Archicad

[antoinerousseau]

Archicad

Open Questions and Pre-Merge TODOs

• Keeps list alphabetical.
• Matches Standard App Line Format.
• App status is clearly stated.
• App status is consistent with already used verbiage.

Fixes #126.

Also created a new "3D and architecture" section, and fixed "Social and communication" title level.

[ThatGuySam]

I like the new category.

Looks Good!

[tudy25]

ArchiCAD 24 works via Rosetta 2 - tested with a base M1 Macbook Pro.

[antoinerousseau]

@tudy25 wow great to know! is it as fast? faster? slower?

any idea if v23 would work too?

[tudy25]

Unfortunately this Mac is my friend's and I tested this remotely through Teamviewer, so everything I was seeing was choppy, but he told me the 3D was smooth af in ArchiCAD when I was panning around (it is a pretty big, complex project - my diploma actually - lots of 3D stuff being processed on the screen)... but overall I would have to say the performance was great, even impressive, considering it's not native for M1 and the 3D viewport is in OpenGL afaik. I only tested v24 but I would assume v23 works too.
I've also tested AutoCAD 2021 and I asked him to zoom in/out of a very big and detailed autocad file (.dwg) and he said the animation was basically flawless (my gaming/rendering desktop PC is a bit choppy in this aspect!). I really don't know what Autodesk means by "not supported on Apple Silicon"... it works.
Now, I can't comment on the long-term stability but I'll have my M1 Air next week and I'll do a thorough testing and i'll try to install older versions to see how they work.

[antoinerousseau]

Perfect! Looking forward to reading your feedback once you have your own M1 :)

[antoinerousseau]

I also wonder whether paying for 16 GB of RAM instead of 8 would make a big difference or not, given the latest benchmarks of other software...

[ThatGuySam]

@antoinerousseau If you or someone you know wants to post benchmarks we can link to them for people

[antoinerousseau]

@tudy25 have you been able to try Archicad for yourself on your new M1? :)

[ThatGuySam]

@antoinerousseau Here's a review of Archicad on the M1 from Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7zLQgY65fs

[ThatGuySam]

@antoinerousseau Scratch that, I just realized the guy in that video doesn't even have an M1 and doesn't actually test it.

We'll keep an eye out for a video and add it when we find one

[tudy25]

@tudy25 have you been able to try Archicad for yourself on your new M1? :)

Yes! Sorry for the late reply! So I've tested it myself but I'm not really impressed with the performance honestly (yes, I said otherwise in my previous comment, but that was through my friend's not so "trained" eyes + Teamviewer) - my previous Windows laptop, a Huawei Matebook D15 (Ryzen 3500U + 8GB), was much smoother opening up even really big, intensive projects and being essentially locked at 60fps in the 3D, this while having a much weaker APU (around 3000pts in Geekbench while plugged in and with a fan! + weaker graphics, Vega 8 is good but not on the level of M1). On the Air, ArchiCAD is slowish and the 3D window dips to 20-30 fps with larger projects - it just doesn't feel responsive or snappy. Yesss, I know on the M1 it's Rosetta doing the work but even with Rosetta it should plenty fast. GRAPHISOFT really needs to work their ass off and take advantage of Apple Silicon, they said in their official blog post that in 2022 there will be a native, complete version which seems unjustifiably long. AutoCAD works fine but again not as fast as I would like. Otherwise, optimized apps are shockingly responsive and fast, battery is outstanding, 8GB seems to act like 16GB, the screen is gorgeous as we've come to expect from a retina MacBook, the laptop is light and portable - the Air is finally amazing in terms of value!

[antoinerousseau]

@tudy25 thanks a lot for this feedback!

[antoinerousseau]

I opened #463 to update the app status

[antoinerousseau]

Also: https://isapplesiliconready.com/app/Archicad

[ThatGuySam]

Cool website. Update is live!

https://doesitarm.com/app/archicad/