Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Marton Kiss
Graphisoft
Graphisoft

Compatibility notes to ARCHICAD, BIM Server and BIMx Desktop Viewer on Mac OSX Snow Leopard

Snow Leopard was officially launched by Apple on 28 Aug 2009.
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ARCHICAD 17 is the last version of ARCHICAD to support Mac OS X 10.6
  • Suitable for running the BIM Server v16 and v17, but not tested separately by GRAPHISOFT. Not tested editions of the mentioned non server operating systems differ in features that do not affect the correct functionality of BIM Server
  • BIM Server v13-v15 is compatible with Mac OSX Snow Leopard
  • Suitable for running BIMx 17 and 16, but is not tested by GRAPHISOFT

Security update 2012-001 may affect PPC applications

Apple has recently released a security update for 10.6.8 named as Security update 2012-001. Many 10.6 users noticed problems after this patch that affects PPC based applications in Rosetta environment. Note: ARCHICAD 9 and older versions are PPC applications. Update: Apple has fixed this in a new patch.
  • Click on Apple button
  • Software updates
  • Apply the latest update from there

Problems after the latest Java update

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UPDATE: GRAPHISOFT has released patches for ARCHICAD 14 and ARCHICAD 13 to fix this problem. The latest "Java for Mac OSX 10.6 Update 3" causes numerous problems for ARCHICAD: here you can read about it.

BIM Server problems after Java update

For details and solution see: Teamwork/JavaUpdateSnowLeopard

Random Crashes

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This bug is fixed in system update 10.6.1. released on September 10. 2009. When opening or browsing for any file in ARCHICAD through the 'file open' dialog, Mac OSX 10.6.0 corrupts the memory used by ARCHICAD, causing that ARCHICAD may crash any time later on.

ARCHICAD crashes on start-up

This bug affects different ARCHICAD versions in a different way ARCHICAD 12 crashes shortly after starting it, if the following fonts are installed:
  • MgOpen Moderna.dfont
  • MgOpen Modata.dfont
  • Birmingham.ttf
  • BirminghamElongated.ttf
  • Cardo98s.ttf
  • CCPulpFiction.TTF
  • Druckschrift95
  • HevleticaRdBd.ttf
  • HelveticaRdBdObl.ttf
  • HelveticaRdBlk.ttf
  • HelveticaRdBlkObl.ttf
  • Imperator.ttf
  • ImperatorSmallCaps.ttf
  • isocp.ttf
  • isocp2__.ttf
  • isocp3__.ttf
  • isocpeur.ttf
  • isoct___.ttf
  • isoct2__.ttf
  • isoct3__.ttf
  • isoct2eur.ttf
  • (possibly others)
Other fonts may also cause crash, but so far these are the ones that we have identified. Workaround: Delete these fonts from the system. They are located in either of these three locations:
  • library:fonts
  • system:library:fonts
  • userhome:library:fonts
ARCHICAD 13; ARCHICAD 11 and older versions will not crash on start-up, but they will crash if the above fonts are used in the project.

Font substitution wrong between PC and Mac

This bug affects ARCHICAD 10-13 Some Windows fonts (if not available on Mac) are wrongly substituted on Mac. Some characters appear as rectangles in western font encoding. This problem affects only files created on Windows and moved to Mac. Workaround: Install the necessary fonts on Mac, or choose a different Font. Affected fonts:
  • Book Antiqua
  • Calibri
  • Cambria
  • Century Gothic
  • Gill Sans MT
  • Haettenschweiler
  • Lucida Sans
  • Palatino Linotype
  • Segoe UI
  • Tahoma
  • Wide Latin
  • possibly others

WibuKey update is required

This problem affects ARCHICAD versions 10-12: During the installation process the following error message may appear during WIBU Key component installation:
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The problem may not occur on computers where Rosetta environment is not installed. Hit OK to continue installation. The installation will finish successfully, and ARCHICAD will work. However, the same error message may appear again several times while working in ARCHICAD. To fix this problem, you need to install WIBU Key driver version 5.30, available from here: http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/downloads/WIBU.html
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NOTE:The driver available on this page is not the same distributed on wibu.com. Use the driver distributed by Graphisoft
  • Make sure to exit ARCHICAD before installing the new driver.
  • Uninstall the previous WIBU driver - start WkUninstall, which is also part of the 5.30 package
  • Run WkInstall
  • Double-check your version of the WIBU Key driver by starting the WkConfig application and opening the About WkConfig window from the WkConfig menu.
  • If you also want to use ARCHICAD 9 on this machine, download WkMAC.LIB as well and place it in the Library:CFMSupport folder

Educational version: License renewal fails

This problem affects ARCHICAD 12: Entering a new (and correct) serial number in the License Renewal dialog results in the following error message:
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The workaround is to uninstall ARCHICAD, and reinstall it again. Entering the Serial Number during the install process works.
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NOTE: Do not forget to re-install the WIBU driver again (see above). Reinstalling ARCHICAD will reset the WibuKey driver to version 5.21.

Paper sizes are not selectable in Page Setup

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This bug is fixed in ARCHICAD 13 Hotfix 2 build 3235. This problem affects ARCHICAD 10-13: In the page setup dialog certain paper sizes are not selectable (grayed out). These happen to Paper sizes have multiple sub-options. The workaround is to define the paper size manually. (click 'Manage Custom Sizes' at the end of the list)
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Reviewer does not work

This problem affects ARCHICAD 13: DWF files exported with Project Reviewer environment do not show in Reviewer.

Wrong national characters in the Installer frontend

This problem affects ARCHICAD 12: In localized versions, the installer frontend that appears when you insert the install DVD might show national characters in wrong encoding:
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QuickTime VR support is dropped in QT X

This problem affects all ARCHICAD versions: Apple does not support QuickTime VR technology in the first release of the 64 bit QuickTime X. QTVR movies created by ARCHICAD will not play in QT X, but rather in QT 7 which remains available as an optional install to handle all tasks that QT X does not yet handle.

Dock icon missing

This problem affects ARCHICAD 10 and 11: ARCHICAD dock icon is missing:
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Default Font type in Section/elevation markers are wrongly coded

This problem affects ARCHICAD 10 and 11: Some letters are replaced with squares in section, elevation and interior elevation markers with the default Arial Western font. Selecting a different Font will fix the problem.

Compatibility notes to ARCHICAD 9 and earlier versions on Mac OSX Snow Leopard

ARCHICAD 9 and earlier versions do not have an Intel Mac compatible version (They are PPC only) so running ARCHICAD 9 on Snow Leopard will require the Rosetta emulation environment activated. Enabling Rosetta on Snow Leopard requires a custom system install. (Alternatively, if you ever try to run an older program written for PPC which requires Rosetta to run, Snow Leopard will prompt you at that point to install Rosetta.) If you have problem running the ARCHICAD installer in Rosetta, use the 'drag and drop' versions available from the ARCHICAD Fileconverter page

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