Support for macOS Big Sur and Apple M1 Processors

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Knowledgebase: Software

Updated: 22 February 2021 05:24 PM

Apple has recently released a new operating system Big Sur and has begun to switch its hardware to their own processor called M1. These changes may affect the software that you run.

Big Sur runs on both Intel and M1 Macs. Big Sur is almost universally support by the software used at OCAD U.

M1 support is being added by software developers at this time. The process of moving software to a new processing platform is complicated. There are two methods that are used to support software on an M1 Mac. The first is Rosetta. Rosetta runs in the operating system and translates the application so it can run on the new M1. The second method is to create a version that is native to the new processor, developers release this version in what is called a Universal Binary. Universal Binaries are the preferred method for optimal performance, but also takes longest for developers to support.

Apple M1 processors do not support Windows Bootcamp or Windows virtualization. Apple computers with the M1 processor cannot run Windows applications.

If you use software that is not on this list, confirm support with the vendor prior to moving to Big Sur or an M1 Mac.

OCAD U Software - Big Sur and Apple M1 Processor Support

Software	Big Sur	Apple M1	Notes
Adobe Creative Cloud	Yes	Rosetta	Limited Support for Rosetta. Photoshop, Lightroom and Premiere Pro Betas are available for M1.
Autodesk AutoCAD	Yes	Rosetta	Autodesk System Requirements
Autodesk Maya	Yes	Rosetta	Maya System Requirements
Autodesk Revit	No	No	Windows 10 Only. Required for Environmental Design.
Windows Bootcamp	Yes	No	Windows can only be installed on Intel Macs. There is no Bootcamp support on Apple M1.
Cycling 74 Max	Yes	Rosetta	Max 8.1.8 supports Big Sur with Intel machines. Apple Silicon is not officially supported yet. * Under Rosetta, there are known issues, which will be fixed in an updated version in Q1 2021.
Microsoft Office	Yes	Universal Binary	Download from 365.ocadu.ca
Microsoft Windows 10	Yes	No	Support for Windows under virtualization is not supported on M1 Macs.
Rhino 3D	Yes	No	There is no ETA for M1 Support.
Sketchup Pro 3D	Yes	Rosetta	Sketchup System Requirements
Toon Boom Harmony	Yes	Rosetta	View Harmony 20.0.2 Release notes
TechSmith Capture	Yes	No	Capture system requirements
TechSmith Camtasia	Yes	Rosetta	Rosetta requires update to version 2020.0.13.
DragonFrame	Yes	Rosetta	Dragonframe 4.2.2 and newer have been tested with macOS Big Sur. Dragonframe 5 (Q2 2021) will support both Intel and Apple Silicon natively. Dragonframe 4 will run on the new Apple Silicon computers via Rosetta.
Free/Open Source	Big Sur	Apple M1	Notes
Unity	Yes	Yes	View Unity Support Docs on Apple M1
Arduino	Issues	Issues	Issues have been reported for both Big Sur and M1 Macs.
Processing	Issues	Issues	An alpha version is available which addresses some issues.
Blender	Yes	Rosetta	Runs via Rosetta but Cycles GPU rendering is not supported.
Kurzweil 3000	Yes	Unknown	Big Sur requires an update to version 16.0.24 or 20.06.

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