Download free eDrawings Viewer software to view, print, and review all types of eDrawings files. In addition, eDrawings Viewer allows convenient viewing of native AutoCAD files (DWG and DXFT) and native SolidWorks parts, assemblies, and drawings. EDrawings, SOLIDWORKS ®, and AutoCAD DWG and DXF files. EDrawings Viewer is available for Windows, Mac and mobile devices for true cross-platform design collaboration and communication. With eDrawings Viewer you can create review-enabled eDrawings files that allow an unlimited number of recipients to mark up and provide feedback on product. For eDrawings and 3D ContentCentral issues only. For SOLIDWORKS support, please contact your Value Added Reseller. For all other support related issues, see the main Support home. Contact Information.
Running SOLIDWORKS on a Mac People often ask if it is possible to run SOLIDWORKS on a Mac – the good news is you can. We know quite a few users running SOLIDWORKS successfully on a Mac. The bad news is that it isn’t supported by SOLIDWORKS … There are no versions of SOLIDWORKS that are written for Mac OS and OS X, however there are versions of eDrawings available for Mac OS. A change in Mac OS or an upgrade to SOLIDWORKS may suddenly give you major headache. We would always recommend running SOLIDWORKS on a Windows PC.
However if you have to run SOLIDWORKS on a Mac read on:- Running SOLIDWORKS on a Mac means you are making compromises on speed, functionality and stability. SOLIDWORKS is only supported when:-
- Running on Microsoft operating systems. With SOLIDWORKS 2019, that means running Windows 10 or Windows 7 operating systems. However, Windows 7 will only be supported until the end of the 2020 release, so we recommend going with Windows 10. It also means you have to buy a copy of the Windows operating system.
- Running with a supported graphics card (more of this later).
The operating system on a Mac is called “Mac OS” and there are two ways of running Windows 10 on a Mac:-
- Boot Camp
- Parallels
- Boot Camp
This is the preferred method – it effectively runs Windows on your computer instead of Mac OS. In effect, you end up with one computer with a choice of two operating systems.
When you boot up your Mac you have to choose to run either Mac OS or Windows.
Boot Camp Assistant creates a partition just for Windows, leaving your existing Mac OS volume intact.
It is free to install but you do have to buy a copy of your preferred windows operating system.
Note: It is important you only use “boot camp assistant” to create this windows partition. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1461
2. Parallels
![Download Download](/uploads/1/1/8/2/118216658/851858551.png)
Parallels software can be installed on your Mac OS. It allows you to run a “virtual” copy of a Windows operating system at the same time as running your Mac OS.
In our case, we would use Parallels to run a “Virtual PC”. The “Virtual PC” would then run Windows 10 on which SOLIDWORKS can ultimately run. You need to buy Parallels and a copy of Windows 10 for this solution.
Running Parallels on a Mac is really convenient as you can seamlessly switch between Windows and Mac OS when needed.
Unfortunately, it really stretches the capabilities of most machines to run both Mac OS and Windows as well as a heavy-duty program like SOLIDWORKS at the same time. It also introduces an extra level of software to “go wrong”. Certainly running via Parallels is slower and more prone to crashing SOLIDWORKS than the Boot Camp solution.
Graphics Cards
You need to be running a supported graphics card to get the most out of SOLIDWORKS.
Only a few cards are supported by SOLIDWORKS.
NVIDIA sell a range of supported graphics cards called “Quadro” (the exception is the Quadro NVS, which is unsupported). Most NVIDIA cards are from their GeForce range, which are not supported.
ATI sell as range of graphics cards called “FireGL”/“FirePRO” which are supported. Most ATI cards are from their Radeon range, which are not supported.
Not many Macs come with supported graphics card. No MacBook or MacBook Pros have supported cards.
If you run via Parallels, you are running a “virtual” graphics card driver. There is currently no way to install the correct NVIDIA Quadro or ATI Fire drivers required by SOLIDWORKS via Parallels even if you have a supported card. You have to use the generic Parallels virtual driver. The virtual driver is much slower than using the correct driver running on a normal Windows PC or laptop.
Certain workarounds do exist to allow.
Without a supported card, you won’t get some feature such as the looking glass, RealView etc. to work.
Users have also reported items temporarily disappearing after you rotate/zoom/Pan e.g. dimension text.
Finally, without a supported card SOLIDWORKS is less stable and more prone to crashing.
If you are plagued by stability/display issues its worth running SOLIDWORKS with the option “Software OpenGL” turned on.
Start SOLIDWORKS without any document loaded and select “Tools, Options, System Options, Performance, use Software OpenGL”.
The option above calculates the graphics using your processor and a standard library, rather than the graphics card and graphics driver. This is slower but it can provide improve stability and a more reliable display.
If you have any more questions or would like us to spec you up a machine to run SOLIDWORKS on please refer to this guide, or contact us via one of our web forms here.
This document provides general information about the SolidWorks® eDrawings® 2011 release. For more information:
For new eDrawings features | See Administration Guides and select the What's New in SolidWorks document. |
For installation tips | See Administration Guides and select the SolidWorks eDrawings Installation and Administration Guide document. |
For SolidWorks eDrawings Help | Click Help, SolidWorks eDrawings Help Topics. |
For eDrawings product information | See www.eDrawingsViewer.com. |
Known Issues
eDrawings and component-level display states
- The component-level display state functionality is not yet supported in eDrawings.
Republishing assemblies
- If you republish an existing assembly in SolidWorks 2011 and open the .easm file in eDrawings, the display states might not work properly.
SolidWorks DimXpert. Dimensions and annotations created in SolidWorks using DimXpert for parts are not shown in SolidWorks documents opened in eDrawings. They are shown in documents published to eDrawings files.
Pro/ENGINEER. Pro/ENGINEER® models can be imported with the following limitations:
- Pro/ENGINEER version 16 through Wildfire 5.0 are supported.
- Parts and assemblies can be imported, but drawings cannot.
- If a model uses Pro/ENGINEER family table instances, then the .xpr and .xas accelerator instance files must be present for correct results. Although these instance accelerator files are optional for Pro/ENGINEER, they are required in eDrawings. When the family table instance modifies the top level of an assembly, open the .xas file corresponding to that instance.
- Colors in part files are recognized, but colors applied at the assembly level are lost during translation.
- Certain Pro/ENGINEER features, such as annotations, sketches, and layers, are not imported.
Adobe Acrobat 3D. Executing 3D Capture in Adobe® Acrobat® 3D causes eDrawings to consume large amounts of memory. The problem has been reported to Adobe.
Annotations. The SolidWorks eDrawings Viewer does not support the option Always display text at the same size for SolidWorks documents (in SolidWorks, select the Options tool, and then select Detailing for the Document Properties tab). Annotation text scaling is supported for eDrawings part and assembly files published from SolidWorks. Only 1:1 text scaling is supported for SolidWorks part and assembly files opened in eDrawings.
SolidWorks eDrawings 2011 for Mac. Known issues:
- Password-protected dxf/dwg files are not supported.
- The Search command in the Help does not work.
SolidWorks drawings. Perspective views created in SolidWorks drawings are not shaded in the eDrawings Viewer.
eDrawings Measure. Measure is disabled for non-draft quality broken views.
System Requirements
Operating system requirements:
- eDrawings 2011 supports Microsoft® XP Service Pack 3 or later.
- Tablet PCs require Tablet XP Service Pack 2 or later.
- SolidWorks eDrawings 2011 for Mac supports Macintosh® Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) or Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard).
Service Pack 5.0
There are no version-specific notes for this release.
Service Pack 4.0
SolidWorks eDrawings API. The new IEModelViewControl::Print5 method allows you to print an eDrawings document to a printer or to another file. Use the FileNameInPrintQueue argument to describe the eDrawings document to print so that it is easily recognizable in the printer queue. Use the PrintToFileName argument to print the eDrawings document to a file. See Help >API Help >SolidWorks eDrawings API Help for details.
Service Pack 3.0
There are no version-specific notes for this release.
Service Pack 2.0
There are no version-specific notes for this release.