Archicad with iPad Sidecar Display

[Tincan561]

I have major problems with Archicad whenever I attempt to use my iPad as a second display with Apple Sidecar. Archicad is unable to open any floor plan, all favorites and object thumbnails are solid black, and Archicad continues to crash.

Is this a problem others have, and is there a solution?

[Christophe Fortineau]

Hello Tincan561,

I do not use Catalina to be able to have Apple sidecar but I use XDisplay which i very easy to use and free :
https://www.splashtop.com/wiredxdisplay

I plug an iPad Pro 13" with my macbook pro early 2011 15"

[Minh Nguyen]

Hi,

Thank you for sharing the issue and I'm sorry about the experience!

Sidecar feature has been released along with macOS Catalina/iOS 13, and the idea of using iPad as a second screen on the go would be extremely useful. On paper, it looks like macOS will "extend" its screen to the iPad, but due to the difference in how these two OS work and the limitation of iPad's computing power, I'm not sure about the compatibility with ARCHICAD. I will ask our Technical Support team to have a look at this issue. As soon as we have a conclusion I will reach out to you again!

Thank you very much!

Best regards,
Minh

[Minh Nguyen]

Hi again,

Unfortunately, we couldn't reproduce the problem in-house. I'm wondering when ARCHICAD crashes on iPad screen, do you have a Bug Reporter dialog appear? Could you let it finish then send the Bug ID to me for further investigation?

Here is how the Bug Reporter works: https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/knowledgebase/64553/

Thank you very much! Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best regards,
Minh

[Anonymous]

Hi Minh,

This is my first post after years of reading here at Archicad Talk. I still need to set up my signature...

I know this is an older topic now however it still remains as a bug or glitch in Archicad 24 and Mac OS Big Sur.

The issue raised here is I believe a problem of the drawing tabbed windows displaying 'blank' grey or white environments rather than showing the drawing and text elements we would expect to see. It is unnerving to find that when plugged in to an iPad as a second screen using Apples Sidecar feature that trying to open a layout, section, detail, worksheet etc usually results in an empty window displaying...

I attach a screen grab of my system. Also a screen grab of my Archicad window showing the blank or grey screen which should be showing the layout. It very briefly displays the sheet correctly if I navigate back to the floor plan window and hover over the preview tab for the layout, however it opens the tab as a greyed out window. This is repeatable every time I have an iPad Pro connected via sidecar. It also presents as a problem using the iOS app Duet Display to use iPad as a second display. We are in lockdown again and working from home it would be helpful to have a second screen. Searching on Archicad talk I found this thread...

This problem has persisted since last year (when NZ was last locked down) using V23 and Mac OS Mojave. This problem rears its head in every file I have tried. Pln files and teamwork files...

Minh there is no bug reporter because it doesn't crash out it merely shows nothing... Interestingly in the same file it now has switched to the floor plan window. Where nothing is now visible....?!! Screen grab of this attached also. You can see if it is legible at the size attached that I have selected all (210 items selected) and zoomed to fit (0.76% zoom level) with nothing visible on screen....

Sidecar and previously Duet (which I used to use before upgrading to Big Sur) work flawlessly in other applications.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help Graphisoft engineers resolve this issue.

Kind regards,
stay safe - Richard

[Minh Nguyen]

Hi Richard,

Welcome to the forum, and thank you very much for the detailed description!

Originally, the problem was slightly different, as Archicad crashed while having iPad as Sidecar display. I don't really use it very often, but during our test with a Macbook Pro M1, I tested with an iPad Pro and had no issue back then (running macOS Big Sur 11 and Archicad 24 at that time).

Recently, I noticed a similar issue on Archicad 25 (which seems to be the one from your screenshots?), running on Windows 11: if I minimize it, or put it under another active window, upon returning the Work Environment turns white/grey. A quick zooming in/out would refresh the screen, thus I could continue working without any problem.

I haven't seen any similar report, so it's a surprise to know that something happened specifically on iPad's display as Sidecar. I'm wondering if you have similar problem using only the laptop's screen?

Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best regards,
Minh