(SOLVED) MacOS / Win-ARM64 versions

[Mats Engstrom]

A MacOS version would be great, but that's probably too much to ask for. . But if you could make it so that the software runs on a Mac using "Parallels" (that lets me install an Arm64 version of Win11 and run win apps) that would be really nice.

I can run a lot of regular X86 windows softwares using it, like Logic Friday and the TL866 Eprom burner software. So special Arm versions of the apps seems to not be required. I guess the Rosetta X86->ARM layer kicks in and transparently takes care of it).

But something in the Zofzpcb installer dosen't like to be installed on Win11-Arm which is a bit of a bummer.... ;(. Do you think that's fixable? Maybe it would work if you just remove the check for target architecture? Then Rosetta might step in and do what it's supposed to do.

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[Zofz]

It was working on wine, but now it seems more complicated.
I guess there could be a problem with the efficiency of flattening algorithms on emulators. Generally, we should look at how x64 DX11 (windowed, i.e., not full-screen-capable) games are ported to the Mac.
As for the installer, please test the "portable" version. (portable = zipped executable, DLLs, and other files.) If you are successful, let me know, and I will try to set up the installer to allow other OSes.

Converting from DX9+DXUT to pure DX11 took me 5 months, so unless there is a real confirmed demand, I prefer to add more features to the current Windows version instead of converting to the ARM. (and when I am done, they will swap back, right?)

[Mats Engstrom]

Thanks. I tried the portable and after faffing around a bit with getting the vcruntime140 installed I got "Great success!" as Borat would have said

So I guess it's only the installer that's overly picky.

Is there any "speedtest" that can show if the app is decently responsive? Rotating and dragging was really fast, but zooming in was rather slow, but I only tried it with the trackpad maybe it will be better using a mouse with a proper scroll wheel.

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[Zofz]

Unbelievable!

The mouse wheel is much better. Pg-Up and Pg-Down keys should run smoothly; use Ctrl and Shift to slow down and speed up, for mouse wheel and for keyboard. (There is a help for keys: menu help - mouse & keyboard)

I do not expect many speed problems on displaying but on preparing the mesh. The flattening and triangulation take about 5 sec. for Demo1 on my very fast laptop. For some Gerbers using painting instead of faces, it is much longer.

[Mats Engstrom]

Then it's not too bad here. I made a short screen recording of me opening Demo1. https://youtu.be/qOZlA6bUxv8 I didn't time it but maybe 7 seconds?

And this is on a lowest specced first gen MacBook M1. Imagine how fast it would be on a a bit better M2max with its 12 CPUs/cores.

Do you multithread or is the processing limited to one core?

[Zofz]

I am very impressed. It must be some kind of optimizing re-compiler. And the M1-ARM is not bad at all.