Differences between ArchiCad on Mac vs PC

[Anonymous]

I understand that ArchiCad is available for both the Mac & PC and am wondering if there are any differences between running ArchiCad on a Mac vs a PC? I assume that the program is functionally the same but am more interested in if the Mac OS/computer does things differently, better or worse than the PC OS/computer?

If things are basically the same why would someone chose a Mac over a PC?

[Brett Brown]

Thanks for that Karl, Do each window open keep there own layer combo and not the last active window combo in Expose when changing the active windows?

[Anonymous]

Normally I work on a Windows. To switch between screens I prefer the short cuts, F2, F5 or the ALT-TAB.

I don't get used to the messy floating windows of the MAC. Also whenever I am behind a MAC, I miss the cross button on the top of the dialog boxes.

Beside that there are no real differences to me. But there is the issue of the missing SketchUp add-on, the 64-bit support and the MAC-development seeming to be one step behind.

[Rick Thompson]

I am generally working on 2 ac's at a time, with many windows up, plus other programs. I have the scroll wheel set to Expose so all I have to do is click it and I see every single window easily… plus docked windows. I couldn't imagine working efficiently without it.

[Brett Brown]

Could someone please confirm with expose that if you have Plans, sections, elevations, detail windows all open at the same time, when you switch between them using expose, they all keep there own layer combo and do not use the combo of the last active window?

Also just talking to apple store about the graphics cards on the Macpro and they said that if I put a Quadro in it after I purchased it, that would void the warranty. Is this correct?

[Karl Barker]

1, expose will use the current operative windows layer and view settings. It does not save the different settings for each window. Although that would be nice. It is simply a convenient and graphical method of switching windows.

2, If you put the graphics card in yourself, I don't blame them for voiding the warranty, however if they supply and install the card, then they should honor the warranty.

Would you give a warranty to something that someone else has tampered with?

[Anonymous]

Hi all!

I'm not sure that writing a right topic but I need some help.
So the situation:
I would like to buy a mac but I don't know how will archicad and artlantis use the files that I made on pc. Will be changes in the file if I open in mac?
Thanks in advance!

Alex

[Ralph Wessel]

Kar wrote:
I would like to buy a mac but I don't know how will archicad and artlantis use the files that I made on pc. Will be changes in the file if I open in mac

In almost all cases, the file format is the same irrespective of the platform. So an ArchiCAD file produced under Windows will open and work in the same way on a Mac (and vice versa). You don't need to change anything for this to work. Move all your fonts to your new machine to ensure your typography still looks the same too.

[Erich]

Ralph wrote:
Move all your fonts to your new machine to ensure your typography still looks the same too.

However, you might want to take a look at this Wiki article before moving all you fonts. www.archicadwiki.com/SnowLeopard#ArchiCAD_crashes_on_start-up

Ralph, have you experienced any of these font issues?

[Anonymous]

Erich wrote:

Ralph wrote:
Move all your fonts to your new machine to ensure your typography still looks the same too.

However, you might want to take a look at this Wiki article before moving all you fonts. www.archicadwiki.com/SnowLeopard#ArchiCAD_crashes_on_start-up

Ralph, have you experienced any of these font issues?

If you've stuck to standard fonts like Arial there's no problem. If you're using big brand fonts like Adobe make sure you either have OpenType which is cross platform, or versions of TrueType or Postscript for each.

[Ralph Wessel]

Erich wrote:
Ralph, have you experienced any of these font issues?

No, I haven't. I use Font Book to validate all recently installed/upgraded fonts, which may have helped. It flags up any fonts that are incorrectly formatted, duplicated, corrupt, etc.

I mentioned the fonts issue simply because it's the first issue most people flag up when moving from Windows to Mac. If you forget to move your fonts, your documents don't look the same. Thankfully, its a very easy to do.