A report from Desktop Engineering does indeed seem to indicate that SolidWorks Corporation is working on not just cloud computing based Mac support but a native SolidWorks for Apple’s popular Mac platform. We first reported on the possibility of this early this year in this report. This news was brought to us by Architosh reader Tom Fenn.
SolidWorks Community Cheers Loudly About Mac
Desktop Engineering reports that the 5000 plus attendees cheered loudly when SolidWorks CEO, Jeff Ray announced support for the Mac. “Clearly he hit a nerve,” writes Desktop Engineering‘s Kenneth Wong. “The spontaneous applause that erupted in the audience was louder and longer than the initial one he received when he first walked in.”
Later this year SolidWorks Corporation will release a new cloud-based computing solution for SolidWorks customers. “A web-hosted CAD modeler is bound to be accessible to both Windows and Mac users,” writes Wong, “but addressing the demand for a Mac-compatible CAD in such a fashion may not fully satisify dedicated Mac fans, because this approach doesn’t take advantage of Apple’s hardware and OS.”
Solidworks World showed Mac and multi-platform Cloud future for SolidWorks. (image courtesy of Desktop Engineering)
The mandate to push for future technologies and compute models was delivered to SolidWorks research and development (R&D) three years ago by Jeff Ray. Now the first fruits of that multi-year effort are being delivered later this year. It is not clear yet when a native SolidWorks for the Mac will be ready, but based on the feedback in applause to Jeff Ray’s news it should be readily apparent that the demand for this is out there. And now that this news is out, what will Autodesk’s response be? Will the CAD giant and chief SolidWorks rival sit back or will they respond with Mac versions also?
To read the Desktop Engineering article go here. There’s a few pictures too.
Reader Comments
Sure, don’t hold your breath! Many of us SW users have asked for a Mac version since the turn of this century. I have been running SW in bootcamp windoze on my MacBook Pro for a half year. At the same time I bought Siemens NX 6 to run on it without windoze. There is still SW work I have to do so I can’t get away from it. Today I asked for help because SW would not start after I removed and reinstalled it. Here is what SolidWorks told my VAR:
“the bottomline is that we do not support SolidWorks running on a MAC regardless of whether or not they are running bootcamp. There is no way for us to troubleshoot this type of problem.
If the customer runs into the problem on a Windows system I will be happy to reopen it and take a look.”
I say the MacBookPro with Intel chip and Invidia graphics card IS a “Windows system” and they should support it. I have a very nice Dell PC workstation and SW/windoze is an absolute mess on that. My productivity is really falling so the sooner I can get windoze out of my life, the better. If SW comes out native on OSX, I’ll get it.
Sure, don’t hold your breath! Many of us SW users have asked for a Mac version since the turn of this century. I have been running SW in bootcamp windoze on my MacBook Pro for a half year. At the same time I bought Siemens NX 6 to run on it without windoze. There is still SW work I have to do so I can’t get away from it. Today I asked for help because SW would not start after I removed and reinstalled it. Here is what SolidWorks told my VAR:
“the bottomline is that we do not support SolidWorks running on a MAC regardless of whether or not they are running bootcamp. There is no way for us to troubleshoot this type of problem.
If the customer runs into the problem on a Windows system I will be happy to reopen it and take a look.”
I say the MacBookPro with Intel chip and Invidia graphics card IS a “Windows system” and they should support it. I have a very nice Dell PC workstation and SW/windoze is an absolute mess on that. My productivity is really falling so the sooner I can get windoze out of my life, the better. If SW comes out native on OSX, I’ll get it.
Nolton,
Other readers can certainly relate to your pain when you talk about “windoze” as you put it. We don’t hold our breath here at Architosh. That’s not our job. Our job is to report on matters such as this so that readers have information from which to become further informed. Sometimes this information must be “dug up” or investigated. Most often it comes straight form the horse’s mouth. This isn’t national politics or celebrity gossip. The CAD world is much more mundane. But it is still worth millions.
We can’t speak for other company’s plans unless they let us quote them. Or they let someone else quote them and then we quote those people. We handle that with professional care every week year after year.
If we want to talk about rumors….well, yes, there have been about SolidWorks on Mac for a very long time now. In fact, they kind of correspond to what Kenneth Wong wrote about Ray’s mandate to his R&D team…in terms of time. Rumors of course only take you so far. Yet millions of dollars are traded every day in the markets based on rumors. Rumors are a “type” of information. But its actionable information and people make decisions based on it every day.
Again, we don’t hold our breath. Our job at Architosh is to report on “all kinds” of information so readers (not us) can decide to hold or not hold their breath. Please let us know how we are doing. Thanks.
[…] donosi serwis Architosh (zajmujący się – jak pewnie się domyślacie – tematyką CAD i 3D na Maku), Jeff Ray […]
[…] Durante uma feira dedicada a usuários do aplicativo SolidWorks, desenvolvido pela empresa de mesmo nome e dedicado a desenhos técnicos de engenharia e arquitetura tipo CAD, o CEO da empresa, Jeff Ray, animou os mais de cinco mil presentes ao revelar os planos da empresa em lançar uma versão do software para a plataforma Mac. […]
SolidWorks Corporation is indeed working on a native Mac version of their namesake flagship software…..
Я считаю, что Вы ошибаетесь. Пишите мне в PM, обсудим….
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