{"id":457523,"date":"2024-08-06T16:31:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T14:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bim-me-up.com\/?p=457523"},"modified":"2024-08-06T16:31:04","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T14:31:04","slug":"revit-on-the-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bim-me-up.com\/en\/revit-on-the-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"Revit on the Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since I've been traveling a bit more again, you've noticed that I've been working on a Mac for more than 3.5 years. Even longer in my private life - but since then, my only work computer has also been a Mac. As I use Revit a lot, I often get the question: how do you actually do that? In this blog post, I'd like to share my experiences and tell you what to look out for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are basically two types of Macs: the older models with the Intel CPU and the newer models with the Apple Silicon chip (currently M1 - M3). Since Revit absolutely needs a Windows environment, we have the following options: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Virtual machine with Parallels<\/a> (my recommendation!) <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Bootcamp on the Intel Macs (allows you to choose between MacOS and Windows every time you boot up, I personally have never used it and would not recommend it - better buy a good Windows PC!) <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    To Bootcamp<\/a> you can find detailed instructions on the Apple homepage, in this article I would like to go into more detail about my configuration with Parallels, with which I have had very good experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Revit in Parallels<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Parallels is a virtualization software with which Windows can be started directly in MacOS - but also means that MacOS and Windows share the resources in this case. How the sharing takes place can be regulated yourself and I would actually always recommend this first after installation, as the default settings are very minimal and do not make Revit happy. These are my current settings, with which I have had good experiences so far on my MacBook Pro with M3 Pro and 36 GB RAM: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    I worked on a MacBook Pro with Intel i9 and 64 GB RAM for over 3 years, which worked really well - even if the fan was actually running almost constantly as soon as I had Revit open. However, I would no longer recommend this configuration - the new Apple Silicon Macs are simply much more powerful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I've been working on the MacBook Pro with the Silicon chip for a few months now - the big difference here is the CPU architecture: Intel i9 is based on the x64 architecture, which is natively supported by Windows, while the Silicon chips are based on the ARM architecture. Apple achieves much higher performance with much lower power consumption with ARM processors - however, the ARM processors were initially not well supported by Windows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I ran a few tests shortly after the release of the first M1 Pro Macbook in 2021 and was very disappointed because Revit kept crashing - however, both Parallels and Microsoft have made great progress in the meantime. The list of hardware recommended by Autodesk also includes Parallels in combination with Apple Silicon, at least since Revit 2025: https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/support\/technical\/article\/caas\/sfdcarticles\/sfdcarticles\/System-requirements-for-Revit-2025-products.html<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My personal recommendation: Virtualization only makes sense if you keep Windows \"lean\" and only need Windows software occasionally. For example, I only start Windows when I need Autodesk products - but use Microsoft Office and everything else under MacOS. As a result, I have full performance under MacOS most of the time and my Windows starts very quickly when needed. Parallels is now also very good at putting Windows into sleep mode when it's not currently being used. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


    So if you only need Windows software for 2-3 hours a day and otherwise feel at home with MacOS, then it's definitely a good solution! However, I don't think that someone who works on large projects in Revit for 8 hours a day will be happy on a Mac - in this case, a good Windows PC simply makes more sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n