Autodesk revit on m1 Mac through parallels

[taldo]

Hi all,

My wife is an architect and uses Autodesk Revit (a Windows only app) for work.
moreover, Revit doesn’t work on Windows Arm versions...

The thing is, I saw some online videos of people running x86 versions of some apps through parallels (or at least that’s what I understood from those videos...) on M1 Macs, specifically the Revit crashed but it was a few months ago since the specific video I saw was uploaded,

anyone knows if there is a way to run the x86 versions of apps? Does anyone know specifically about Revit..?

regards,
Tal

 

[IceStormNG]

Revit (as most CAD-like softwares) is pretty GPU heavy. Even if you could emulate it in a VM, it will perform poorly. It would even perform poorly in a regular x86_64 Windows VM on an Intel Mac.

For those type of Applications, better use a native Windows install. That's not possible now on an M1 mac and even if it would be, only as ARM, not x86.

Autodesk will be one of the last companies to move to ARM. Mac users are just a niche to them. Most of their software is Windows only and most (high paying) customers use beefy workstations with big GPUs and not a tiny laptop.

If Revit is an important application to run, better run it natively on x86_64 Windows and not inside some VM or emulator.

 

[Slartibart]

Autodesk will be one of the last companies to move to ARM.

AutoDesk has quite some experience for bringing part of their software to ARM. They doing it for years now. But I agree - best option to run Revit at the moment is an Intel machine.

 

[taldo]

Thanks for the reply,

regarding the performance,
My wife currently works on small scale projects and use an Intel based mac with Parallels and it does the job for her (of course an expensive workstation with a discrete GPU would perform better but that’s not the question...)
It’s for small side projects and not her main work that she does by connecting remotely to a workstation...

does anyone know if it’s possible running x86 apps on Windows through parallels..? Specifically Revit..?

 

[xraydoc]

does anyone know if it’s possible running x86 apps on Windows through parallels..?

Some x86 apps will run on Windows for ARM (via emulation mode). Some will not. It might be better to ask Autodesk tech support directly if Revit will run on ARM-based machines (like the Surface Pro X).

 

[xraydoc]

moreover, Revit doesn’t work on Windows Arm versions...

Wait... you just answered your own question.

Parallels on M-series Macs runs the ARM version of Windows. The ARM version of Windows will run many x86 apps, but not all of them. If an app doesn't work on a "real" Windows ARM machine, it won't work on an ARM Mac running Parallels.

 

[taldo]

Wait... you just answered your own question.

Parallels on M-series Macs runs the ARM version of Windows. The ARM version of Windows will run many x86 apps, but not all of them. If an app doesn't work on a "real" Windows ARM machine, it won't work on an ARM Mac running Parallels.

That’s basically what i didn’t understand - how can the Windows ARM version run x86 apps...
Is there a known emulator of some sort that support running x86 apps from an ARM based windows?..

i guess it’s more of an app support and less an emulator thing, but still wandering if anyone knows about this mystery emulator...

 

[CMMChris]

@taldo Windows 10 ARM has something similar to Rosetta on macOS to run x86 Apps. It isn't as fast as Rosetta though because it is based on JIT (Just In Time) translation while Apple's Rosetta uses a mix of AOT (Ahead Of Time) and JIT translation.

 

[xraydoc]

That’s basically what i didn’t understand - how can the Windows ARM version run x86 apps...
Is there a known emulator of some sort that support running x86 apps from an ARM based windows?..

i guess it’s more of an app support and less an emulator thing, but still wandering if anyone knows about this mystery emulator...

Windows for ARM has an x86 emulator that works with "most" 32-bit software (and was recently updated to support some 64-bit code), but it has it's limits. It's not really a mystery -- it's well documented in Microsoft's knowledgebase if you feel like digging into the details.

As posted above, it's an emulation layer, not a translation layer like Apple's Rosetta 2, so it's not particularly fast, but should be serviceable for most basic office-style applications. More than likely, Revit, which admittedly I know nothing about, uses 64-bit code or complex driver-specific graphics code, so there's a low likelihood of it working. Perhaps there will be further updates to Windows on ARM to improve compatibility with 64-bit software. But as it's a work in progress, I wouldn't count on it for mission-critical software.

 

[jdb8167]

As posted above, it's an emulation layer, not a translation layer like Apple's Rosetta 2, so it's not particularly fast, but should be serviceable for most basic office-style applications. More than likely, Revit, which admittedly I know nothing about, uses 64-bit code or complex driver-specific graphics code, so there's a low likelihood of it working. Perhaps there will be further updates to Windows on ARM to improve compatibility with 64-bit software. But as it's a work in progress, I wouldn't count on it for mission-critical software.

I don't believe that is true. It is a transpiler like Rosetta 2 with the main difference that it doesn't convert the binary Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) but only Just-In-Time (JIT). Rosetta 2 does both depending on the situation. I believe the reason for the difference is that 32-bit x86 has to support self-modifying code where x86-64 (AMD64) does not.

Some detail on 32-bit x86 from Microsoft:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/apps-on-arm-x86-emulation

The WOW64 layer of Windows 10 allows x86 code to run on the ARM64 version of Windows 10. x86 emulation works by compiling blocks of x86 instructions into ARM64 instructions with optimizations to improve performance. A service caches these translated blocks of code to reduce the overhead of instruction translation and allow for optimization when the code runs again. The caches are produced for each module so that other apps can make use of them on first launch.

I didn't look for any details on AMD64 but I assume it is similar.

 

[taldo]

Thanks a lot, this really clarifies the issue.

regarding the usage of Revit - yes, Revit is a pretty demanding software in terms of graphics and probably won’t work good enough in this translation...
I guess we’ll either wait for official support of Revit to ARM or just use a windows PC.

 

[michalm]

One of the option is also application remoting. Usually this is setup by the employer/company and would be solutions like Citrix/RDS/... One can set it up at home, but it requires a degree of technical expertise. it really would only be worth it if it is an edge use case, something like <30 min/day on average.

 

[Slartibart]

I guess we’ll either wait for official support of Revit to ARM or just use a windows PC.

considering that on the AutoDesk macuser discussion list there are people asking for this since about 2016... 🥸

 

[Spikeee]

As an employee of an Autodesk reseller , and a recent convert to M1 Macs, I am doing everything I can to get this issue resolved. I am on the insider track for windows arm and update at every opportunity. Last version gave multiple compatibility options for apps to be run , tried them all - all failed. So as usual I went into feedback hub and recorded the issue and reported it. Also reported it via the crash to Autodesk.
I urge everyone who wants Revit working on m1 , windows arm to do the same. Comparing to a football (not soccer) analogy of the premier league top 6 annoucing they are going to a European Super League on Sunday and then tonight 2 of the 6 backing out (what a debacle), people power counts !
Just waiting on Liverpool use openers to see the light and follow Chelsea and Man City and see the light too .
Football for the people !!
M1 Macs for all, including Revit users !!

Bit disappointed no M1X MacBook Pro 16" today. would've snapped that up in a heartbeat.

 

[xraydoc]

I don't believe that is true. It is a transpiler like Rosetta 2 with the main difference that it doesn't convert the binary Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) but only Just-In-Time (JIT). Rosetta 2 does both depending on the situation. I believe the reason for the difference is that 32-bit x86 has to support self-modifying code where x86-64 (AMD64) does not.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[jdb8167]

Thanks for the correction.

From all accounts, it isn't close to Rosetta 2 in performance unfortunately. I don't know why except Microsoft ...

 

[08380728]

AutoDesk is an M$ shop, they have no interest in anything but Windows.
Do your wife a favour, give up your pride and relent, just build a PC for her with a Ryzen 9 5950x and a RTX3090, anything else is a square peg in a round hole scenario.

 

[taldo]

As an employee of an Autodesk reseller , and a recent convert to M1 Macs, I am doing everything I can to get this issue resolved. I am on the insider track for windows arm and update at every opportunity. Last version gave multiple compatibility options for apps to be run , tried them all - all failed. So as usual I went into feedback hub and recorded the issue and reported it. Also reported it via the crash to Autodesk.
I urge everyone who wants Revit working on m1 , windows arm to do the same. Comparing to a football (not soccer) analogy of the premier league top 6 annoucing they are going to a European Super League on Sunday and then tonight 2 of the 6 backing out (what a debacle), people power counts !
Just waiting on Liverpool use openers to see the light and follow Chelsea and Man City and see the light too .
Football for the people !!
M1 Macs for all, including Revit users !!

Bit disappointed no M1X MacBook Pro 16" today. would've snapped that up in a heartbeat.

Is there any change?..
I saw a youtube video of a guy claiming that the new windows 11 (and windows 10 insider versions..) let you run Autodesk revit 2021/2022,
Can anyone here confirm this?

 

[Spikeee]

Revit does now work on Windows 10 /windows 11arm version under parallels on my MacBook Air.
It needed Microsoft to improve the x86 emulation and which they did and it works.
Not particularly quick on my machine with only 8gb to share between Mac OS , windows and Revit so my next MacBook Pro will have 32Gb. Also can't use Enscape in it.

I did a video and posted it to LinkedIn

Jason Isherwood on LinkedIn: #revit #applem1 #parallels | 24 comments

Revit on Apple Silicon M1 ? I love my M1 MacBook Air, performance and battery life are amazing but as my main app Revit is windows only I still have to have… | 24 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

Any questions, come back to me - happy to help.

 

[o’bluetouring]

Revit does now work on Windows 10 /windows 11arm version under parallels on my MacBook Air.
It needed Microsoft to improve the x86 emulation and which they did and it works.
Not particularly quick on my machine with only 8gb to share between Mac OS , windows and Revit so my next MacBook Pro will have 32Gb. Also can't use Enscape in it.

I did a video and posted it to LinkedIn

Jason Isherwood on LinkedIn: #revit #applem1 #parallels | 24 comments

Revit on Apple Silicon M1 ? I love my M1 MacBook Air, performance and battery life are amazing but as my main app Revit is windows only I still have to have… | 24 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

Any questions, come back to me - happy to help.

Glad to see it’s working. I’m not a heavy Revit user yet but I do want to run AutoCAD 2020 on the new MBP when I get it. It’s been running smooth on my 2014 15” MBP with 16gb ram and dedicated graphic on an external 34” monitor.

 

[msarchitect]

Thanks, Spikeee

Do the following work on the M1 through parallels & windows arm?
1. autodesk desktop connector
2. dynamo

 

[o’bluetouring]

I have a question for Revit users. I’m not an user yet (still working mainly in AutoCAD) but I did install Revit 2020 through Parallels on my new MBP 14 with M1 Pro 10C/16C/16GB. I just want to test it out and it does launch the software, and I also tried rendering the sample architectural project that came with 2020. It took about 1hr 46 mins to render the project in highest quality setting. Is that considering good or bad?

This was done under Parallels with Win11 ARM version, and I assigned 6 cores and 12Gb ram to the VM.

 

[helena_sulakova]

Hello, please, can anyone who was successfull installing Revit through Parallels on M1 Mac can give me an advice how to install it?
I have MacBookPro with M1, Parallels 17 with Windows 11, an while installing Revit, it gives me error/mistake.
It says: ,,Downloading file contains more files. One file is missing or it haven't been downladed yet."

Thanks for any advice!

 

[chrfr]

Hello, please, can anyone who was successfull installing Revit through Parallels on M1 Mac can give me an advice how to install it?
I have MacBookPro with M1, Parallels 17 with Windows 11, an while installing Revit, it gives me error/mistake.
It says: ,,Downloading file contains more files. One file is missing or it haven't been downladed yet."

Thanks for any advice!

View attachment 1927618

This isn't related to running on a Mac. The Revit installer is multiple parts and you must download all of them from Autodesk.