Archicad for Linux

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I think the linux market share will grow in 2005.
I usually work with OpenOffice 1.9, Mozzila, Gaim, Skype, Oracle 10g, GIMP 2.1, Blender, Dia, ArcGIS 9.0 software that run on windows and linux,
I would like to work with a version of Archicad for linux,

Now we only have Building Information Modeling (BIM) software in linux:
- ARCAD 90, from www.arcad.de - only in german i think
- BricsCad, (brings DWG to the LINUX community) beta version, from www.bricscad.com
and a old 2D Software - Microstation 95 for Linux
Does anybody know if there will be a linux version of archicad in 2005?

thanks,
Bernardino

[Anonymous]

Now with all the problems and bugs in Windows and IE Graphisoft should consider Linux version of Archicad. If in our office we've had choice we would be using Linux or BSD. Now we use Open Office, Firefox, Thunderbird, Gimp, Blender. We still use Windows only because of Archicad. This is not the problem of the price (we have 5 copies of Archicad) but safety of our data.

[stefan]

Let them first concentrate on getting the Windows & Mac version ready. That is where most users are and where they have their experience.

[TomWaltz]

Let's remember that GS is not that big of a company. Creating yet another source base to maintain will cut their resources even more.

When you are porting software from one operating system to another, it can take many work-years to make the necessary changes.

I'd rather see the versions we have get better than support a niche market that obviously has no current user base.

[Rob]

Let's remember that GS is not that big of a company. Creating yet another source base to maintain will cut their resources even more

Yes, I think that Linux version would stretch them too much. although we all know advantages of Linux it is a huge effort to maintain 3 platforms. And seriously you can't ditch Windows at the moment it has become more or less standard OS at level of small end users who are not going to get rid of it so easily (for a lot of well known reasons). Personally, I do not give a ff about OS as long as I can print the drawings and photomontage images...

[Anonymous]

All you need to do to make AC available on linux is to make sure it doesn't use any windoze API's that aren't supported by Wine. If the programmers have a need to do otherwise they should add the API's to the Wine project. www.wine-hq.org I believe. Also, isn't OS X actually BSD w/ a pretty face? I know it's a pricey platform but it's probably stable (I've never actually used it but have heard about it since a Mac guy was in my Unix class until we drove him away with our constant ridicule :wink: ).

[stefan]

Skeptik wrote:
All you need to do to make AC available on linux is to make sure it doesn't use any windoze API's that aren't supported by Wine. If the programmers have a need to do otherwise they should add the API's to the Wine project. www.wine-hq.org I believe. Also, isn't OS X actually BSD w/ a pretty face? I know it's a pricey platform but it's probably stable (I've never actually used it but have heard about it since a Mac guy was in my Unix class until we drove him away with our constant ridicule ).

Are you sure you are not underestimating the efforts? ArchiCAD is allready playing on two markets. It won't grow by adding another one.

One of the problems of CAD-vendors is that most architects and engineers have jumped on using CAD. At that moment, not many people are new in the market: most of them have a software allready. New licenses are only sold to graduating students (if they have some money) and people switching from other software. Most people are just upgrading.

I don't expect a huge amount of new licenses sold when they release a Linux-version. Most possible ArchiCAD-Linux users will be allready using ArchiCAD on PC or Mac so they are probably only willing to pay a small platform-switch cost and that won't cover the costs of the extra development efforts.

The idea is nice, but this is a very commercial oriented situation, so don't expect free & Open Source ArchiCAD either. Someone has to pay for the development.

[Anonymous]

"stefan" wrote:

Are you sure you are not underestimating the efforts? ArchiCAD is allready playing on two markets. It won't grow by adding another one....

The idea is nice, but this is a very commercial oriented situation, so don't expect free & Open Source ArchiCAD either. Someone has to pay for the development.

Just to make myself clearer:

All Archicad needs to do in order to make it's software able to be run on linux is make some minor revisions to its existing code. Whether or not to provide installation support is an economic matter. I know some versions of intellicad can be run using wine, so I don't suspect it's much more difficult with Archicad. I hope that the developers are listening to this.

[stefan]

Skeptik wrote:
Just to make myself clearer:
All Archicad needs to do in order to make it's software able to be run on linux is make some minor revisions to its existing code. Whether or not to provide installation support is an economic matter. I know some versions of intellicad can be run using wine, so I don't suspect it's much more difficult with Archicad. I hope that the developers are listening to this.

IntelliCAD running under Wine was in development for quite a long time. It seemed not to be a trivial porting job...

[stefan]

Regarding Wine: Crossover Office seems to be doing not too bad running Windows apps in Linux.

http://www.codeweavers.com/site/products/cxoffice/

ArchiCAD is not in their database, so it was probably never tested.

MS Office Apps, Internet Explorer, Flash, Photoshop and a few others seem to be working in at least some configurations. AutoCAD apparantly not 😉

You can join as an "advocate" to promote and support the porting of certain applications.