Intel MAC universal ArchiCAD version.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know when we will be getting a Universal Mac version of AC 9 or 10??

[Thomas Holm]

Nobody outside Graphisoft. But if Apple's claims hold, with Intel performing 2-4 times the G5, AC9 (or 10) will run fast enough (faster than today) on the macintels using the Rosetta translation engine. I don't know of any components in Archicad that are incompatible with it. (no guarantee, though). I hope someone will report how AC9 works on an intel Imac or Macbook soon.

I wouldn't hold my breath for a universal build of AC10. I would guess development had gone too far already when Apple announced the Intel switch. For me, bug-extinguishing is more important.

AC11 (guess: early 2008?) is another case. These new tools from Intel should interest Graphisoft:
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20060111corp.htm

[stefan]

Nothing official, but it's rather clear in this interview:

http://www.architosh.com/features/2005/features/interviews/don/0508-interv-1.html

Anthony wrote:
[AFR] What I'd like to talk a little bit amount now is the Apple-Intel announcement.

[Don] Sure.

[AFR] I understand that Graphisoft is going to fully support the Apple-Intel transition -- and I think that is wonderful and I didn't expect, honestly, anything less than that from Graphisoft. But what I'm really interested to know -- because you describe this chain or sequence between the original ArchiCAD product, which supports the Mac of course, and this construction BIM product that doesn't -- is, will the Apple switch to Intel allow more Graphisoft products to support the Mac platform in the future?

[Don] You know one of the reasons we chose the Maxon product to move forward on was because it supports all the platforms [Editor's note: Don is referring to the Windows platforms and the Mac platform as the platforms]. Whenever we can, we always want to support both platforms. So some of the ways in which we are going to go back at the market -- in the future with new technologies and products -- we will support the Mac platform.

[AFR] But not some that are developed around Windows technology?

[Don] Some of the products that don't are small enough still that we need to grow larger before we do that, and I'm not the decision maker there either, so there's a rationale for that, because the level of complexity is significant for supporting both platforms, and it's a challenge.

But we have a great system for handling this development and going forward this should expand. And hopefully the Intel announcement going forward will make that easier for us. And that will service everybody.

Rest assured that if Graphisoft takes the Mac serious (and they do) they have to provide a version for the intel-based Mac sooner or later.

[Anonymous]

Thomas wrote:
I hope someone will report how AC9 works on an intel Imac or Macbook soon.

One of the guys in our office ordered the intel iMac the day they were announced. Should be getting a report very soon.

[TomWaltz]

Millard wrote:

Thomas wrote:
I hope someone will report how AC9 works on an intel Imac or Macbook soon.

One of the guys in our office ordered the intel iMac the day they were announced. Should be getting a report very soon.

I thought it was another 3 weeks before they even ship... I could be wrong though

[stefan]

Millard wrote:

Thomas wrote:
I hope someone will report how AC9 works on an intel Imac or Macbook soon.

One of the guys in our office ordered the intel iMac the day they were announced. Should be getting a report very soon.

It seems pretty useless for ArchiCAD since it is not a universal binary at the moment.
And it might take some time, since ArchiCAD is compiled on CodeWarrior, which doesn't support universal binaries and never will... since it is being phased out for OSX.
Graphisoft will have to switch ArchiCAD compilation to XCode to be able to compile it as a universal binary (and doubling it's size at the same time 😉 )
This is possible, but not trivial, since it means switching compilers which is quite complex as optimization issues have to be retried and tested all over again. All in all, quite a large undertaking.

[Anonymous]

The iMac ships within 1-3 days. The new macbook pro is not shipping for several weeks. I'm just interested in how today's archicad will perform on an intel mac using the rosetta software.

[Chazz]

Millard wrote:
I'm just interested in how today's archicad will perform on an intel mac using the rosetta software.

Ain't gonna happen. Considering that Apple's own pro apps don't work on MacTel, (rosetta or not), it would be the purist of optimism to assume AC will work. Maybe I'm wrong, and I hope I am but the listed exceptions to rosetta working cover a lot of ground.

rosetta

Converting project scope

What breaks under rosetta?

Still, all this conjecture is silly (mine included). GS needs to step up and state clearly if their product is compatible or not and if not when it will be so.

[AndorSzoke]

Dear Talkers,

Please find the latest news related to this topic here:

http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/

Regards,

[Chazz]

http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/ wrote:
Januar 13, 2006 Apple® has recently announced the shipment of its new computer line based on Intel chips. We are proud to announce that Graphisoft is close to finishing the engineering work of porting ArchiCAD as a native application to this new platform. We believe this development is going to open new horizons to our Macintosh users. Work so far has been on prototypes of these new computers thus there is not enough information to decide on release schedules or publish performance parameters yet. According to our experiences conventional (PowerPC) Macintosh ArchiCAD versions may be started on these new computers under Rosetta* but Graphisoft does not support this emulated mode of running ArchiCAD. * Rosetta: Emulated environment for running PowerPC applications

Thank you AndorSzoke for coming forward with this. It sounds like current AC under Mactel might launch but maybe not be too stable or feature complete. Please keep us posted as your tests on production hardware evolve.