MacBook Pro VMWare Win7 Archicad 16 crash

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

Ive just installed archicad 16 on my Macbook Pro Retina 15.
Ive installed it on Windows 7 using VMware as a partition. (All my work is on windows OS)

It installed fine, however when i for example draw a wall and the click on 3d to view it, it crashes within a few seconds.

Any ideas what the problem might be? I need to get it up and running asap.

[Karl Ottenstein]

This isn't a Macbook question, but a VMWare issue. Are you running the latest version of VMWare? Even the latest does not have as good graphics performance as Parallels Desktop, but I believe Matthew Lohden here is running a similar configuration as you are; perhaps he'll contribute here.

Did you get a Grpahisoft bug reporter / crash report? A Windows crash report? Anything with a log to suggest the cause of the crash?

Does your virtual machine's virtual C: drive have LOTS of free space (at least several GB) for temporary files / swap files / etc?

If you have to run ASAP, is there some reason you cannot run the OS X version of AC 16 while you sort out the issue with your virtual machine?

[Anonymous]

Ahh ok, im new to the whole Macbook thing, only had it for a week and recently converted. Eveything at work is windows based (autocad, archicad, artlantis) so thats why ive put VMware on it so i can work from home.

It is a Graphisoft Bug Error that appears a few seconds after.

[Karl Ottenstein]

So, the latest version of VMWare Fusion - 6? You'd have to open up the Bug Reporter to see what it is saying... or edit the bug report and add a note with your email address / phone number before submitting so that tech support can get back in touch with you.

Without seeing that info, I can't even guess what might be the issue - other than insufficient space on your virtual C: drive - please check, and if it isn't several GB as mentioned - look at the VMWare help to see how to expand the disk.

Which year/model Macbook = how many cores, how much total RAM? Does it have a dedicated graphics card (Pro model)? How many cores and how much RAM did you allocate to your VMWare Windows 7 virtual machine? In other words - does the allocation of resources that you gave your VM exceed the minimal requirements GS lists for running AC 16? Have you applied all hotfixes so that AC 16 is on the most current build?

You will have a far superior experience running ArchiCAD and Artlantis natively on your Macbook in the meantime. There are times/reasons (certain add-ons) that running the Windows version of AC is useful, but generally, running the OS X version will give you the best performance. Note that both Mac and Windows versions are available for download or on DVD, and your license key works with both.

[Karl Ottenstein]

...and to clarify: when you say everything at work is Windows-based, so you're running Windows on your Mac to be able to work from home... Just so you know, files for ArchiCAD, Artlantis, MS Office are the same on Windows and Mac, so it doesn't matter which platform you're using to edit. Unless... there's some technological limitation with how you're accessing files at work that requires you to be using Windows?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your prompt replies.

Its a MacBook Pro Retina 15" (2013 model) 512gb flash storage, 16gb ram (8gb to windows 7), 2.7ghz quad core i7, Nvidia Geforce GT 650m 1gb graphics.

Im running VMware 5.03 with windows 7. Partition to 80gb (49gb free space) so i dont think space would be the issue.

I am unsure if the hotfixes are installed as I.T at work did all that. I presume so.

I didnt realise it was all the same. Having windows on it is turning to be a bit of a pain in the arse. If thats the case i may just end up installing it direct to osx.

[Anonymous]

Figured it out, had to turn off "accelerate 3d graphics". Easier then i thought it would be.
Not very crisp graphics on windows though so will probably put it on for mac anyway.

Thanks for your help!

[Karl Ottenstein]

Glad you figured it out! Excellent machine configuration - should work well for many years.