Why isn't Solidworks OS X compatible?

[TSE]

Honestly, the only program I use that isn't supported by Mac OS X is Solidworks. If Solidworks became supported, I could 100% ditch the Windows operating system (not that Windows is bad, just that it doesn't run very well on Mac hardware).

Why isn't it out for Mac?! What's holding them up?! Opinions?

 

[benwiggy]

Opinions?

The most likely guess is that they have looked at the costs for porting/rewriting the software to OS X, and decided that the cost outweighs the profit that they might get from Mac sales.
But who knows? -- the CEO might have a pathological hatred for Macs. Any opinion is simply going to be a guess.

You are best served asking them directly. If lots of people do that, it may encourage them.

They do produce one product for OS X -- eDrawings. Is that a cut-down version?

 

[TSE]

The most likely guess is that they have looked at the costs for porting/rewriting the software to OS X, and decided that the cost outweighs the profit that they might get from Mac sales.
But who knows? -- the CEO might have a pathological hatred for Macs. Any opinion is simply going to be a guess.

You are best served asking them directly. If lots of people do that, it may encourage them.

They do produce one product for OS X -- eDrawings. Is that a cut-down version?

Thanks for the response. eDrawings is a basic CAD viewer whereas Solidworks is a full blown CAD program.

I sent the company several polite e-mails with no reply. It's just hard to imagine not enough mechanical engineers, industrial designers, architects, hobbyists, etc. don't have Macs that use Solid Works to make it worth their time, ya know?

 

[chown33]

I sent the company several polite e-mails with no reply. It's just hard to imagine not enough mechanical engineers, industrial designers, architects, hobbyists, etc. don't have Macs that use Solid Works to make it worth their time, ya know?

Maybe those customers are adequately served by the various solutions that already exist for running Windows on Macs. Such as Boot Camp or the several virtualization programs. Or maybe even WINE (I don't know, just a thought).

From a company perspective, keeping the software Windows-only externalizes Mac compatibility. That is, it's someone else's problem, not the company's. If the customers accept that for the most part, then the problem is solved as far as the company is concerned. They still profit from sales to users who solve the problem themselves, and the only prospective sales they lose are to people who reject the product because it's not Mac-native. As long as the fraction of prospective sales is relatively small, or is less than the company's cost to fund a Mac-native version, the company isn't missing out on anything of consequence.

By the way, your position probably isn't unique. I suspect there are lots of people who have only one Windows-only program that they can't leave behind when switching to the Mac. The thing that distinguishes these people is exactly which program. For you it's SolidWorks, for someone else it will be a different program. You're all effectively in the same boat.