VCarve Pro, Parallels and New Apple M1 Chip

[FoothillFurniture]

I have been using VCarve Pro on a Mac using Parallels for a few years. I purchased a new MacBook Air with the new M1 Chip. I didn't realize that Parallels would not work with the new Chip, it makes sense since it's not an intelx86 chip, but I just didn't think about it before the purchase. So, Parallels has a beta version that can be used to run intel software with a an ARM version of Windows 10. I downloaded everything and setup windows and it runs fine. VCarve Pro seems to run ok, but when opening and existing file or when saving a new file I get the error "Encountered an improper argument"

Anyone have any idea what this means? Or a possible fix? I have tried reinstalling windows and VCarve Pro, but I still get the same error. It seems to have something to do with the file system maybe? Because I can open Vcarve Pro, create a file and toolpath it, but I get the error when I try to save the file.

Thanks for any help.

[CRV]

Hello David

Sorry you are not the only user who has reported this issue in recent weeks.

Though we do not support the use of our software running on non native windows installs I was myself able to run our software on a personnel M1 Mac I myself personally own.

It did seem to be working for me at the time this was not long after M1 launched. What may have changed is an update in Parallels itself. I think they are running through a number of versions of the Beta so hopefully this issue will soon be resolved.

But I will say that nothing has changed in our software that would prevent the use of a setup running via Parallels which leads me to think this must be something to do with the way Parallels is running on the M1.

Maybe if you report this issue to Parallels they may look to fix it in the near future?

Chris

[FoothillFurniture]

Thanks for the response Chris. I have reported this to Parallels and hopefully they will get a fix in and hopefully they will get a commercial version of Paralleles that will work with the M1 soon. I do still have my old Macbook that I can use with my Vectric software in the meantime.

[sfo2406]

I have tried today with the latest version of Parallels but I get the splash screen, then the welcome screen and it quits. I guess I'll keep a PC around...

[Holzarbeiter]

Allow me to ask the “elephant in the room” question.....are there any plans from Vectric to make a Mac OS version of the wonderful software? We Mac-olytes would be giddy at such news!

[jelichaa]

Allow me to ask the “elephant in the room” question.....are there any plans from Vectric to make a Mac OS version of the wonderful software? We Mac-olytes would be giddy at such news!

I also would love to see that. I would be willing to pay to upgrade to get this done.

[KonaTom]

Any updates or workarounds on this issue of VCarve on Windows ARM via Parallels?

[kumikoko]

I've found that vectric files save successfully when saved directly to the C: drive of the virtual machine (e.g., C:\Users\kumikoko\Documents), but that I get the error mentioned above when I try to save them to any of the standard directories on my Mac (e.g., /Users/kumikoko/Documents).

Saving directly to the C: drive has allowed me to work on and save files using V Carve and Parallels/Windows 10 ARM on an M1 mac.

BUT it seems that the 3D view / toolpath simulation functionality within V Carve is a little buggy for me at the moment. Generally I just see a black screen rather than a 3D rendering of the model; though oddly when I actually simulate the toolpath the area of the model around the tool materializes. I can't rotate/change the perspective at all, however. Anyone have a fix for this?

[rink]

Allow me to ask the “elephant in the room” question.....are there any plans from Vectric to make a Mac OS version of the wonderful software? We Mac-olytes would be giddy at such news!

Good evening.

+1 on the obvious question. I kinda feel like Mac is the go-to platform for the graphics and design world. Seems like a miss for Vectric to not support that. Vectric is such a sharp operation, I was really surprised to find out there was no mac version of VCarve.

Also surprising that I see no Vectric response to the original question from FOUR MONTHS ago.......????

Thx, rink.

[Tex_Lawrence]

I've been a Mac user since 2009, but I found a lot of advantages to keeping a separate PC on the network for my Vectric products. I use both simultaneously every day, and I don't get sawdust sucked into my expensive Macs, either! The PCs cost less than $400.

I would think converting Vectric products to operate natively on Mac products would be completely starting the design process from zero. There wouldn't be enough users to support that kind of decision.

But, if you know there are enough users to support that, why not get them all together and make it easy for Vectric to decide in your favor?

[Adrian]

Also surprising that I see no Vectric response to the original question from FOUR MONTHS ago.......????

Thx, rink.

I expect if you do a forum search there will be replies from years ago. The question of will there be a Mac version comes up a few times every years since I joined in 2006.

From what I can remember from when it's been raised at UGM's it's primarily because of the amount of development and support resources that would be needed to maintain two versions or develop a single version that uses libraries common to both platforms.

[adze_cnc]

Also surprising that I see no Vectric response to the original question from FOUR MONTHS ago.......????

Does the second post in this thread (from CRV) in response to the first post, the "original question", in this thread (from FoothillFurniture) not count? Perhaps you are thinking of a different thread?

[MSchienle]

I've found that vectric files save successfully when saved directly to the C: drive of the virtual machine (e.g., C:\Users\kumikoko\Documents), but that I get the error mentioned above when I try to save them to any of the standard directories on my Mac (e.g., /Users/kumikoko/Documents).

Saving directly to the C: drive has allowed me to work on and save files using V Carve and Parallels/Windows 10 ARM on an M1 mac.

BUT it seems that the 3D view / toolpath simulation functionality within V Carve is a little buggy for me at the moment. Generally I just see a black screen rather than a 3D rendering of the model; though oddly when I actually simulate the toolpath the area of the model around the tool materializes. I can't rotate/change the perspective at all, however. Anyone have a fix for this?

Just confirming the report above and adding a little more. I can only open simple files with a few vectors and toolpaths from the Windows user directory, but not from a Mac directory. Going a little further, I can open simple vector-files, but something with 4 dish/dome models would not open.

Also, rendering models is a mess. All black, but the toolpath lines are colored. Running the toolpaths uncovers the rendered model as it goes, but clearly not in the normal way.

Sending this off to Parallels, as well.