# Anyone using Parallels on a Mac? **URL:** \ **Category:** Packages\ **Created:** [April 24, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/anyone-using-parallels-on-a-mac/1379 "2015-04-24T15:30:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![seandburke](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/seandburke/32/29153_2.png) [@seandburke](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/seandburke)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/anyone-using-parallels-on-a-mac/1379/1 "2015-04-24T15:30:46Z")
Using Parallels v 10.2.0 on a Mac running OS X v10.10.3 hosting Windows 8.1. I’m having an issue where no background preview will display in Dynamo 0.8x. This wasn’t always the case, or at least I don’t remember it that way. The Revit preview geometry in Revit 2015 does work, so I think maybe it is related to OpenGL. Parallels DirectX10 acceleration is enabled. Thought I could sneakily install the nVidia driver, however if it doesn’t actually see the hardware, the drivers will not install. I really don’t want to set up bootcamp on this machine, unless that’s my only option. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Matt\_Jezyk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/matt_jezyk/32/11124_2.png) [@Matt\_Jezyk](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Matt_Jezyk)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/anyone-using-parallels-on-a-mac/1379/2 "2015-04-24T16:57:15Z")
Sounds like the new graphics pipeline. Cc @ikeough ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Kirschner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/michael_kirschner/32/237_2.png) [@Michael\_Kirschner](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Michael_Kirschner)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 9:43pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/anyone-using-parallels-on-a-mac/1379/3 "2015-04-24T21:43:37Z")
hmmm, I use parallels, with a intel iris pro 5200 integrated GPU and get the preview on revit and standalone in the daily build as of right now. But I am on windows 7 64bit. Do you have the ability to install a windows 7 VM? also, what graphics card do you have in your machine? ---
**Author:** ![Ian\_Keough1](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/ian_keough1/32/333_2.png) [@Ian\_Keough1](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Ian_Keough1)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/anyone-using-parallels-on-a-mac/1379/4 "2015-04-24T22:33:54Z")
Hey Sean, The new graphics pipeline uses DirectX for hardware accelerated graphics. We’ve seen with VMWare Fusion that you need to adjust the settings for your virtual machine to enable hardware acceleration. I believe we need to do the same with Parallels, although I don’t have Parallels in front of me to test. These seem like the directions to enable hardware acceleration on parallels: [http://kb.parallels.com/122485](http://kb.parallels.com/122485) If it allows you to do so, you need to choose DirectX 11. Also, you might need to install the[DirectX Runtime Components (June 2010)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109) which we aren’t currently installing with the installer, but have found are required for the new graphics. Please let me know if these steps work for you. ---
**Author:** ![Andreas\_Dieckmann](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/andreas_dieckmann/32/365_2.png) [@Andreas\_Dieckmann](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Andreas_Dieckmann)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/anyone-using-parallels-on-a-mac/1379/5 "2015-04-25T00:59:40Z")
My two cents: Stop using Parallels and get a SSD instead. Switching between Mac OS X and Bootcamp/Windows takes about a minute and the increased performance will more than make up for that. ---
**Author:** ![seandburke](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/seandburke/32/29153_2.png) [@seandburke](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/seandburke)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 11:26am UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/anyone-using-parallels-on-a-mac/1379/6 "2015-04-28T11:26:45Z")
I would need to add my external HD to the mix or replace the internal SSD with a larger capacity and go bootcamp. Parallels can still fire up the bootcamp partition in a pinch, which is what I did on my older Mac. This may be the best route. Speed hasn’t been an issue - as it’s still faster in a VM than my company provided desktop PC. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Kirschner](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/michael_kirschner/32/237_2.png) [@Michael\_Kirschner](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Michael_Kirschner)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 12:09pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/anyone-using-parallels-on-a-mac/1379/7 "2015-04-28T12:09:09Z")
I have found no issues with parallels… so far… I don’t think it can be beat for reliability, just pop open a new copy of my VM and windows boots again no matter what damage I cause! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Correll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Peter\_Correll](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Peter_Correll)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 1:52pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/anyone-using-parallels-on-a-mac/1379/8 "2015-07-08T13:52:07Z")
Having the same issue as Sean here on my macbook pro running windows 8.1 on Parallels 10. DirectX 11 isn’t an option yet with Parallels so I’m going to give Boot Camp a go and see how that works.