SolidWorks on Mac: CEO Speaks Out. You Have Your Say. {Poll}

by Josh on April 20, 2009 · Comments

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I’m sure of it. Your ankles are swelling with excitiment at the thought. SolidWorks on a Mac? Is this another post teasing of the possibility? Totally. Yes. But this time, you get to find out a little more about what’s going on in the mind of SolidWorks. Particularly, it’s CEO, Jeff Ray, courtesy of a fine, distinguished writer, Kenneth Wong.

You’ve seen how to run SolidWorks on a Mac here, porting it through bootcamp and doing a softmod to get RealView on a MacBookPro, but what if you could run it native… on a Mac?

Recently, Kenneth asked Jeff Ray about putting SolidWorks on a Mac. Here’s what he had to say…

Kenneth Wong: What is the possibility of SolidWorks on Mac?
Jef Ray: For us to play in the Mac space, we have to be every bit as committed to that platform as we have been to Windows. Given the hundreds of developers we have working on Windows, we can’t just go to them and say, ‘Starting tomorrow, you’ll start working on Mac.’ It would be an offense to our subscription customers, who are paying us and trusting that we’re spending their money on what’s important to them. We’ve always been market-driven. When the market votes to do engineering design on Mac, we’ll be there. So far, the market hasn’t voted that way.That doesn’t mean it won’t change — I’m sure the day will come when we port [SolidWorks] to [Mac]. But that day isn’t today.”

– _{Read the rest of the interview at Kenneth Wong’s Virtual Desktop}

The debate
The SolidWorks Mac debate has been rearing it’s vicious head for years. A SolidWorks for Mac OS X petition was started in 1999 that currently has 4,530 signatures. While some may see it all as a tiny, annoying beasty, others base their entire professional existence on being able to produce 3D via a Mac.

Why the interest?
I think the web, as a venue, is making the desire more evident… that and let’s say, the incredible popularity of the Mac platform, that iPhone thing and everything people love about the ’simplicity’ in an OS. You’ll also notice a lot of the interest coming from Industrial Designers… ID’ers that use Macs… ID’ers using SolidWorks to design a product. Why do you as a product designer care if it’s on Mac or a PC?

What’s your concern?
SolidWorks has their concerns. But what are yours as people that us SolidWorks on a PC or want SolidWorks on a Mac? I know I couldn’t possibly capture everyone in this poll, so add some if you like…

{democracy:8}

(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Comments

Tagged as: apple, mac, macbookpro, solidworks, solidworks mac

MatthewWest

For anyone interested, there's more on this from Shaun Murphy at Al Dean's MacDesign blog.

http://mac.develop3d.com/2009/04/solidworks-os-...

Matthew West / SolidWorks

Josh M

Thanks Matt. I didn't even know D3D had gone live with that part of the site yet. dang. catching up now :)

What Shaun says sounds like the same thing I've heard from multiple SolidWorks people... sorta boilerplate - "We continually monitor our customer base to gauge the level of Mac usage and at the present time there is no pressing need."

Makes complete sense from software development, but I can't help but think that SolidWorks doesn't want to capture those users.

Matt Lombard

I totally agree with Mr. Ray on this one. But there's nothing new here. This is the same answer that McEleney gave a couple of years ago, and probably the same as Mr. H. http://www.dezignstuff.com/blog/?p=62

As users we make so many contradictory demands of SW, and don't really think the consequences through. Putting SW on Mac will be BAD for EVERYONE, including Mac users, because quality and other development would both drop off the map immediately. Not to mention that they would rework the interface yet again.

Give it a couple of years and it might make sense.

Bradley Grzesiak

Psst... It's not "OS" but "OS X". And I would absolutely love an OS X version. The problem with Jeff Ray's statement "the market hasn’t voted that way" is that it's a chicken and egg problem. Without a Mac-compatible SolidWorks (or AutoCAD or Pro/E...) version, there will never even be a way for the market to vote that way.

Josh M

got it Bradley, thanks. True statement, there's only been one choice so it's not really been a vote. It would be nice to see a comparison of Adobe products PC vs OS X - Seems the majority would still be on PC, but it would be a good look at what users prefer in a sample segment when they have the choice between the two.

Anyway, first steps first. It was pointed out to me by a very wise person that effort toward getting support for Parellels or Bootcamp may be better served. ya know, move toward the direction of Mac support. I think that would be the best idea for everyone interested.

Don

Most people don't understand that Solidworks utilizes code that they haven't directly written for the software. Code doesn't happen overnight and it requires huge resources to do so. An anology for engineers is asking them to take all their purchased compoents and make the components yourself...(Does this make sense as a buisness?) And if they haven't started yet what is really the point in doing so now? Windows isn't perfect but the performance and quality is getting better and better. Performance gains by switching to Macs is also narrowing every year that goes by. Also, with Win 7 on the horizon, and the great reviews thus far, why switch when it's continously getting better? Doesn't make much buisness sense to me.

Don

adam

well the code is available on OS X, Siemens NX is ported on Mac that's the proof for you...All the have to do is to get rid off Ribbon UI which sucks any way.
Thanks for the post is good to Know their views...So the way to go for as is NX sorry. Bye Bye.

Kenneth

Thanks for referencing my blog post. I find the poll results here fascinating. 17% registers PC-Mac version compatibility as their primary concern. Coincidentally, I cast my vote for the same issue. Let's keep this discussion alive. This one matters!

nea

I consider myself completely uninterested in a Mac version. What for? To pay twice for worse (but nice lookin') hardware with no real options for pro g-cards? Rather I would like to see SolidWorks with a choice of OpenGL and DirectX support to run it on todays cheaper, but extremely powerfull gaming cards.

Bruce Buck

My main motivation for switching over would be whether I have NATIVE support for the programs that I use the most, namely, Adobe products. Having an arsenal that's mixed, and the fact that Adobe products as well as almost every other design software, are available for PC, and the fact that I build my own computers, and therefore understand hardware a bit more than maybe Joe Schmoe, all keep me feeling like my best bang for my buck (no pun intended) is still going to be PC.

Plus, like others have mentioned, the fact that Windows 7 is on the horizon, and so far there's been some good feedback coming out in regards to its performance.

btitus

Non-mainstream (MAC / Linux) users have been arguing cross platform capability for years. Let's face it WINDOWS is and will continue to be the main business OS platform for engineering. Developing SolidWorks on ANY OTHER PLATFORM would be foolish.

Dave Moore

Windows is the main platform right now. Historically UNIX has been the most prevalent OS for engineering applications. It's only been in the last ten years that we've seen high end CAD applications on Windows. Solidworks has the advantage, if you can call it that, of starting on Windows. CATIA, ProE, NX, etc. all started on UNIX and it shows.

If Microsoft continues to keep putting out a bloated product which requires better and better hardware just to run the OS I think you'll see more people moving to alternatives. Apple isn't blameless in that respect. Their last two OS releases added some cool features, but I wish you could shut them off without having to use a backdoor. I'm hoping Snow Leopard is more of an optimize and cleanup and less of a let's add more eye candy release.

Josh M

Hey Dave, good point about UNIX. If I had to get the software myself, I'd most likely be using something like Rhino or Modo, and go with Mac.

btitus

I agree. MAINSTREAM doesn't always mean BEST.
(i.e. Blue-Ray vs HD-DVD, VHS vs BetaMax, Word vs Wordperfect, etc..).

CAD (and other) vendors just have to live with (and give in to) what the public wants.

Dave Moore

IMO this is one of those "If you build it they will come" scenarios. If SW were to let a Mac version out of the box that was fully compatible with the Windows version I think it would be a great success. Not immediately, but if SW is willing to stay the course I think it would pay off in the long run.

The biggest complexity would probably be how to divorce the functional code of SW from the Windows GUI and use it cross platform. I'm not much of a code monkey, but this is what I foresee:

Mac GUI (Cocoa)
|
SW back-end (C++ ?) -- Parasolid Kernel (Available for OS X & Windows)
|
Windows GUI (.NET)

If SW does proceed with a Mac version I hope they do it right. If they port the GUI straight and don't follow Apples UI guidelines I'll strangle someone.

Robin

I'm reading this on a 2007 MacBook Pro but still vote for the PC version, based on the fact they would have trouble supporting two versions - and I have an example: Microsoft Office for Windows is quite a bit better executed that the OS X version and runs faster. How much faster? Well I run Parallels 4 on this Mac and Word, Excel or PP 2003 boot three times faster than OS X Office, ON THE MAC! I also run Solidworks on Parallels and it runs fine, though without RealView. SW is such elegant software and so nice to use compared to everything else I use on either platform; it would be a risk to make a big effort on an OS X version. Anyway, SW is so expensive to buy and subscribe to that it's not a relatively huge added expense to buy a standalone PC to run it on.

Josh M

All good points Robin. They would have to form a whole of group for Mac development I'm sure, more than doubling expense I'm sure. Best would be to get support for Parallels or Bootcamp.

by the way, you can softmod your video card to get RealView. search softmod on the site.

KD

My motivation, and my only real motivation is stability! And yes, Solidworks or Inventor on a Mac would be very successful. Think about it. SW's was successful in the first because it was a cheap version of Pro E. Now that companies have been using it for years (like us) they are realizing that the PC problems of stability are extremely costly, so SW on a Mac would be a "Cheap version of Pro E on a Unix Box", plus you'd get significantly more compatibility and usefulness from all the desktop publishing tools that most companies are already using in their Marketing departments. I'm not looking to get rid of our PC's, just to use them only for reading e-mails and using MS Office so it just needs to be a low-cost PC. My Engineer's second monitor will be dedicated to their Mac for Engineering. Again, a low-cost version of Pro E on a Unix box!! if my Engineers use it for more than CAD then great, but no more is needed to save my department thousands is slow re-generations, crashing, network drop-outs etc, etc, etc. What Engineering department wouldn't love that? No, this would be very useful and successful, but I think there's more to it than that.......

dw

Solidworks will suffer if it does not move to the Mac. Look how long it took people in the US to believe American cars sucked and that they were doomed. Same with the PC. It sucks and it will die soon.

Josh M

some would probably say it already is suffering. but anyway, do you use other 3D programs on the Mac?

Greg

I'm going to have to call "B-S!" on Mr. Wong there. For those of you who use Bunkspeed/Hypershot, you'll note that on the Mac Version, it will not let you import SW files, which is odd because on the PC version you can. I asked our rep from HS what's the deal with that, seeing as how I'd like to render on my Mac using the HS program. He told me SW will no let them write the link within their own program. This goes beyond not supporting Mac, into outright prejudice towards Mac OS. Someone over there has stocks in Microsoft or is totally in bed with them. I'm looking forward to someone writing a good 3D program soon for MAC. I'm done with SW. Losers!

Roger Dahlberg

I run Solidworks on a Mac because past long term experience on PCs showed windows etc to be unstable and archaic compared to a Mac. Despite still having to run windows on a Mac, it is still vastly superior. Why do most photographers, graphic artist and designers prefer Macs. Those who don't are wearing blinkers or never tried a Mac.