AutoCAD gets native Apple Silicon support, boasts 2x speed jump

Engineering and design tool AutoCAD by Autodesk gains native support for Apple Silicon M-series processors in the 2024 release.

AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT are the latest professional apps to gain native support for Apple Silicon. This translates to faster load and render times throughout the app.

According to a press release from Autodesk, the Apple Silicon support is for both M1 and M2 series processors. The AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT apps still support Intel as well, but the Apple Silicon versions boast up to 2x performance improvements over the 2023 version.

"AutoCAD for Mac 2024 and AutoCAD LT for Mac 2024 deliver incredible, new performance improvements with the ability to run AutoCAD natively on Apple silicon," says Dania El Hassan, Director of Product Management for AutoCAD, Autodesk. "It's exciting to see how customers can now take full advantage of the latest hardware and M-series chips for faster ways to work."

AutoCAD for Mac 2024 costs $245 per month or $1,955 per year. The cheaper AutoCAD LT for Mac 2024 runs $60 per month or $485 per year. Autodesk offers a 30-day free trial for new customers.

15 Comments

tmay 6455 comments · 11 Years

About 1 year ago

...and this, for all of you makers, engineers, et al...

Fusion 360, a popular 3D design software, is set to achieve full native support for Apple Silicon chipsets (i.e. M1 & M2) by the summer of 2023. The delay in support is due to the need for 100% compatibility between components from over 100 third-party vendors, including Autodesk.

entropys 4302 comments · 13 Years

Damn, just bought a Thinkpad P14s for CAD work because things were a bit dire in Mac world. Ah well, needed it two months ago.

now for solidworks and Siemens NX.

michelb76 692 comments · 8 Years

That's a very modest speed bump, it doesn't use the GPU I guess?

ravnorodom 720 comments · 8 Years

entropys said:

Damn, just bought a Thinkpad P14s for CAD work because things were a bit dire in Mac world. Ah well, needed it two months ago.

now for solidworks and Siemens NX.

There's no Solidworks made for Mac unless you are running virtual Windows on a Mac.

ravnorodom said:

entropys said:

Damn, just bought a Thinkpad P14s for CAD work because things were a bit dire in Mac world. Ah well, needed it two months ago.

now for solidworks and Siemens NX.

There's no Solidworks made for Mac unless you are running virtual Windows on a Mac.

Same problem that I have for Autodesk's Product Design and Manufacturing Collection, albeit the bundled AutoCAD and Fusion 360 are likely able to be run independently in the cloud on a Mac per the license, the rest on a PC.

Then there is this;

https://machow2.com/inventor-for-mac/

Requires Parallels...

https://machow2.com/run-solidworks-mac/

I was a SolidWorks user in the past, and I would assume that Parallels would work fine, but I would want to be confident that there wouldn't be issues.

Windows 11 and Parallels Desktop
Parallels® Desktop version 18 is an authorized solution for running Arm® versions of Windows 11 Pro and Windows 11 Enterprise in a virtual environment on its platform on Apple M1 and M2 computers.
The Arm version of Windows 11 has limitations that can impact your ability to use various types of hardware, games, and apps, including those that rely on DirectX 12 or OpenGL3.3 or greater. For more information, please see the FAQ in this article.