We value your input!
Please participate in Archicad 28 Home Screen and Tooltips/Quick Tutorials survey

Licensing
About all sorts of licenses, their management, Graphisoft ID, Graphisoft Store, License Manager Tool, etc.

Can full and education AC versions coexist on same Mac?

jbArch
Newcomer
We have a summer intern who is a student and downloaded the EDU version to start learning archicad. We are using license manager to allow him access to my full version while working on our projects in the office. Ideally he could go home and practice on the EDU version after business hours, or use it for school projects.

But we are finding that the two versions don't play nice on the same Mac. No matter what we do, archicad ALWAYS opens in EDU version, even if the license has been downloaded via license manager.

Any tips?
AC 21 (8002) & 22 USA
Mac OSX 10.14.5 on MacBook Pro 2.3GHz Intel i7, 16GB Ram, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2GB VRAM, 500GB SSD
6 REPLIES 6
Eduardo Rolon
Moderator
• Have each installed to a specific folder from the start.
• Change the name of ARCHICAD.APP that is in the ARCHICAD 19 EDU folder to ARCHICAD EDU.APP
• Select a *.PLN use CMD+I and choose the professional version as the one to open all archicad files. This should fix your main problem since it looks like the EDU version was installed last and it "grabbed" all PLNs as its files so when you double click on it that is what it is launched.
• When the intern needs to open the EDU version then he will need to use right click and select the AC-EDU as the app to open for that file. Or alternative launch first the EDU version of AC instead of double clicking on a file to open it.
Eduardo Rolón AIA NCARB
AC27 US/INT -> AC08

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

jbArch
Newcomer
Eduardo, Thanks for your reply. I've seen you give that advice before when I searched the forum.

The problem is that Archicad does not appear to actually install two versions. It seems to just install one version and then looks for the license on the computer. Maybe I'm wrong about this and someone from GS can weigh in?
AC 21 (8002) & 22 USA
Mac OSX 10.14.5 on MacBook Pro 2.3GHz Intel i7, 16GB Ram, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2GB VRAM, 500GB SSD
Eduardo Rolon
Moderator
When you choose to install it choose a custom location and create a new folder. Then the next step should be choosing the version. One will be with serial number (EDU) one will be with WIBU (Commercial).
You cannot copy the folders and change the name since the protection system for the versions are different though you only need one installer.
Eduardo Rolón AIA NCARB
AC27 US/INT -> AC08

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

stefan
Advisor
What I do is move the education.lic license file out of the ARCHICAD root folder. I can than plug in a hardware dongle and launch the commercial version.
Simple stop ARCHICAD, move the license file back and than launch again to get an educational version launched.

That way, I have only one installation folder (per version, e.g. 19 INT).

Not sure if this works similar with a software-locked commercial version as opposed to a hardware-locked version.
--- stefan boeykens --- bim-expert-architect-engineer-musician ---
Archicad28/Revit2024/Rhino8/Solibri/Zoom
MBP2023:14"M2MAX/Sequoia+Win11
Archicad-user since 1998
my Archicad Book
stefan
Advisor
In AC 21 this works a bit differently, as the eduction.lic file is stored in a different place. But I do switch. At work, we use a dongle for developer-related work. When I teach, I use the EDU version. All from a single installation.
--- stefan boeykens --- bim-expert-architect-engineer-musician ---
Archicad28/Revit2024/Rhino8/Solibri/Zoom
MBP2023:14"M2MAX/Sequoia+Win11
Archicad-user since 1998
my Archicad Book
stefan
Advisor
That is exactly my point. You Install ARCHICAD once but have to ensure the license gets set before launching.
--- stefan boeykens --- bim-expert-architect-engineer-musician ---
Archicad28/Revit2024/Rhino8/Solibri/Zoom
MBP2023:14"M2MAX/Sequoia+Win11
Archicad-user since 1998
my Archicad Book