I am aware that there are other questions about creating a VM from a live system (like this one and this one). I have seen a number of references on the web to using VMWare Converter, which is no longer available.
I have a macOS system on a 1TB drive that I'd like to convert to a VM. I have seen that for Linux, I can use dd, but I know that'll create an image that includes the empty space, which makes for a large image. I know dd can compress, but I don't know if VB can deal with that or if it'll impact the speed or usage of the VB I create from that image. At the simplest level, I suspect I can use dd and create an image on an NAS, then convert that to a VM. But I also know, with Apple's newer security issues, getting the full image may be a problem. I don't mind paying for a program to handle the conversion, but I also don't expect to have to do this very often, so I don't want to spend a lot for a limited use program.
As a possible alternative, if I could get a macOS image to create a new VM, I'd be open to that, but I don't know what kind of copyright, licensing, and other usage issues are involved with that. (If it's possible to just download a macOS image, I would want to create a 2nd VM using Mojave, so I could use some older 32 bit apps that won't work on Catalina and above.)
Also, if this is more appropriate for the Apple section, I have no problem with it being moved there.
