for Mac, however, it can be installed by using a virtual machine. Historically, one option has always been Apple's native Boot Camp, which is free and versatile, but it will not work on Apple Silicon. As you indicated you have Apple Silicon, Boot Camp won't work in this situation (but may if you have other devices).


The other option (besides purchasing a Windows machine) is to use a virtual machine. I believe Parallels will run on Apple Silicon now. However, it's not free- it costs $99.99 for a permanent license and $79.99 per year otherwise, plus the cost of Windows. Unfortunately, it isn't able to emulate a native x86/x64 Windows environment, which is not available on Apple Silicon (ARM based).


The Autodesk article (Using Revit on a Macintosh system - Autodesk Knowledge) lists some additional concerns when using virtualization:

- There is additional overhead in virtualizing the hardware, so performance on a VM will generally be reduced compared to running directly on the hardware.
- Revit requires an x86/x64 environment, so virtual machines which are emulating ARM based hardware would not be sufficient.
- M series processors are ARM based hardware, and a VM would need to support x86/x64 Windows for Revit to install/run.
- See the following policy document for information on Support for virtual installations.


According to the second and third bullet points, your Apple Silicon Mac will not be sufficient, even with Parallels, to run Revit.


You can show your support for an official version of Revit for Mac here, on their forum.

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 15, 2022 12:48 AM in response to helpmeeeeeplsss

By third-party softwares, do you mean Windows applications? Revit is currently not available for Mac, however, it can be installed by using a virtual machine. Historically, one option has always been Apple's native Boot Camp, which is free and versatile, but it will not work on Apple Silicon. As you indicated you have Apple Silicon, Boot Camp won't work in this situation (but may if you have other devices).


The other option (besides purchasing a Windows machine) is to use a virtual machine. I believe Parallels will run on Apple Silicon now. However, it's not free- it costs $99.99 for a permanent license and $79.99 per year otherwise, plus the cost of Windows. Unfortunately, it isn't able to emulate a native x86/x64 Windows environment, which is not available on Apple Silicon (ARM based).


The Autodesk article (Using Revit on a Macintosh system - Autodesk Knowledge) lists some additional concerns when using virtualization:

- There is additional overhead in virtualizing the hardware, so performance on a VM will generally be reduced compared to running directly on the hardware.
- Revit requires an x86/x64 environment, so virtual machines which are emulating ARM based hardware would not be sufficient.
- M series processors are ARM based hardware, and a VM would need to support x86/x64 Windows for Revit to install/run.
- See the following policy document for information on Support for virtual installations.


According to the second and third bullet points, your Apple Silicon Mac will not be sufficient, even with Parallels, to run Revit.


You can show your support for an official version of Revit for Mac here, on their forum.

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about 3rd party softwares

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