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

Big Sur for Archicad?

Kans
Participant
Is any problem with Big Sur?
I plan to upgrade to Big Sur tomorrow.
AC24, iMac 2020,Intel Core i9 3,6GHz 10-Core
AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB
15 REPLIES 15
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Usual advice for any professional: NEVER upgrade to new MacOS when it is first released. Wait for all critical software vendors to confirm that your essential software works fine. Typically, it has taken Apple at least one or two updates to get a stable general release.

If you, like many before you on these forums, just cannot wait to upgrade: Please do yourself a favor and make a full, bootable clone of your current machine so that if you run into Big Sur issues, you can boot from the clone to continue to get work done.
One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sonoma 14.7.1, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Big Sur upgrade advice from Graphisoft:

https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/knowledgebase/129835/
One of the forum moderators
AC 28 USA and earlier   •   macOS Sonoma 14.7.1, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Kans
Participant
Thanks for your advice.
AC24, iMac 2020,Intel Core i9 3,6GHz 10-Core
AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB
rm
Advisor
Karl wrote:
Big Sur upgrade advice from Graphisoft:

https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/knowledgebase/129835/
Thanks for posting this helpful link Karl! Though after reading it, it is very disappointing to read GS is now only supporting their software 2 versions back for the current OS, at least on the Mac.

Given GS has been on a yearly update schedule for ArchiCAD, given it they are suggesting to wait for several updates to a newly released OS before making the switch if one is using ArchiCAD and given it is not uncommon at all for larger projects to last several years from start to construction completion; it is irresponsible for GS to only support AC version 2 versions back.

In my opinion, again given the now common model of "major" OS updates and "major" version upgrades of ArchiCAD, it seems GS owes its customers better/longer support for each version of AC. In my opinion, they should support at least 3 versions back, better 4, though that is probably a pipe dream.
Robert Mariani
MARIANI design studio, PLLC
Architecture / Architectural Photography
www.robertmariani.com

Mac OSX 13.1
AC 24 / 25 / 26
Eduardo Rolon
Moderator
AFAIK GS has only supported the last 2 versions since I bought V8 in 2002
Eduardo Rolón AIA NCARB
AC27 US/INT -> AC08

Macbook Pro M1 Max 64GB ram, OS X 10.XX latest
another Moderator

Kans
Participant
To read es makes me sad because I bought new iMac 2020..
ArchiCAD had always special points for Mac. Maybe no more.

I had to update Big Sur to watch 4k Video in Youtube and Netflix in Safari without CPU Load.
Of course for private using (but during Corona how can I avoid working at home if necessary?)
I had made Back Up before updating. So far everything runs fine.
GS may be afraid of some unknown problems in case of update.

Graphic advantage for ArchiCAD: in case of dark mode (?) it looks more fine. I have insert to show to compare.
There is no speed advantage till now. The rounded edge looks gut.
Project manager tool is still highly loaded.
I need some tipps how I manage Project Manager to optimize CPU or GPU..
AC24, iMac 2020,Intel Core i9 3,6GHz 10-Core
AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB
Bob Moore
Enthusiast
Again thanks Karl for the info.
But I must say I agree with Robert:
"it is very disappointing to read GS is now only supporting their software 2 versions back for the current OS, at least on the Mac.

Given GS has been on a yearly update schedule for ArchiCAD, given it they are suggesting to wait for several updates to a newly released OS before making the switch if one is using ArchiCAD and given it is not uncommon at all for larger projects to last several years from start to construction completion; it is irresponsible for GS to only support AC version 2 versions back.

In my opinion, again given the now common model of "major" OS updates and "major" version upgrades of ArchiCAD, it seems GS owes its customers better/longer support for each version of AC. In my opinion, they should support at least 3 versions back, better 4, though that is probably a pipe dream."

I too am very disappointed, more like an Autocad support treatment.
AC 7 - 27

iMac 27"

Mac OS Sonoma 14.0

3.1 GHz 6-Core Intel Core

32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

Radeon Pro 575X 4 GB
rm
Advisor
To add insult to injury, I have a "non critical" iMac that I installed Big Sur on. I have noticed it seems to be "snappier" at everything from accessing my network to loading web pages.

I decided to open a current AC24 project on that same machine, a project that works fine on a machine running Catalina. I was astonished upon launching the project on the iMac running Big Sur, how much of the model was missing. Im not talking about speciality library parts. Im talking about walls and roofs. This was very disappointing and tells me GS has done a terrible job preparing AC24 for Big Sur, if they have at all.

Big Sur has been in developer hands for months, there is no excuse for this bad of an implementation from GS.

Yet they only want to support AC for 2 versions back, not acceptable from perspective.
Robert Mariani
MARIANI design studio, PLLC
Architecture / Architectural Photography
www.robertmariani.com

Mac OSX 13.1
AC 24 / 25 / 26
Minh Nguyen
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
rm wrote:
To add insult to injury, I have a "non critical" iMac that I installed Big Sur on. I have noticed it seems to be "snappier" at everything from accessing my network to loading web pages.

I decided to open a current AC24 project on that same machine, a project that works fine on a machine running Catalina. I was astonished upon launching the project on the iMac running Big Sur, how much of the model was missing. Im not talking about speciality library parts. Im talking about walls and roofs. This was very disappointing and tells me GS has done a terrible job preparing AC24 for Big Sur, if they have at all.

Big Sur has been in developer hands for months, there is no excuse for this bad of an implementation from GS.

Yet they only want to support AC for 2 versions back, not acceptable from perspective.

Screen Shot 2020-11-16 at 11.26.51 AM.jpg
Dear Robert,

Thank you very much for your report and I am very sorry about the issue!

We were and still are doing intensive tests with the new macOS. This is something that we have never seen before. I'm wondering if you are willing to share with us the project in PLA format? It's definitely worth taking a closer look. Please let me know if you need a secure link to upload the file also.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best regards,
Minh

Minh Nguyen
Technical Support Engineer
GRAPHISOFT