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

Win32 downloads

Anonymous
Not applicable
How do I run any archicad software on a 32 bit operating system? I'm considering a purchase.
3 REPLIES 3
Barry Kelly
Moderator
If I am not wrong from version 17 onward Archicad is only going to work on a 64 bit OS.
So unless you have and want to stay with version 16 or less then you are out of luck.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Anonymous
Not applicable
Barry,
Thanks for reply.
The computer I'm using is not very old, roughly 3 years.
Right now I can produce a CD set for a home addition, new home, commercial tenant reuse and new commercial up to about 20,000 SF.
I use AutoCAD, Sketch-Up and Chief Architect.
I can produce a 4,000 to 6,000 SF structure ( Architectural discipline only ) in roughly 45 to 50 hours from the time I get a signed agreement from a client to turning over CD's.
That being said, changing to ArchiCAD is a luxury, not a priority so having version 16 is still new to me and would probably meet my needs. But, if I am still only producing the same work with no real obvious change in what my clients receive, then spending $2,500 on software isn't worth it. I know people using Sketch-Up Pro that costs less than $700 for doing entire CD's for small to mid-size commercial projects. They look great, are as accurate as any other CAD platform and the learning curve is extremely low.
Thanks for your response.
wdm
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
Windows 10 is a free upgrade at the moment, and you can get 64 bit Windows 10 even if you have an old 32 bit Windows OS.

For example, I had Windows 7 Pro 32 bit. Upgrading to Windows 10 32 bit gave me a license code for Windows 10 - which then allowed me to do a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro 64 bit on top of it, retaining the license.

The pain of switching from 32 to 64 is that you must reinstall all software, it's not an upgrade path that keeps your current system and converts it. That can be an opportunity to clean things up, but be sure to deactivate any existing software licenses that require in-product deactivation first. (Office 365, for example, can be deactivated from the Microsoft web site, then re-activated. Artlantis must be de-activated from within the product in contrast.)

In my case, I upgraded virtual machines - so now have the upgraded 32 bit Windows 10 machine with all previously existing software should I need it, and then the copy of it that I upgraded to 64 bit Win 10 and use daily.

A little time-consuming, but it's free.
One of the forum moderators
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