For users unwilling to purchase virtualization software, a customized Wine wrapper can be attempted.
Traditionally, Mac users utilized (Wine Is Not an Emulator)—a compatibility layer capable of running Windows apps on POSIX-compliant systems. However, MDSolids presents specific challenges for Wine on macOS:
To verify if a Windows .exe expects 32-bit libraries, the following command can be run in Terminal (requires binutils via Homebrew): mdsolids mac
VMware. (2023). Running x86 Applications on Apple Silicon M2 using Fusion . Palo Alto, CA.
Despite its pedagogical efficacy, MD Solids is distributed exclusively as a 32-bit Windows executable (.exe). With the transition of Apple Macintosh computers from Intel processors to Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3) and the deprecation of macOS’s native support for 32-bit applications (macOS Catalina 10.15 and later), students face technical friction when attempting to run the software natively. For users unwilling to purchase virtualization software, a
Below is a guide on how to successfully use MDSolids on a Mac and what features you can expect from the software. Key Features of MDSolids
MDSolids is not natively compatible with macOS; it is designed strictly for Windows operating systems. However, you can run it on a Mac using virtualization or compatibility layers. (2023)
file /path/to/MDSolids.exe # Expected output for legacy version: "PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows"