ArcGIS Pro on M1 MacBooks

[BrianBaldwin]

UPDATE: 8/16/2021

Parallels Desktop 17 was just recently released, which has been "rebuilt and optimized to natively run on Apple M1 and Intel based Mac devices"

ORIGINAL POST

In November of 2020, Apple released a new processor for their computers called the M1. If you want to dive into it, you can read about the details here (https://www.apple.com/mac/m1/). 

The impact for users of ArcGIS Pro, is that there are currently no Windows virtual machine (VM) platforms that support this new processor (this is not the case for virtual desktop infrastructure or VDI platforms, which have been released and support M1). 

Below is a list of the current recommendations and options that are available to users that need to run ArcGIS Pro on a Mac.  

Intel MacBooks 

Users can still purchase MacBooks that contain the latest Intel processors. Virtual machines are supported on the majority of MacBooks that contain an Intel chip. When purchasing a laptop, just make sure that you are purchasing the Intel chip option if running Windows in a VM is critical for your work. 

Wait for VM Support 

There is currently no VM client that can be installed locally to support a Windows VM (as of this writing 3/3/2021). The 2 major vendor details for support are currently as follows: 

VMWare 

• There is currently no roadmap or technical preview of a VMWare product that will support M1 (as of this writing 3/3/2021).  
• Please refer to the VMWare website for the latest news/updates 

Parallels 

• There is currently a ‘technical preview’ that has been released to support Windows 10 ARM. The caveat here is that users would be relying on a VM ‘technical preview’, to load an OS ‘insider preview’ (Windows 10 ARM), to install ArcGIS Pro (not yet supported on Windows 10 ARM), so this isn’t an option yet. 

• For updates related to x86 Windows support on a M1 VM, or Windows ARM, please refer to the Parallels website for news/updates 

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) 

Virtual desktop infrastructure, or VDI for short, provides the ability to run applications like ArcGIS Pro over the internet and serve them through a browser. For schools or institutions that currently support VDI infrastructure (Citrix, VMWare Horizon, Parallels RAS, Amazon Workspaces, etc.), ArcGIS Pro is supported. Refer to your VDI vendor’s documentation to see what versions are current for installing on M1 MacBooks. For those that currently own an M1 MacBook and need to run ArcGIS Pro locally, this is currently the only option available. 

Summary 

The M1 processor is still relatively new (released November 2020) and VM platforms are certainly aware of the need to support Windows VM environments. For users that have already purchased an M1 MacBook, a VDI is currently the only option for running ArcGIS Pro. As vendors update their platforms to support VMs on the M1, we will work to keep you informed.   

While ArcGIS Pro is the workhorse for data management, map production, and analysis, there is also an ever-expanding list of functions that can be accomplished in ArcGIS Online (spatial analysis, joins, visualization, map production, etc.). For power users as well, the ability to run ArcGIS Notebooks with the ArcPy library inside of ArcGIS Online provides a wealth of advanced GIS functionality that could be run from any machine (or phone). 

[JonathanHallam1]

I am looking to get this configuration 

I don’t do a lot of processing activities, basic editing but looking to do more in 3D

this 512 GB one so should be able to store Parallels machine on the hard drive, unlike my current 128GB Macbook Pro

this is in stock from place getting from, was looking at 16 core GPU but that is 6-7 week wait time

what do people think?

[JonathanHallam1]

@EmilianoPetrelli

Any advice on above specs?

[MarcelSt-Germain]

As always,

For what purpose?  Studying, play with or doing professional works?  Do you need this configuration for native Mac works like video editing?

If not for professional works, you have enough memory to allocate 20 GB to VM so, it can do the job.

If you bought this configuration only to work with Pro, you are in gambling thinking since Microsoft could stop anytime the access of ARM windows and only release an OEM version.

If you don't need this power to drive Mac's work, the more secure option is to buy a smaller configured Mac and use the money saved to buy a cheap PC to run natively Pro.  Personally I'm a Mac user since 1985 but, use Remote Desktop to drive Pro on a PC.

[JonathanHallam1]

Hi Marcel

It is for my business work, for my side job which have my own mapping business.

Don't know what this means - Do you need this configuration for native Mac works like video editing?

Plan to use ArcGIS Pro and work better with ArcGIS Online.

I am not going away from my MacBook Pro, just want newer, I want more ports.

[MarcelSt-Germain]

I Jonathan,

Do you use you Mac for your job, or is just for your side job?

What I'm trying to said is you take a risk to change to Mac.  Pro like arcmap are Windows only.  I don't think in the future ESRI will return to Mac. With Intel Mac, no problem there.  But with ARM, it's for now risky.  Maybe in one or two years, Microsoft direction could change.  I personally think they will license Windows ARM like they do for Windows Intel.  For now???

If your Mac do fine for you and you need ports, just buy a dock and wait to see the direction it will go.  For Pro, just choose a cheap PC tower and, with Remote Desktop control Pro.

For me I have an old Mac mini 2012, with two monitors, who control the PC I use. 

The best choice is to leave Pro an go to a gis software directly available for Mac who ESRI doesn't care to offer.   

[AndyAnderson]

@MarcelSt-Germain —

What makes you think that “Microsoft could stop anytime the access of ARM windows and only release an OEM version.” ?

They make their money from selling the OS, not hardware (like the Original Equipment Manufacturers), so they’ll sell to any configurator, including Parallels.

— Andy

[MarcelSt-Germain]

Hi Andy,

For now no Windows ARM version is available on the market.  I'm sure, with the success of M1, M2, computer manufacturers will press the development of ARM machine and, doing so, will press Microsoft to move in this way.

But for now, we are in the hope.  What I'm always trying to explain is, think twice before buying an expensive Mac in wish to run Pro for business purpose.  

[JonathanHallam1]

Marcel, 

My Mac is my life, I am not going back to windows. I use it everyday, the GIS part is for my side job. 

My daily job I have a windows laptop provided but can't use for my side job as locked and its windows and hate it compared to Mac

I have enough dongles and want ports. You're not going to convince me.

@EmilianoPetrelli and others on this thread show Pro working fine.

[EmilianoPetrelli]

Hi all,

sorry for the delay but I'm a little bit busy right now ;-).

By the way some consideration below:

To @GregorioPezzoli : I don't get that error while installing ArcGIS Pro on my configuration (2.9 version), but I've got it whit ArcGIS Server 10.9.1 (yes, I'm a crazy man...). Do you try to install the 3.0 version of ArcGIS Pro? 

to @JonathanHallam1 : your specs are just double compared to mine. I think an M1 Macbook with 32Gb of RAM and 1TB of SSD is the best option for "normal" ArcGIS Pro using, but I'm able to do all my work also with 16Gb of RAM and 512 GB of ssd, never get an hick or crash (I'm working with 3D, Utility Network, Diagrams, Geoprocessing, build and debug AddIns)

There's a but (there's always a but...): as someone else said on this thread, the ARM version of Windows used by Parallels is an insider version, so maybe will be available to the public, maybe not (Microsoft use it for his ARM laptop surface version) and there's no supporto by ESRI for this kind of configuration, so if some errors comes out (like the one about C++ runtime) you are unable to open support cases. 

So, why I'm so interested to run ESRI products on Mac? Because my company switched to Apple this year and we try to understand if this environment can be used by people like me that works with ESRI software and need to have this products installed locally (not on a VM on the cloud). After this first period I can say that is possible to work smooth and fast with ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Desktop (10.8.2) on a Mac M1 with Parallels, we found a blocking issue for ArcGIS Server, so we keep on going with the apple switch, but we have a B and a C plans if somethings changes with parallels: buy an Intel MacBook pro and use a standard Intel OS, or buy some AWS Workspace VM with Nvidia dedicated GPUs for the people that have to create 3D contents with ArcGIS Pro (we try the standard windows AWS machines but performance are very very poor).

Hope I gave you some clarifications on this topic

[AMoyers]

@JonathanHallam1 I am in a similar boat, I had an Intel Mac for many years and I've upgraded to an M1 Mac.  I use Esri a lot in my career but I want a Mac as my daily driver.  What @MarcelSt-Germain has suggested seems like the best choice at least for a couple years, to run it from Remote Desktop if possible if you would like to use your Mac as your primary computer.  Unless there's some emulation software you can run to emulate an x86 processor from an ARM processor and run Windows x86 (Intel-based) Windows, I can't think of much of a way to run Pro on the M1 Mac.  The issue is that most virtualization software is likely to run the processor from ARM.  If you are using something like Parallels you have to install Windows ARM, and Esri products simply won't run on this.  As an example I was able to get past the install of ArcGIS Pro on my own Windows 11 ARM install in Parallels but it can never launch the software including any type of supporting processes.

I have a strong feeling that ARM architecture will eventually exceed x86 architecture in laptops, let's hope Esri adopts earlier rather than later (by that..within 2 years).  I know some people who like to use Pro on Surface because of the ability to digitize on the go, looks like Microsoft is heading toward M1-competitor ARM in Surface

[LionelHenry_EsriFrance]

@AMoyers Attached a screen shot of ArcGIS Pro on Mac M1 Pro with Parallels Desktop. It works quite well even in 3D. BTW, this is the project done by Egis (French engineering firm) that was presented during the UC 2022 plenary, who runs on both my Mac and my PC. However, the use of ArcGIS Pro on ARM  is not supported, so cannot be used for production.ArcGIS Pro on Mac M1 Pro with Parallels Desktop

[AMoyers]

@LionelHenry_EsriFrance that is really great to hear, I thought this was going to be really painful.  I think I must have missed @EmilianoPetrelli's response on this because it's clear he's running this also.  I was able to get this installed, it looks like a .NET runtime problem was preventing it from running, either because the ARM64 runtime had a corrupted install or was not compatible.  The second time around I installed the runtime for x64 architecture which installed and Arc Pro is running now.  Most of the analysis I'm doing is basic, I'm not too concerned about performance but it's greatto hear that you aren't noticing any significant differences.

[JohnLindner]

ARCGIS PRO NOW WORKING ON M2-CHIP

Using:

Parallels 18

Windows 11

ArcGIS 3

windowsdesktop-runtime-6.0.5-win-x64.exe (IMPORTANT: Use "x64" - NOT "arm64"

[AndyAnderson]

FYI I just discovered that I need to install the X64 version of the .NET Desktop Runtime 6.0, rather than the ARM version, presumably because ArcGIS Pro is running in X64 emulation:

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/6.0

But with that adjustment, ArcGIS 3.0.3 seems to be running properly on macOS Monterey 12.6.2 with Parallels 18.1.1 and an installation of Windows 11 Home 22H2.

[AzinSharaf]

ok, let me explain my experience. I was using ArcGIS Pro 2.x successfully on Macbook Pro M1 Max using Parallels Pro 18.2 and Win 11 Pro 22H2 and Windows Runtime 6.0.5 (x64). Everything was great and performance was super.

Recently (probably after 3.1 upgrade) ArcGIS Pro itself works fine but running ArcPy scripts (which it the main thing i am doing) crashes because it can't be compiled correctly using MSVCP Redist (Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable). I have tried many different versions of MSVCP Redist (2013, 2015, 2022, x86, x64 and Arm64) Not of them worked. So I've switched to my old Intel Mac and installed win on bare-metal.

I'd appreciate it If anyone can share their experience. 

fyi: it crashed both on the default and clone python envs. 

Faulting application name: python.exe, version: 3.9.16150.1013, time stamp: 0x6390fb5e
Faulting module name: MSVCP140.dll, version: 14.32.31332.0, time stamp: 0x10124c7d
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000000000009c8ac
Faulting process id: 0x0x36BC
Faulting application start time: 0x0x1D97995613B6266
Faulting application path: C:\Users\asharaf\AppData\Local\ESRI\conda\envs\arcgispro-py3-clone\python.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\MSVCP140.dll
Report Id: 00638310-87c6-451f-948f-b5083986f77a
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

[Jon-PaulOliva]

I just updated to 3.1 (on Parallels 18.3.1) and I did encounter an ArcPy error:

Unhandled exception. System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'ArcGIS.Core, Version=13.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=8fc3cc631e44ad86'. The system cannot find the file specified.
File name: 'ArcGIS.Core, Version=13.1.0.0,

I found this thread mentioning .NET dependencies and removing XTool and/or deleting any files with the ".esriPlugin" file extension in the Documents\ArcGIS\Addins folder (see the posts by Wolf on pg. 2).  Now I am able to execute Python scripts from the interpreter again:

https://community.esri.com/t5/python-questions/running-arcpy-script-from-powershell-after/td-p/12618...

[AzinSharaf]

do you have MVC++ Redist installed? it breaks arcpy on  my machine. i was able to fix it by hacking its dll file. 

[Jon-PaulOliva]

Not on the VM that has 3.1 installed.  I do have another VM with several Visual C++ redistributable installed that is running Pro 2.9.  I went through a lot of troubleshooting with that to install ArcGIS Desktop and the background geoprocessing component but gave up and just migrated everything over to Pro.

[AzinSharaf]

@Jon-PaulMcCool 
got it. In my case installing VC++ redist breaks arcpy. (you still can import arcpy but for instance it fails on arcpy.management.CreateFeatureclass() ) .

If anytime you see the similar behavior please let me know.