Does it exist Navisworks for Mac?
Autodesk Navisworks Manage software is designed to view, control, and coordinate architecture projects from other CAD apps (for example from Autodesk Revit). Users admit that the program is easy to use and setup, and has a modern interface and decent technical support. Most frequently Navisworks is being used to view projects, identify the clashes and interference problems before the actual construction, rendering, and finalization. The program is officially available only for Windows users. Luckily, this is no longer unsolved trouble, read about a solution in the article below.
Why Navisworks doesn’t run on Mac?
There are several reasons why some apps don’t run on Mac. It may be an incompatibility with Mac or macOS version.
Also, MacOS Catalina and Big Sur don’t support 32-bit apps. Most apps developers design new, 64-bit versions of the apps but, despite it, there are still hundreds of apps that can only run on 32-bit Macs. In our case, the reason is that Navisworks native Macintosh version simply doesn’t exist. At present moment there is no information about the release date and the possibility that Navisworks will be available for Mac.
How to run Navisworks on Mac
The most popular solution for running Navisworks on Mac/MacBook is virtualization software. Despite the fact, that emulators usually use much of the resources of Mac, some of them, for example, Parallels, Virtualbox, or VMWare can help to run different programs on OS X with minimal losses in the performance of your machine. Moreover, some of them are compatible with Directx 11, which can help to run graphically demanding apps and games. Also, you can change desktops and copy any files between your Parallels program (Windows Desktop) and OS X freely. Both Student or architecture versions can be run easily.
Running Navisworks through Parallels
If you wish to run Navisworks on Mac, Parallels Desktop can be a solution. This is software for Windows virtualization on Mac with the full support of DirectX and GPUs. It allows you to install Windows 10 on Mac with a couple of clicks and switch between macOS and Windows instantly. You can run Windows just like on a regular PC and install Navisworks on your Mac/Macbook.
Running Navisworks though other virtual machines
Another popular software is VMware Fusion. It is a software hypervisor that allows running virtual machines like guest operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, NetWare, and Solaris. Fusion can drive heavy, GPU-intensive applications and games with top 3D graphics. Fusion now provides hardware-accelerated DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1 capabilities to virtual machines.
Also, the most well-known free alternative programs are VirtualBox, Wine, Proton, and QEMU, but you will be required advanced skills to run Navisworks by them.
Running Navisworks on remote server
If you have a powerful Windows-based server, and a wide-scale internet connection, another method is Navisworks running on Windows on a Server machine (in the cloud, or remote desktop) and looking at the screen from your Mac.
You can use TeamViewer, or other software for this purpose.
Running Navisworks on Windows 10 using Boot Camp
BootCamp allows users to choose the system to work in on startup, however, you won’t be able to switch between systems like in Parallels. Note, that you need no less than 64 GB on the hard disk of your device. We recommend having 128 GB of free space. After Windows installation completes, your Mac starts up in Windows and opens a ”Welcome to the Boot Camp installer” Window. You will need to reboot your machine every time you switch from Mac to Windows and vice versa. To set up Windows via BootCamp, please, do the following:
For OS X El Capitan 10.11 or later
Mention, that for MacOS versions prior to OS X El Capitan 10.11 you will need to create bootable Windows USB.
- Download Windows ISO file
- Open Boot Camp Assistant (Go to Applications > Utilities)
- Define the Windows partition size, choose downloaded Windows ISO file
- Format Windows partition and go through all Windows installation steps
- When Windows boots for the first time, follow on-screen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers)