Windows 7

[KeesW]

Has anybod tried running Archicad 12 on the beta release versin of Windows 7? If so, how did it go?

[Rob]

I could not install ArchiCAD 9 on Vista. However, there is a project we started in 2004 which we worked on in ArchiCAD 9.

Actually this is a very valid point as we are in the same situation - a lot of legacy projects (still active) in AC9/PM9. It's virtually impossible upgrade all that mess to AC12. So there will not be any Win upgrading for us. Well and in the very close future the OS landscape will be changed anyway as Snow Leopard seems to be offering a very tempting 64bit alternative..

It will be interesting to see how successfully Win7 can face legacy software...

[Laszlo Nagy]

Rob wrote:
a lot of legacy projects (still active) in AC9/PM9.

Actually, PM9 was the biggest problem.
Since I could not install AC9 on Vista, PM9 could not start background ArchiCAD to update files. I guess because it did not have the appropriate registry info about where to look for it. I could not tweak or hack the registry to make it work either.
So I had to go and find one machine which had XP on it and there I could update my layouts in PM9.

[Erika Epstein]

laszlonagy wrote:
If this XP thing is true in Windows 7 then it is probable that previous versions of ArchiCAD will run well in that XP module. Which can be important to some (or many?) people.

This would be good news for all the reasons mentioned. Henry, is this something you can test?

[Ralph Wessel]

Erika wrote:

laszlonagy wrote:
If this XP thing is true in Windows 7 then it is probable that previous versions of ArchiCAD will run well in that XP module. Which can be important to some (or many?) people.

This would be good news for all the reasons mentioned. Henry, is this something you can test?

Yes - in fact you don't need to wait for Windows 7. The 'XP mode' is Virtual PC - a virtual machine which can host another operating system. This product was originally developed by Connectix to enable Mac users to run Windows, but was bought up by Microsoft and eventually released for free (although little known it seems).

The 'XP Mode' will be almost exactly like running XP on a Mac using Parallels or VMWare Fusion. Hardly qualifies as news.

[henrypootel]

The 'XP Mode' will be almost exactly like running XP on a Mac using Parallels or VMWare Fusion. Hardly qualifies as news.

I Agree.
Also, if you want to run old ArchiCAD versions in new OSes (Vista, 7, Intel-10.5), use the FileConverter versions of ArchiCAD. That's what they are for:
http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/downloads/Fileconverter.html

[vistasp]

Apparently there's a hitch to using the xp-mode - it will only run on those Intel processors that support "Intel Virtualization Technology", which basically cuts off a large number of users.

Here's a PC World article that gives more details.

No matter, one can always use VirtualBox.

[henrypootel]

Any mid-to-hi-end Intel chip bought in the last year or two has VT, so it's not such a big deal.
I still don't really see any reason that I'd want to use XP mode anyway though. I'll install it out of interest anyway though.

[vistasp]

Here's a list of desktop and mobile CPUs and their support for VT. There's a whole bunch of Core2s and even some Quads that don't.

So, many people who want a software downgrade will have to first do a hardware upgrade. 😉

[Anonymous]

Thanks.
Vistap wrote:
"So, many people who want a software downgrade will have to first do a hardware upgrade."
Now that's funny!
But I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[vistasp]

lec1212 wrote:
But I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

If your processor is not VT enabled, otherwise

Of course, as I've said earlier, one can always use VirtualBox.