Hi everyone,

I'm a student using 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA for Students (Mechanical & Shape Designer role). The native apps install fine in a Windows VM on my Mac, but CATIA crashes every time during graphics initialization. I'd like to know if anyone has a working setup or a workaround.

Setup:
- MacBook Pro 16" (2021), Apple M1 Max (32-core GPU), 64 GB RAM, macOS 26.6.2
- Parallels Desktop 27.0.3 (also tried 26.5.0)
- Windows 11 on Arm 25H2 (build 26300), x64 emulation
- Guest GPU: Parallels Display Adapter (WDDM), driver 20.18.2703.58680 (Parallels 27's Metal-based OpenGL 4.3 driver)
- 3DEXPERIENCE R2026x HotFix 6.28 native apps, installed via 3DEXPERIENCE Launcher (CEF installed)

What happens:
1. On launch: "The graphics driver should be upgraded to 4294967295.4294967295 or later" (that's 0xFFFFFFFF, so I assume the virtual GPU just isn't found in the certified list).
2. After clicking OK, the app loads for a while, then crashes with "Memory access violation". error.log stack:
  vShaderConcatenation::Append / vShaderBuilder::SetShaderAccessConfig / vShaderBuilder::CreateInstance / vRendererLifeCycle::Initialize / VKL::vLifeCycleManager::InitializeModules

What I already tried:
- Upgraded Parallels 26.5 → 27.0.3 (new OpenGL 4.3 driver) and updated Parallels Tools
- Forced Mesa llvmpipe (software OpenGL) for 3DEXPERIENCE.exe only
- Reinstalled the native apps
Same crash at the same point every time.

Questions:
1. Has anyone successfully run 3DEXPERIENCE native apps (CATIA or SOLIDWORKS Connected) on an Apple silicon Mac – with Parallels, VMware Fusion, or anything else?
2. Is there a setting or environment variable to switch the VKL renderer (e.g., force OpenGL, DirectX 11, or software rendering)?
3. Does the R2026x renderer require DirectX 12? (Parallels on Apple silicon only supports up to DirectX 11.)
4. For Mac users, is there an officially supported path, such as the browser-based 3D Innovator role (xDesign / xShape)? My student tenant doesn't show that role.

I understand VMs aren't officially supported, so any community experience is appreciated.

Thanks!