topic Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels in Teamwork & BIMcloud

PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:39:14 GMT

this is how a company I'm trying to do a short term contract for does their archicad. Why they do it this way is not my concern and is out of my hands.

I was able to load PC AC 15 on my 2011 MacBook Pro, using Parallels, an I can open the program, however, every time I try to access a teamwork file from the BIM server I get a message like "your computer does not have enough memory for this operation".

My laptop is pretty new, I don't have huge amounts of movies, or large files, I've added memory to the virtual machine, but I just don't know what else to try.

Any ideas?

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Karl Ottenstein — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:39:30 GMT

It's hard not to be judgmental about this situation! It seems pretty crazy to me.

I run Parallels on my Mac Pro to be able to run those Windows programs without a Mac equivalent ... and, very rarely, to be able to run an ArchiCAD add-on that is Windows-only. But, I only run ArchiCAD for the few minutes it takes to run that add-on - and then continue my work on the native Mac version...

There were some TW issues that arose in a mixed environment of PCs and Macs and perhaps that firm ran into some of those once and just stuck with a Windows-only workaround. Hard to guess. These are the current known PC/Mac mixed TW issues:
http://www.archicadwiki.com/Teamwork/CrossPlatform

There should be no reason that you cannot join their TW file from 15 running natively on your Mac, regardless of their server.

But, if for some reason you must run the Windows version under Parallels, note that you must allocate enough memory to the Parallels Virtual machine in the configuration dialog if you are getting messages about insufficient memory. (You also have the issue under Windows of choosing which of 32 bit or 64 bit ArchiCAD 15 to install and run...) You should also make sure that you've allocated the maximum possible memory to your the Parallels virtual display adapter.

Good luck,
Karl

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:03:33 GMT

Karl,

no one here seems to be able to explain the decisions that lead to this cross OS situation, but...

After it told me I didn't have enough memory, I increased the hard disk space devoted to the virtual machine, but it still didn't work. How do I tell it, either AC or windows that I want to run the 64 or 32 bit version of AC? That's one thing I wanted to try but couldn't figure out.

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Ralph Wessel — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:43:56 GMT

Arlouper wrote:
How do I tell it, either AC or windows that I want to run the 64 or 32 bit version of AC? That's one thing I wanted to try but couldn't figure out.

This depends, to a large extent, on which version of Windows you are using. If you are using a 32-bit version, you will not be able to install or use the 64-bit version of ArchiCAD. If you have a 64-bit version of Windows, I think the ArchiCAD installer will automatically install the 64-bit version (in which case the installation will be found in the Program Files directory - the 32-bit version would be in Program Files x86).

Also, check the amount of RAM allocated to your virtual machine. This is not the same as the amount of hard disk space.

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:58:56 GMT

okay, a couple good points Ralph. I have checked, I am running 32 bit windows, so looks like 64 bit AC will not work. And to be precise I did increase the RAM allocated to the VM.

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:44:50 GMT

I have now increased both the RAM and the hard drive space of the VM and still no luck. still getting the memory error. Error message screen shot attached. There are similar machines in the office doing what I'm trying to do, so there has to be something. Do I need to delete music or photos or something? at a complete loss.

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Karl Ottenstein — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:00:00 GMT

Deleting stuff won't make any difference. Attached is the Parallels version 6 configuration screen for the VM memory. I've been able to do what I need with just 1.5 GB, but you can see that you can allocate as much as 8 GB of your machines actual memory to the VM...

How much physical memory does your Mac have?

Karl

Edit: PS my screen shows 2 CPUs (cores) allocated to the VM - which is out of the 8 total on my Mac. If you only have 2 cores, I would probably only allocate 1 to the VM is you want your system to stay responsive...

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Karl Ottenstein — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:01:53 GMT

And here is the PD 6 configuration screen for graphics - you should have video memory at its max, which is 256 mb here. Might be more in PD 7...

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Karl Ottenstein — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:09:58 GMT

Since you're on a 32 bit Windows version, see this, even though it is aimed at send/receive issues:
http://www.archicadwiki.com/Bugs/Teamwork/SendReceiveSlow

Is the project you're trying to join a huge one? It might be that 3 GB, the max of real and virtual memory for 32 bit, is just not enough for the model?

Might want to compare notes with the remote office to see what version of Windows (and 32 vs 64) they are using, size of file, etc...

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:33:14 GMT

attached is a shot of my hard drive info to show memory

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:34:06 GMT

attached is a shot of my about this computer.

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:36:19 GMT

the last thing I'm going to do is make someone in the office with a laptop who claims to be able to open these files open them. I'm not sure I believe it.

I find it hard to believe that my new(ish) machine can't accommodate this, but I'll try a small TW file and see what happens there. I don't want to upgrade RAM, but is that an option?

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Karl Ottenstein — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:47:09 GMT

4 GB is minimal for a system that is running Parallels and OS X apps. How much of that did you allocated to your Parallels VM - 3 GB?

Your free hard disk space has nothing to do with Parallels per se. It only accesses its VM file - which represents the virtual hard disk for the VM, but it can automatically expand that file as-needed.

Yes, do check the other machines to see how they are able to access the file ... and the other Parallels VM specs.

Did you even try to join the project from AC 15 running on your Mac? If you don't make changes, send/receive, etc., but just join, look around, and leave, you won't have any impact on the file. But, then you can at least be sure that your networking setup is OK and that you can join the project. (And, frankly, I wouldn't waste any more time/money on AC-on-Parallels, but rather press this firm for why they are doing it as they are. Encourage them to contact me privately if they have questions, as I truly believe they are digging a hole for themselves.)

Cheers,
Karl

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:17:44 GMT

they are 100% digging a hole for themselves. This is a short, short, short term contract, I was supposed to drop in, knock out some details for CD's and everybody gets on with their lives. It doesn't matter why they do this nonsensical AC on parallels thing because after I leave they will continue to do it this way. You're correct in your assessment, I'm just saying.

If we can figure out how to access their windows based server from my mac side( a windows server I believe is at the root of this whole windows debacle) maybe we can work something out, but I think I'm at the end of my interest in investigating. I've only got a couple weeks on this contract, and I think we'll just shift non-production people to other desktops for the remainder of the contract.

Both of you who had answers, thanks very much. I feel like we got really, really close to figuring this out. C'est la vie.

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Ralph Wessel — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:51:02 GMT

Arlouper wrote:
I find it hard to believe that my new(ish) machine can't accommodate this, but I'll try a small TW file and see what happens there. I don't want to upgrade RAM, but is that an option?

If you are working with largish TW projects, I don't think you have adequate RAM to access them via a Windows VM under Parallels. I suspect that ArchiCAD would want the total amount of RAM installed on your laptop dedicated to Windows alone, but you are also running Parallels and the Mac OS. If you allocate too much to Parallels, your whole machine will start to run at a snail's pace.

RAM should be cheap - it's worth taking a look at what an upgrade from someone like Crucial would cost.

BootCamp may be another alternative - that would enable you to dedicate all the resources of your laptop to Windows alone.

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:28:27 GMT

Ralph and Karl,

Thanks for your help. I may upgrade my RAM, because this seems like a good reason to do so, but ultimately I'm just going to make sure I have all the facts about the systems involved before I take another contract like this.

Thanks,
Mickey

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:46:03 GMT

I collaborate with a pc network using Archicad 15 (64bit) on a Macbook Pro- no problems. As long as I don't plug the machine in direct to their ethernet the IT boys dont seem to mind.
I also run Revit 2012 on Window 7 64bit via Bootcamp - only 4G of Ram but perfromance ok as long as the project is not huge but time to invest in more RAM nevertheless.
VM Ware or Parallels would need 8G at least. The boot time between MacOS and Windows not too bad as long as I am not switching often.

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:35:21 GMT

Me again. I ended up upgrading my RAM from 4 to 8 GB and for the last 2 or 3 weeks the system has worked fine. Today, all of a sudden, I now have a bad preferences file (which I deleted) and now am back to getting the "machine does not have enough memory" error again.

I have devoted 6GB to the virtual machine, the xp virtual disk has been defragmented, I am at my wits end with this.

The other thing that I don't understand: I ran the Mac Activity Monitor while starting up archicad and while trying to send and recieve parallels went from about 20% of cpu usage to 103%. is there a way to slow down the send and recieve or something?

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:14:43 GMT

one last question, should I break down and install bootcamp, and how much of a pain in the rear is that going to be for me?

Re: PC Archicad 15 on a MAC with Parallels

Ralph Wessel — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:53:02 GMT

Arlouper wrote:
Me again. I ended up upgrading my RAM from 4 to 8 GB and for the last 2 or 3 weeks the system has worked fine. Today, all of a sudden, I now have a bad preferences file (which I deleted) and now am back to getting the "machine does not have enough memory" error again.

I have devoted 6GB to the virtual machine, the xp virtual disk has been defragmented, I am at my wits end with this.

The other thing that I don't understand: I ran the Mac Activity Monitor while starting up archicad and while trying to send and recieve parallels went from about 20% of cpu usage to 103%. is there a way to slow down the send and recieve or something?

I wouldn't allocate more than 50% of your installed RAM to a virtual machine - it is likely to cause performance problems for the whole. It sounds to me as if something has been corrupted in your project - this can cause all kinds of errors (including "not enough memory"), but the messages are misleading, i.e. the problem can't be fixed with more memory. Is the project working normally on another machine?

It's quite normal for activity to go up to 100% or more during processor-intensive activities. Handbrake can push mine up to around 750%. Was it 20% formerly and has only recently short up to the higher figure?