Will AC9 Run on an intel Mac

[Anonymous]

I've done a couple of searches, looked at 50+ pages of results, gone through dozens of topics within the index and I can not find a difinitive answer. Remodeling in the midwest (USA) is a little slow right now. Our budget is VERY limited. We would love to upgrade to AC11 but just can't at this time. Is anyone successfully using AC9 on an intel mac. We have a 2GHz intel core 2 Duo iMac. AC9 runs quite fast (well, I think it's fast since what I've been using is an 800GHz G4), but crashes if I try to print from AC (or print to pdf) and plotmaker crashes when trying to import 3D OpenGL images. If you are having success with AC9 on this type of machine, how did you do it? New print drivers didn't help. GS does not have any help. Architalk search didn't help. Any thoughts would be welcome, or,,, am I just wasting my time? Go back to the G4 and keep on plugging away.

[Anonymous]

"How are you importing the OpenGL images? and how are you printing, Network, direct connect?"

Jeff; We were importing the OpenGL images by - getting the view we wanted, saving the view in navigator, and importing as any other drawing while in plotmaker. BTW - Our reseller thought that was not possible under any OS.

We used these colored images for our cover pages. They looked quite spiffy and were quick, updated automatically, and for our carpenters that can't read blueprints, they just built em to match the 3D (just kidding of course). Alas, we will have to go back to the internal engine, or do a photo rendering. Not that much lost considering that we are 2 versions behind. V9 is soooo much faster. Speed is really addictive.

[Anonymous]

Jeff; Sorry, you also asked how we were printing. We use an HP Designjet 110plus nr. Networked. Very, very fast and reliable.

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone,

To clarify: By non Universal apps I am referring to Intel only apps as this will usually resolve most PPC only installation/compatibility issues.

Hi Dave,

Launching AC from an "empty" OS (no apps, AC/PM, drivers installed) resulted in the same crashing of OpenGL/PM when I tried to open it from another volume. Same project (separate volume from both OS's) and same app bundle opens and runs fine on the OS it was installed on. It appears as Rosetta uses an emulated graphics card for apps that use it and there is no path to it unless you use the installer. So it appears BGArchiCAD is causing the crash in PM on my end.

I had some printing issues early on with USB and networked (Airport Express) printers using Appleworks, Pages and FM-Pro 5 (Epson 1280). AC/PM and PhotoShop CS2, however printed. I installed the latest PPC drivers using Rosetta and all PPC apps worked. Same was true for an Epson all-in-one (466? USB). Scanner worked in all apps PPC, Univ. and Intel (I use Image Capture mainly) but printing from PPC and Universal apps did not until I installed the latest PPC drivers.

I am wondering if the proper installation of AC/PM may resolve both your PM and printing issues though, so I would try that first. If printing is Ok I'd leave it if your other PPC apps work as well. If not install the PPC drivers using Rosetta.

I had used views the same way. My Planning and Zoning sets were almost all OpenGL perspectives from camera views with the exception of a some FAS plans. Worked great. A tip to avoid insanity is to make sure you always have your AC preferences set to always rebuild 3D Image when you open the 3D window or BGArchiCAD will not generate the image in PM; Options > Work Environment > Auto-Rebuild 3D Window when activated. Each time the view changes it is re-activated. These settings over-ride the Navigator View's camera settings.

Hope this works for you.

[Anonymous]

Jeff; Installing plotmaker via rosetta, did not help. Plotmaker still crashes while importing OpenGL images. We will simply have to live with it, or, #1; we can send the lbk to one of the G4's in the office and use plotmaker there to print our CD's. #2; Produce down and dirty photo renderings. With the intel chips, photo rendering simple scenes, views, elevations, etc. is very, very quick. Only drawback to the photo rendering process is that it is not automatic. Each view has to be redone with each revision. As you know, using OpenGL was automatic.

Thanks, if you think of anything else, we are willing to give it a try.
Dave