Archicad 14 and 64 bit XP or W7

[Anonymous]

Hi there new to this foum so please be gentle

I am using archicad 14 on windows Xp
I have 4 meg RAM on a Dell Lattitude laptop

Is there an advantage to going to windows 7 and 64 bit
If I do would be better to increase RAM?

Is archicad 14 64 bit ? seen differing info on this
Ive seen some talk about sketch up not working on 14 as its 64 bit
and also some saying that A15 is 64 bit not A14

How can the same software work on 32 bit and 64 bit windows? Same disk /version of archicad -
normally programs are written for 64 bit or 32 bit
thanks

[Anonymous]

Ashley,

You ask quite a few questions there let me see if I can answer them in order.

1. Windows 7 & 64 Bit IMHO I would spend the extra & up the RAM as you will notice a difference in performance. I made the leap & still have Computers in this Office that are running on lower specs & I really notice the difference when I go back to one of the older specked machines.

2. ArchiCAD 14 comes in both 64 & 32 bit configurations & the install is determined by your OS being either 32 or 64 Bit. Obviously in your present config XP is 32 Bit but if upgrade to Windows 7 then you have the option of either 32 or 64 Bit & at time of installation you should determine which best suits your needs. IMHO I would suggest 64 as it is the move forward.

3. As eluded to in the previous answer it doesn't use both 32 & 64 Bit it is installed as per your operating system & makes the intuitive choice without your need to intervene at installation.

Hope this helps

[Anonymous]

Thanks
Are there any disadvantages in going to 64 bit?
eg I see there is a program called google sketch up that seems to be an older program is there a way of getting this on 64 bit Arch 14?

this may be a bit off topic but related

[NCornia]

SketchUp is 32 bit only but will run on 64 bit systems and FYI ArchiCAD has been around much longer than SketchUp.

[Anonymous]

Ashley,

You probably would need to speak to someone with more IT expertise than I have but the one glaring issue that we have come accros & are trying to remedy quickly is the in ability to be able to install back beyond Archicad 10. The problem seem to be in the version of Java that is required.

We have 18 Machines in here & they are mainly Windows 7 OS but are anything upto 3yo with some minor RAM Upgrades.

As NCornia said you are still able to run 32 Bit programs on a 64 Bit OS.

[Anonymous]

I think IO can help you there . If I want to open older than v10 files - say Archicad 6 I have to use v10 or V9 and then resave them in that version . 14 seems to only go back to verison 10 . You need to keep an old version 10 somewhere

[vistasp]

Just a quick note that with a 32-bit OS, the maximum RAM you can have is 4 Gigs. Migrating to a 64-bit OS allows you to cross that barrier.

[vistasp]

This page might be useful too.

There's also this page on the wiki which gives you a good idea of the benefits and drawbacks.