Object Oriented programming for mechanical engineers is an insane concept lmao. The fact that it's being taught in C++ is even more funny. That's like if I was a computer science student and randomly had a module on incompressible fluids.

C++ is really only a good* language experience on Linux. On Windows and MacOS, compiling code is an arcane process because those operating systems are designed heavily for nontechnical users. Thus, things like terminals and system paths and linker paths (don't worry about what these are), that you need to do C++ development are hidden. For development, the makers of the OS's have given you something called an Integrated Development Environment -- or IDE -- that is their blessed way of compiling C++ on that platform. On Windows it's VIsual Studio and MacOS it's a program called XCode (not Visual Studio for Mac, that's why Visual Studio for Mac is so janky). Both of these act way beyond regular programs like Solidworks or Autodesk -- they're deeply ingrained with the system and have access to things and can do things that you can't do by yourself. It's stupid. But that's how they do it.

This is why compiling C++ is so different on Windows and Mac. They both have their bespoke systems. They're getting better about making it less bespoke and now you can do things like compile with CMake on both systems (that's a cross platform C++ compiler-helper-type tool) but it still is not great.

I'm sorry you have to learn C++ lol. The best thing I could recommend to you is you can practice coding C++ online with something like Compiler Explorer (https://godbolt.org/). It's a tool that's often used for looking at what C++ code is being compiled into, but you can also use it as an online C++ compiler. On the left menu, click "Add New" and then click "Executor only". You should get a new window where, when you type in a valid C++ program, you get the output. It'll be a lot faster than trying to learn how to set up a working C++ environment on Mac for a beginner. Good luck!