Revit for new Apple M1 Macs

[Anonymous]

I use Revit in a virtual Windows machine on my mac. I'm thinking of replacing my MacBook with a new generation one, but because Apple has created their own M1 chips, its not possible to run virtual windows anymore. It's a pity, these new chips seem very powerful and efficient. 

When is Autodesk going to port Revit to the Mac platform? If this does not happen anytime soon, I'm afraid I and many other architects will have to find another BIM-solution

[Anonymous]

LOL stick with your teaching dude LOL

[Anonymous]

Stick with your teaching dude. How about that. LOL

[colourcaddy]

How about you try making a comment about the topic of this thread, instead of trying to insult me. Where I come from, you only get to become a lecturer after years of experience as an architect, so I have of course designed and documented many buildings throughout my career (and still do). I don't consider it an insult to be called a teacher btw, but you clearly meant it that way

[jon]

It's a shame these discussions get vitriolic, but I guess this just further confirms that Americans no longer know how to discuss anything controversial civilly.  I switched to Revit in 2001, when I opened my firm and ran it on PCs for ten years.  I had always scoffed at suggestions that I should buy a Mac, but when I suffered a spate of Windows crashes combined with two PC hard drive failures and an external backup drive failure within six months (combined almost simultaneously with Microsoft deciding to stop providing Windows drivers for my aging-but-still-working plotter), I decided to take the plunge and try a Mac.  I bought that machine in 2011, and it still runs.  Mind you, it isn't as fast as it was, and I doubt there's much more useful life in it, but still.  I haven't bought a PC since, and I hope never to have to again.  Sure PCs are cheaper, but I spent more than enough money and time replacing them after crashes to make up the difference in price.  I run Windows in Parallels so that I can run Revit, but I would dearly love to be Windows free.  In my experience, Windows works great until it doesn't.  To borrow a structural metaphor, Windows tends to suffer brittle failure, where the Mac OS is ductile.  Both the software and the hardware on the Mac side are far more well-crafted than their PC equivalents, and in my experience Mac-based tech support is also vastly superior.  I have been begging Autodesk to write a Mac-native version of Revit for many years now, but to no avail.  At this point, I am too dependent on Revit to seriously consider switching software, so if it becomes impossible to run Revit on a Mac, I guess I'll have to buy another PC.  But just for the record, my choice of Mac over PC is a rational one based on twenty years' experience with Revit on both PCs and Macs, and not just the result of a fanboy crush.

[RobDraw]

I think you're barking up the wrong tree. Us "fan boys" choose our hardware and OS according to what the software requires. It just doesn't make sense to do anything but that.

[Anonymous]

... was following the chain of messages. It’s been some time now, has there been any update - has Autodesk considered/ made a way for Revit to run on the MacBook M1 chip with Parallels? 

[RobDraw]

You're not going to find any information here that's not already publicly available through a web search. Autodesk employees are on an NDA. Personally, I would be looking for possibilities of next gen programs having versions for alternative operating systems. If that's going to happen, then Autodesk may be pressured to come up with something.

[colourcaddy]

Nice to hear you've got Revit running well via Parallels. I've seen many others do the same with Intel-based Mac Book Pros and wouldn't deny that Apple make good quality hardware. I've owned many Apple computers and other products over the years and learned to program on an Apple IIe, so I don't dislike their products in general.

Intel-based Macs might not be quite as fast running Revit as a PC, but they're still a valid choice if you're looking for reliable, long-lasting hardware and/or want MacOS for other purposes. I personally now prefer PCs overall because I find the MacOS interface make it difficult to be productive (and have always found Unix based OSs rather tedious) and have found that Windows gives far greater options for software, hardware and 3D graphics, and if you are prepared to spend the money (laptops) or spend time building the right rig (desktops) you can have something even more reliable and durable than a Mac. That's just me and I can fully understand why people used to go with Intel-based Macs for Revit, although I must say that it's usually been either the more tech-savy or at least Apple commited who've been successful and the novices often stuggle with the many complications getting Windows to run on MacOS (I spend ten times as long sorting out problems with my students runnign Revit on Macs as on Windows, and only a small fraction use Macs).

My comments have mostly been in relation to the apprioiateness of the M1 architecture (and to a lesser extent the MacOS) for software like Revit, which is obviously a 3D graphical program and also doesn't run natively on MacOS. Intel-based Macs to me were just well-built PCs forced to run the MacOS. The new M1 Macs are a different story, and it really is experimental territory trying to get Revit or any 3D graphical progam to work with this new architecture. The very nature of ARM and SoC would seem to preclude high performance 3D graphics, but you never know with their next generation of processors Apple might pull another rabbit out of their hat (because the M1 is pretty impressive in most respects except 3D preformance) and come up with a way of making this architecture competetive with x86 architecture with dedicated gaphics. If Apple's new processor architecture (along with Metal on MacOS) does become competitive with x86 Windows in the 3D graphics workspace, that might give Autodesk some incentive to bring out versions of their software for ARM, but until that happens, PCs  remain the recommended option for Revit

[Anonymous]

You'll have to bootcamp your Mac instead of run a virtual machine if you really want to use Revit or Autocad. Look up a tutorial online.

[jon]

Thanks very much for those thoughts.  I can certainly understand sticking with PCs given the experiences you've had.  I can well imagine that it would be a huge headache having to work through students' Mac-related Revit woes.  And it sounds as though you're probably more tech-savvy in a hands-on way than I am.  It does seem that for people with more thorough computer skills, and especially those who can build their own machines, PCs are the preferred platform. I've used these things for a long time, but I'm not skilled when it comes to troubleshooting either hardware or software.  Also, my brain tends to explode when one of my machines craps out, so trading some processing power (and extra money) for machines and operating systems that let me down gently is worth it.  But while I'm currently firmly in the Mac camp, I try to keep an open mind about all of this.  When it sounded like M1 Macs might be able to run Revit on their own, I was excited.  Sounds now like that's probably wishful thinking.

[Anonymous]

Parallels just anounced their app now works on M1 Macs. If Revit used to work on Intel Mac with Parallels it should work now.

[Anonymous]

Revit (thus far) is Intel only. The newly announced version of Parallels for the M1 chip does not emulate x86 code, and does not run x86 based OSes when run on Apple’s M1 chip. It WILL run WindowsOnArm, which has a well developed x86 emulation, but a still-in-development x64 emulation.  Unless one is using RevitLT, x64 is required. It’s now officially in the hands of Microsoft to develop WindowsOnArm’s x64 emulation to the robustness required for Revit.

If Microsoft were astute, they would announce WindowsOnArm to Parallels for official/sanctioned use in their Workstation for M1 product, while developing a very robust x64 emulation.

[HVAC-Novice]

Why not take the PC vs. Mac discussion to a computer forum? This is a forum for users on how to use the software. 

If Autodesk decides to create a Mac version, use it. Or try some of the emulation solutions. If they don't , nothing you can do about by discussing this here. Maximum you can do here is to put it in the ideas forum. 

Usually a user or a company selects a software, then they buy hardware and OS based on the specs of the software manufacturer. Autodesk selected to offer the product for a platform that is used on 95% of the market? So they selected well from a business point.

I find it odd that some people use a platform that is not supported, that is used by only 5% of the users, and then go to the software manufacturer and demand they change their ways for them and invest a LOT of resources to cater to them.  This isn't Starbucks where you can design your own drink. 

[Anonymous]

Can’t see your problem. Carry on, it’s not your forum.  🤷‍

[Anonymous]

Well, I've got some good news for you. I attempted an installation of
Autocad 2020 on my M1 Macbook Pro and it was a great success. If you'd
like, try installing Revit or Autocad onto your M1 or try an earlier
version. Perhaps not all of the features work perfectly, but so far it's
working exactly as it should.

[Anonymous]

Thank you rpgarch & craiggorsuch!

[Anonymous]

Great, thank you!

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I wouldn’t mind use revit lt if it works 🙂

[Anonymous]

I use Vectorworks since 2000. It’s a very good application for the money but now that Revit has gained quite some track everybody is jumping into that bandwagon, so in order to be competitive one has to be open to the possibility of using it. The good thing is that the concepts are basically the same.

[colourcaddy]

Was that AutoCAD for Mac?  This is a forum for Revit on M1 Macs so you should be trying to install Revit. I've seen quite a few with M1 Mac Book Pros who couldn't install Revit (or boot camp for that matter)