FreeCAD on Mac M1?

[bernardvienna]

i actually just wanted to try freecad on my new m1 computer. then i got an error message that the developer could not be verified. well, there must be a way... i thought. and found these instructions.

I assume you just want to use the precompiled version? did you try the instructions from the github releases page? https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases/tag/0.19.2

NOTE: .app is not signed and will not run on MacOS out of the box.
After opening the download, drag the app into your Applications folder (if you already have FreeCAD in there, it is possible to keep both)
When you open the new version, you will get a pop-up saying that it cannot be verified. Do not Move to Bin, simply click Cancel or press Escape key.
Then go to System Preferences > Security and Privacy > General and at the lower part you will see that FreeCAD was blocked from use because it is not from an identified developer
Click the option to Open Anyway
When prompted to confirm, choose Open

Thank you for helping me. it worked!

[StevenL]

Hi,

I'm running FreeCAD 19.3 (and 20.x) with Apple Mac mini M1. Everything worked fine as long as the project was small. Now FreeCAD crashes all the time if I try to open the project file.

As far as I could find out the project file itself is editable with the Windows version. So I assume the file is not corrupted.

Because there is no official native version for MacOS Apple Silicon / M1 available I would like to test your compiled version. Unfortunately it provided image does not run because MacOs complains the image file is corrupted.

May I ask you to provide a updated version for MacOS Apple Silicon?

Thanks in advance

Steven

[chrisb]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Please attach your full FreeCAD info as described in the IMPORTANT forum rules linked above.

Such general statements are difficult to handle. Do you have a repeatable use case?

[arxerxes]

If you want to try native Image: FreeCAD_0.20.25491.

Code: Select all

import platform
platform.platform()

How did you create that? I mean the M1 Mac native version?

[JohnOCFII]

How did you create that? I mean the M1 Mac native version?

I've got a mostly-complete version of FreeCAD running natively on my M1 MacBook Pro by using the HomeBrew build instructions listed in this short thread.

I still have a few issues, which I've been poking at in my spare time, but haven't succeeded resolving.

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=64881

[arxerxes]

I have installed FreeCAD 0.19 24366 on M1 MacBook Pro with M1Pro chip. Everything works well except for some pixelated artifacts showing on solid faces. I have attached screenshots for reference. I have also installed Realthunder branch's build for Big Sur (FreeCAD-asm3-Daily-BigSur-OSX-Py3-Qt5-20220407-x86_64.dmg), which uses OCC 7.6, which facilitates compilation on ARM64 (Apple M1). There are no artifacts when opened in this build. Also, when files are saved in the Big Sur build and opened in the official version the artifacts disappear till it is saved in the official version again.

Hope this helps.

[Gift]

If you want to try native Image: FreeCAD_0.20.25491.

Code: Select all

import platform
platform.platform()

How did you create that? I mean the M1 Mac native version?

That is plagued by countless obstacles. That will last yet some time, but I am working on a better solution.

A new M1 DMG you will find at Github.

[looo]

I just tried both the Conda-bundle for osx and gifts dmg on the same MacBook Air. Rotating in the 3d-scene seems to be faster with the Conda-bundle. Tried with this file:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/im131ly7 ... 4c9p093p6i

btw. qt is now available for more platforms via Conda (osxarm64, linuxaarch64). So it should be possible to distribute FreeCAD and dependencies via Conda for these platforms too.


seems like the frame rate of the m1-build is really lacking. I get a frame rate of about 11 f/s when rotating a simple cube. The Conda-bundle has a frame rate of 60 f/s. So it seems like there is something not working right with that build and my system. Do you have a better expirence @gift?

Same issue with the osx_arm64 build from realthunder.

Code: Select all

OS: macOS 10.16
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.20.28765 (Git)
Build type: Release
Python 3.9.12, Qt 5.12.9, Coin 4.0.0, OCC 7.5.3
Locale: C/Default (C)
Installed mods: 
  * fcgear 1.0.0

Code: Select all

OS: macOS 12.2
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.20.28774 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: master
Hash: d2253c7be4db12dbf9b89a53abfacff87692d216
Python 3.10.2, Qt 5.15.3, Coin 4.0.0, OCC 7.5.2
Locale: C/Default (C)
Installed mods: 
  * fcgear 1.0.0

[Gift]

The result of the frame rate has with both dmg the same value (~60f/s) on my test system. Apple deprecated OpenGL APIs. I think without metal support no further increase is possible. Maybe you should compare the rendering settings of your different machines.

Other performance topic e.g. SIMD optimization for numpy I don’t test. But appear to be enable:

Code: Select all

from numpy.core._multiarray_umath import __cpu_features__ as feat; print([f for f in feat if feat[f]])

A simple scale test is nativ faster than rosetta:

Code: Select all

import timeit
timeit.timeit('data * scale', setup='import numpy as np;data = np.random.rand(10000,3);scale = np.array([2.,2.,2.])', number=100000)

[looo]

The result of the frame rate has with both dmg the same value (~60f/s) on my test system. Apple deprecated OpenGL APIs. I think without metal support no further increase is possible. Maybe you should compare the rendering settings of your different machines.

Other performance topic e.g. SIMD optimization for numpy I don’t test. But appear to be enable:

Code: Select all

from numpy.core._multiarray_umath import __cpu_features__ as feat; print([f for f in feat if feat[f]])

A simple scale test is nativ faster than rosetta:

Code: Select all

import timeit
timeit.timeit('data * scale', setup='import numpy as np;data = np.random.rand(10000,3);scale = np.array([2.,2.,2.])', number=100000)

I use FreeCAD on the same Mac, so I don't think I have different settings. But I have a comparable frame-rate if I turn of the anti-aliasing.