Apple Silicon / macOS 11 Big Sur


Mark22
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Hi - 

 

I need to upgrade an aging Mac I'm currently using with X12 Premier.

 

Has anyone heard anything about Chief Architect support for macOS 11 Big Sur?

 

What about support for the new Apple Silicon Mac systems getting released next week?

 

There's nothing about either in https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-02761/chief-architect-minimum-system-requirements.html

 

The only hardware details are multi-core CPU, 4GB RAM, 5GB disk space and 1GB VRAM.

 

Thanks.

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5 hours ago, Mark22 said:

I need to upgrade an aging Mac I'm currently using with X12 Premier.

 

I'm in the same boat, but as Mark said, the new Macs don't support Real-Time Raytracing yet, so you might be better off waiting a bit until Apple comes with their line of graphics cards that can support it. That's my plan. Then I can get a machine that will be useful for a longer period. Hopefully the folks at Apple don't make us hold out for too long!

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

MY INFO - Running CA X12 Premier on MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 on fully loaded MacBook Pro 15" Mid-2014 with dual 4K monitors - will add this to my signature when I figure out how to do that

 

Upgrading to the new MacBook Pro 13" M1 would give me a CPU bump of a factor of at least 3-5; and, a GPU bump of a factor of 3.  But they require Big Sur.  As far as RayTracing, yes that would be nice, but so would a less sluggish system.

 

I did contact Chief directly as suggested and got a reply which says X12 will probably not run on Big Sur on my existing Intel MacBook Pro; to me that means I've got to figure out how to get ongoing security updates for other applications without upgrading MacOS.  And, X12 will probably not run in Apple Rosetta (the backward compatibility emulator) on the new M1 systems.  There's also no plan for X13 due in Q1 2021 to support the new M1 Macs.  And, support in general for Big Sur on Intel or using Rosetta is an open question.

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1 hour ago, Mark22 said:

MY INFO - Running CA X12 Premier on MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 on fully loaded MacBook Pro 15" Mid-2014 with dual 4K monitors - will add this to my signature when I figure out how to do that

 

Upgrading to the new MacBook Pro 13" M1 would give me a CPU bump of a factor of at least 3-5; and, a GPU bump of a factor of 3.  But they require Big Sur.  As far as RayTracing, yes that would be nice, but so would a less sluggish system.

 

I did contact Chief directly as suggested and got a reply which says X12 will probably not run on Big Sur on my existing Intel MacBook Pro; to me that means I've got to figure out how to get ongoing security updates for other applications without upgrading MacOS.  And, X12 will probably not run in Apple Rosetta (the backward compatibility emulator) on the new M1 systems.  There's also no plan for X13 due in Q1 2021 to support the new M1 Macs.  And, support in general for Big Sur on Intel or using Rosetta is an open question.

That is not what Chief told me at all!  They said they just got a copy of the new os to test and have not seen any reason why x12 will not run on Big Sur.  They just have not put it on the approved OS list yet since they have not fully tested it for any needed adjustments.

 

As Greg put above he is using it on both of his machines without problems.  There is another thread about big sur and I mentioned there that I bought a 13" mbp 2020 for my wife which will be here next week and I am going to test it out with chief.  That being said I have used a previous 13" mbp and I would not suggest even the new one for chief unless you are going with an external gpu. Maybe a mac mini might be a better cheap alternative to temporarily upgrade and use an e-gpu until the new 16" mbp with m1 come out next year?

 

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Thank you @Electromen (Greg) and @rgardner (Ryan) - that is very much appreciated news.  

 

I've attached (I hope!) the response I received from support - is there a better way of "contacting Chief"?

 

UPDATED - checked using eGPU (external GPU) - looks like the new M1 Macs do not yet support that...

Screen Shot 2020-11-18 at 3.47.04 PM.png

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1 hour ago, Mark22 said:

Thank you @Electromen (Greg) and @rgardner (Ryan) - that is very much appreciated news.  

 

I've attached (I hope!) the response I received from support - is there a better way of "contacting Chief"?

 

UPDATED - checked using eGPU (external GPU) - looks like the new M1 Macs do not yet support that...

Screen Shot 2020-11-18 at 3.47.04 PM.png

That's depressing.....it doesn't even sound like they have a plan in place for this. Come on people, these chips are insanely fast! People will be switching to Mac in droves once the newer chips come out that are optimized for power, not as much energy efficiency.

 

Are there any other design programs that are more active on the Mac platform than CA?

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X12 will run on Big Sur, we are still evaluating whether or not X12 will run on Mac devices that have the M1 chips, the Rosetta translation app is not friendly to OpenGL apps, but we are in the midst of receiving hardware and will test and evaluate.  We will be updating our system requirements when we have completed this evaluation.

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2 hours ago, clarkandaldine said:

I have been running X12 on our company iMacs (loaded with 32GB and 64GB RAM), and it is flawless. 

 

I am considering purchasing a new MacBook Pro with M1 and 16GB RAM and testing X12 to see how it performs. Anxious if anyone has given it a shot yet. 

 

I would wait until the 16" MacBook Pro with dedicated video card is offered with the M1

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3 hours ago, clarkandaldine said:

I have been running X12 on our company iMacs (loaded with 32GB and 64GB RAM), and it is flawless. 

 

I am considering purchasing a new MacBook Pro with M1 and 16GB RAM and testing X12 to see how it performs. Anxious if anyone has given it a shot yet. 

As mentioned I will be testing my wife's mbp w/ m1 probably next week and will report back.  But Gregs advice about waiting for the 16" with dedicated video is a very good suggestion.

 

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8 hours ago, Mark22 said:

Thank you @Electromen (Greg) and @rgardner (Ryan) - that is very much appreciated news.  

 

I've attached (I hope!) the response I received from support - is there a better way of "contacting Chief"?

 

UPDATED - checked using eGPU (external GPU) - looks like the new M1 Macs do not yet support that...

Screen Shot 2020-11-18 at 3.47.04 PM.png

That right there is a very annoying letter from someone who should not have responded as it is obvious from the tone they were in a bad mood and were upset.  It is contrary to what other technical support agents are giving out and also contrary to what the testing department clearly states in this post.  @Dermot @Chief_QA  This as you can imagine can cause a lot of frustration.

 

This is the answer I received:

image.thumb.png.1b86ca71ccbe408615be1ab7184302cf.png

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I spent more time tonight in CA with Big Sur.  

I don't notice any lag. 3D views all work as fast as before.  All of the Libraries and file structure are the same.

All the software opens quickly, just like it always did.

I use Parallels for Windows 10.  Parallels has a Big Sur update and also works normally.

I use Davinci Resolve Pro for video editing, it too is compatible.

So far, I haven't found any of my software or hardware having a problem.

On the Mac Pro, last year I upgraded the SSD and RAM with OWC products.  I emailed OWC before I installed Big Sur.  They said both upgrades are compatible with Big Sur and they were correct.

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On 11/19/2020 at 6:23 PM, rgardner said:

As mentioned I will be testing my wife's mbp w/ m1 probably next week and will report back.  But Gregs advice about waiting for the 16" with dedicated video is a very good suggestion.

 

It’s the sound advice needed.I have little patience so wanted to dive right in...but the 16” is very likely the solution.

 

Let us know how things go on your wife’s machine! Thank you 

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Be aware, that by default, the 16" MacBook Pro uses the on-board Intel video graphics when running on battery.

When plugged in, the default is the AMD Radeon Pro video card.

These defaults are set to preserve battery life.

The defaults can be changed in System Prefences > Battery > Battery > Automatic Graphics Switching

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13 hours ago, StephenGreene said:

seriously considering it.

I dabbled extensively 1 year ago. 
 

Short List of Archicad quirks:
 

- Forget quick and easy kitchen cabinetry. 
 

- Baseboards? Archicad? What’s that?

Interior trim is almost impossible. You won’t even find an instructional video on this. The closest thing they have works like Chief’s moulding polyline but it doesn’t recognize door and window openings. You have to trim those out.  
 

- You want a room label? Ha ha ha!

Archicad uses “zone stamps” although infinitely more powerful and customizable they are a real chore to implement. 
 

- Let’s say your garage door sits between your foundation level and ground floor. Archicad will not cut an opening on a different floor level other than the floor level that the door was drawn in. You have to go back and cut a hole in the foundation wall if your garage door was drawn on your main floor. 

Chief Superiority:

Chief is by far the quickest route from plan to 3D. 
 

Chief is by far the quickest route from 3D to framing. 

 

So, other than trimming, cabinetry and framing Archicad is on another level, that is, if you want to put in the time. 


Other Archicad strengths:

Collaboration, Dimensioning, and Construction Documents. 
 

If you’re coming from residential stick framing don’t switch. If you do, You will be back and will be $5000 poorer. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

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