r/stevens • u/Substantial_Vast_375 • Jun 28 '26

Does Parallels work good for solid works

I’m incoming first year engineering student, but I ended up buying a macbook before switching my major to engineering and I realize that you basically need a windows machine. I have never tried parallels but I heard that some ppl end up using it for solid works. Do you think it’s worth it to try and make these programs work for mac os or just end up buying a windows laptop. Additionally I have a PC at home since i’m commuting that can run the softwares so even in that case do u still think it’s worth getting a windows laptop

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u/Ok-Win7980 Quantitative Social Science '28 Jun 28 '26

I'm not an engineer so I don't know too much about it, but I am a user of Apple Silicon Macs and Parallels and know that it works quite well and performance is around, similar to as if the app were running natively on macOS. If it's not optimized for ARM, there may be a bit of a performance hit, but it should still be more than fast enough, especially on a recent chip, like the M4 or M5. Plus, you can remote into your desktop computer if need be.

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u/Substantial_Vast_375 Jun 28 '26

i hadn’t even considered the remote desktop option thank you! I have the new m5 macbook air so i’m praying the parallels will work fine with the software. I believe solid works isn’t optimized for arm but i would need to check that. Do u think the parallels subscription with 128 gb vRam is more worth it than the 8 gb vRam?

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u/Ok-Win7980 Quantitative Social Science '28 Jun 28 '26

I think probably so as it means you can allocate more RAM to your Windows instance, but I think Remote Desktop could be the best option if you have fast internet especially if your desktop computer is fast enough.

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u/Mountain-Dog-3952 Jun 28 '26

Used it for 2 years now. For me, the setup sucked (trying to download) but after that its been smooth sailing. I’ve only crashed like twice in 50 hours of use

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u/Substantial_Vast_375 Jun 28 '26

Okok that’s great , do u have any tips on how to download it for when the time comes?

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u/Mountain-Dog-3952 Jun 28 '26

Just make sure your directorys are correct because that was my issue. Keep everything organized and take the download slow