Bug with ghost menu backgrounds sticking around on-screen on macOS

[Roderick_Anderson]

Hi everyone, over the past few weeks I've noticed a recurring issue on Archicad 29 (not sure if 28 is also affected, right now I'm only working on AC29 projects) on macOS. I'm on the latest version of both Archicad (29.0.2) and macOS Tahoe (26.2).

The issue is that sometimes, you will have an Archicad menu background that remains on-screen on your Archicad window, and totally impairs your ability to work. See image below as one example that happened today.

The image above shows an example of the ghost menu background that is left after the menu goes away.

This is the File menu that generated this ghost background.

 

At first, I thought this issue was totally random, and that only happened after working in Archicad for a while.  Sometimes it would not appear at all.

Today I figured out at least the situation under which this happens.

I work on a dual-monitor setup, with two 5K displays side-by-side. I will usually have Archicad on one screen, some extra palettes on part of the second screen, and then I have some extra room for maybe a browser window, our internal chat, etc.

I've identified that this ghost menu appears whenever I am doing something on a non-Archicad window on the second screen (I think this happens usually with my browser -Chrome- or my email program - I use Spark Mail), maybe due to an interruption, or maybe I'm researching something that I need for my Archicad work on Chrome, etc., and I am active on the non-Archicad window. If I come back to Archicad and simply click on the Archicad window somewhere (kind of just to make it the active screen), then all is good and nothing happens. But if I come back to Archicad, and before clicking on the window somewhere, I click directly on an Archicad menu that's where this ghost menu will appear. It does not happen every time, but that's the situation under which it does happen.

Today it happened, but I was in the middle of doing something, and kept working with this ghost partially blocking my Archicad screen, and then I repeated the behaviour (I was looking for some product specs and entering information as properties), and this time I clicked on the Options Menu (I already had the ghost of the file menu), and then I was left with two ghost menus.

If you click on any other window or program, the ghost menus go away (and the Archicad screen looks clean), but when you click back to the Archicad window, then the ghost menus return. Once they appear, the only wat to make them go away is to close Archicad entirely and reopen Archicad, then you have a clean workspace window again.

I'm pretty sure this has some relationship to macOS's new transparency look. I'll make one test later today setting the macOS window transparency to opaque and see if this makes any difference. If it does, I'll report it here too.

[Roderick_Anderson]

I've tested again with the MacOS setting for tinted instead of clear windows on the Liquid Glass settings, but the result is the same, I still end up with the ghost menu if I click directly on an Archicad menu after returning from my Google Chrome window on the second screen.

 

[Laszlo Nagy]

This is an issue reported by a number of users. It seems it is a macOS issue that occurs on various operating systems, not only Tahoe, but Sequoia and Sonoma as well. Some people say it may be related to a second monitor, some say it may be related to an external monitor, no definite answer so far as to the cause of the issue:

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Installation-update/ArchiCAD-28-3-0-amp-MacOS-Tahoe/m-p/677103#M...

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Installation-update/Strange-Modal-Ghost-Dialog-Box/m-p/683569/hi...

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Installation-update/Archicad-29-Bug-empty-window-over-working-wi...

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Installation-update/Drop-Down-Menu-UI/m-p/686464/highlight/true#...

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Installation-update/Issues-with-dropdown-menu-after-the-last-hot...

[BulldogBen]

I'm getting the same issue. I'm using a Mac Studio Display as my primary monitor. I'm on MacOS 26.2.

Any update on a fix yet as it's quite disruptive, and even closing and re-opening ArchiCAD doesn't resolve it - I seem to have to reboot!

[Lee Hankins]

We’ve got two users out of 12 experiencing this and most of them have the same setup, Mac mini m2 with an external Dell Display. I am using a MacBook Pro M2Max with an LG monitor and don’t experience the issue. 

[macOS User NH]

I got it to clear by changing display setting from extended to main, TBD if it's a permanent fix

[BulldogBen]

This morning I got some further info on this, and a workaround. It went like this...

1. Got the bug on my external  monitor (set as Main).
2. Set the MacBook as Main: bug moved over to the laptop.
3. Set monitor as Main: bug moved back to monitor.
4. Tried changing display scale slider: bug scaled with it.

I also noticed that when I tried to capture the screen (using Parallels Toolbox) using full-screen capture the issue temporarily went away:

Using area capture it was there:

I hope all this gives ArchiCAD some more clues to help them get on top of this annoying issue. It's the only app I use that's affected. I've included some screenshots.

A work-around for now is to "Fill" the screen with the ArchiCAD window (from Window > Fill menu or green pill at top left). If you want the menu to show without moving mouse to top of screen use this setting:

 

Many thanks

Ben

PS Here's my display setup for context: