Compatibility of Archicad 21 with MacOS Monterey

[Neil_V21 user]

Hi, first time on here.... I'm a V21 user and now that I'm semi-retired really don't want to upgrade (spend my pension) to a later version. I do however wish to keep my iMac upgraded and move to the new OS Monterey. The question therefore is will V21 work at all with Monterey and are there any real issues if it works however flakily?

Thanks, hopefully of good news

Neil

[Patrick M]

In my tests, some computers were fine, others were prone to crashes in monterey, especially on files using AC24 or older. AC25 runs ok on Monterey, but any tech support questions are typically met with fingers pointed at the OS update rather than looking for real solutions/work arounds... so I'll give you the warning I have been given on updating OS (or buying new computers that ONLY have the new OS): "this is what you get for being on the bleeding edge"

[Christophe Fortineau]

Hello Neil_V21 user,

I am not able to use upgraded AC21 on Big Sur with my macbook pro 2015. It is possible but not stable.

[Jussi_]

Graphisoft recommends to hold MacOs updates until Archicad is tested and bug fixed. This can take half a year, often does. And old version of Archicad won't even install on the latest MacOs. If you want to continue using V21 on the latest operating system, you need switch to Windows. Or save old Mac with old MacOs just to run old Archicad. And buy a new Mac to do not Archicad stuff.

[Reedesign]

I'm still clinging on to AC21Solo running on MacOS Mojave. Been nervous to change my machine or MacOS after all I read. I cant afford to upgrade AC 21 and it does all I need to be honest. My question is...I see that AC21 is listed elsewhere as being compatible with both W10 and also W11 ! If I was to change from MacOS to Windows10/11 would the files I have created in AC18-21 open under Windows ? If they open am I likely to see any major problems or would they be essentially fine ? Any thoughts would be much appreciated 😎

[Barry Kelly]

As far as I know all Archicad files are platform independent.

So you can open them on Macs or Windows PCs.

Sometimes there can be issues with fonts if both systems do not have the same fonts - there have been posts made here about this that you can search for if you have problems.

Barry.

[Reedesign]

Many thanks for the reply Barry. It would be interesting to hear from any community members who have actually tried this ? Font changes wouldn't be an issue. I will have a search around as Im new to the GC.  It will me shame to leave MacOS, but it's updated so often and it seems compatibility issues arise...along with dropped support from AC for legacy versions. Sad.

[mikas]

We work with multiple versions of Archicad concurrently, namely AC22 to AC25 now. Ongoing projects don't usually get updated to a newer one, and some projects do last many years, that's why the range of different versions (that's 4 versions, but actually none of the projects is on AC23).

We use MacOS and WIN10, and all the files are OS independent.

We work to and from cloud too, so everything is always available to everyone if needed, Mac or PC. But that's irrelevant to this topic, I guess.

slightly OT:

Unfortunately you are right about MacOS and Macs in general. Nowadays it's more a pain than ever, support being dropped for perfectly capable machines, yearly cycles of OS to try to follow and catch up somehow, all the Mx silicon soup in there now too, and native lack of some serious apps from Mx.

Me too would have liked to stay with Mac, but at the moment I use more and more my PC, to get into the OS and OS helper apps and so on. But I still use OS X too, because I just like it more.

[Reedesign]

Mikas...thank-you. That helps a lot and gives me confidence. It doesn't sound like you have many issues ( if any..) jumping from MacOS to WindowsOS. The new M chips in Mac also seem to be adding to peoples problems. I have colleagues who can't get Graphic design software to run properly with the new M chips. It's all a nightmare TBH. Given I cant afford  thousands to upgrade my AC21 whilst at the same time as buying a new machine, I think I will try a swing towards Windows 10/11. Wish me luck.

[claracruzalmeida]

Upgraded to macOS Monterey on desktop and Ventura on laptop; in both I cannot download License Manager Tool (LMT) nor make either archicad 20 or archicad 21 work. Any suggestions?