Installation & update
About program installation and update, hardware, operating systems, setup, etc.

ArchiCad 13 Won't Start

Anonymous
Not applicable
After the recent Windows 10 update to version 1903. My ArchiCad 13 will not start. I only get the Bug Reporter. Any ideas?
9 REPLIES 9
Barry Kelly
Moderator
I am pretty sure Archicad 13 was not written with Windows 10 in mind.
The fact that it does run on it is a fortunate one, but we can't expect old software that is no longer updated, to run on the latest operating systems.

Obviously something in the Windows update has changed something on your system that Archicad no longer likes.
You could try to find out what the Windows update has changed and search the posts in this forum to see if the changes to those files could be the cause.
There have been posts in the past where certain Windows files have stopped Archicad from working - I am not sure if it was specifically for version 13 though.

You could try re-installing or repairing Archicad 13 - that may or may not work.

Or roll back the Windows update and make sure you do not update in the future.

I can't guarantee either of these will work.
But if you have the opportunity to upgrade your Archicad - that will definitely work.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Barry Kelly
Moderator
P.S. I also moved this post.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
The interesting thing though, Barry, is that the ARCHICAD 7 'file conversion version', downloadable from the file conversion area of the Graphisoft web site, works fine with Windows 10... and it was also XP / way before 10 came around. The AC 9 and 10 'file converter' versions give the bug reporter, as noted by the OP below.

While I can see that GS would have their hands full getting all old versions to run in a newer OS... it seems that their posted file converter versions should at least work.

@Whyte: Did you try using Windows 10 compatibility modes? Right-click on your AC 13 EXE and click on Properties in the context menu. Then click on the Compatibility tab. You'll have a variety of options to try. E.g., try clicking on "Run compatibility troubleshooter", or just go directly to the checkbox for "Run this program in compatibility mode for" and select Windows XP Service Pack 3. Or, whatever version of Windows AC 13 was written for. It may require some of the other settings in that tab. Worth a try.
One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sequoia 15.2, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Yes, I forgot all about compatibility mode.
That would be another option to try before re-installing or rolling back the update..

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Karl wrote:
The interesting thing though, Barry, is that the ARCHICAD 7 'file conversion version', downloadable from the file conversion area of the Graphisoft web site, works fine with Windows 10... and it was also XP / way before 10 came around. The AC 9 and 10 'file converter' versions give the bug reporter, as noted by the OP below.

It seems that 9 & 10 require Quicktime to be installed as well as possibly being set to run in compatibility mode if need be.
Maybe 7 doesn't have that requirement.

From the file converters download page.
ARCHICAD File Converter versions 9 and 10 run on Windows 10 only if QuickTime is installed otherwise the BugReporter aborts the starting process.
Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Barry wrote:
From the file converters download page.
ARCHICAD File Converter versions 9 and 10 run on Windows 10 only if QuickTime is installed otherwise the BugReporter aborts the starting process.
Barry.
Thanks Barry. Guess I could try reading vs clicking 🙂
One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sequoia 15.2, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
I remember Quicktime being the source of a lot of headache with older versions. You needed to run older versions of it alongside the latest update (when it was still being updated) for the older versions of AC to run.

For what it's worth I was able to open and 'migrate' an AC10 file recently without too many problems. By migration I mean sorting out attributes and making sure everything runs on our current templates Building Materials, Fills, Surfaces etc.

So the upgrade path from AC13 to a current version is certainly possible with (relative) ease.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
Anonymous
Not applicable
Does anyone finded an issue to this problem ? Archicad 13 won't start on windows 10. I immediatly come into the Bug Reporter application ...
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
There is one other thing you can try: try to run AC13 in compatiblity mode:

1. Go to the ARCHICAD Installation folder.
2. Right-click the ARCHICAD.exe file and select "Properties" from the bottom of context menu.
3. Go to the "Compatiblity" Tab.
4. In the "Compatibility Mode" field, check the "Run this program in compatibility mode for" checkbox, and select the Windows version in the field below it.

It may or may not work, but it is worth a try. I don't know if any of these modes will work, I would try "Windows 7" first, and if that doesn't work, I would try the earlier, Vista versions as well. Hopefully, on of the settings will do work.

Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac28