Vectorworks 2009 System Requirements

The following are real-world system recommendations for running Vectorworks 2009. In some demanding cases, we would suggest a more capable machine than is described by these recommendations. Likewise, there are some less demanding situations where Vectorworks will perform well on older hardware. The Vectorworks user experience is always improved by faster processors and additional RAM.

Macintosh:    
Operating System:    Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later
Mac OS X 10.5.4 or later
Other Software:    QuickTime
Processor:    PowerPC G5 2GHz or better
Intel Core 2GHz or better
Other Hardware:     DVD-ROM drive (dual layer)
Screen Resolution:     1024 x 768 (XGA)
Display color depth:     15 bit or higher
 
Windows:     
Operating System:    Windows XP SP 3
Windows Vista SP 1
Other Software:    QuickTime 7.2 to 7.5
(higher versions not recommended)
Processor:    Pentium 2GHz or better
Other Hardware:     DVD-ROM drive (dual layer)
Screen Resolution:    1024 x 768 (XGA)
Display color depth:     15 bit or higher

Vectorworks Architect:
RAM:    2GB
Hard drive space:    10GB free
Vectorworks Architect plus Renderworks:
RAM:    4GB
Hard drive space:    10GB free
 

Additional Details

Strict Minimums
The absolute software version requirements in order for Vectorworks to launch are often but not always more relaxed than our recommendations. Vectorworks 2009 requires the following as an absolute minimum:

Windows:
Windows XP or Vista or later
QuickTime 7.2
All attached video monitors set to 15 bits per pixel or higher
Macintosh:
Mac OS X 10.4.0 or later
QuickTime 7.0

All attached video monitors set to 15 bits per pixel or higher
We do not currently have strict runtime checks of other aspects of the machine configuration such as the processor architecture.
Remote and Virtual Machines

We do not consider remote login environments such as Remote Desktop, Terminal Services and VNC or virtual machine environments such as Parallels and VMware to be appropriate for regular work, so Vectorworks performance in these situations is not of primary concern to us. They may be appropriate for administrative testing or utility purposes, and Vectorworks is fully functional in these environments. You should not expect high performance - especially with interactive screen feedback.
We do support Vectorworks running under Bootcamp on Intel Macs. As long as you have appropriate and current drivers for the hardware on your machine, you can expect fast and reliable Vectorworks behaviour.

Maintenance Releases
Unless there is a known problem with a maintenance release of the operating system, we recommend the latest maintenance release at the time we ship a new release of Vectorworks as a minimum because that is what we test with. If you have problems with an earlier maintenance release, we will often ask you to update as an initial troubleshooting step.

On Windows, we recommend against updating QuickTime primarily because most Windows users are not aware that Vectorworks depends on QuickTime and can possibly change behavior when QuickTime is updated. We have never had problems, however, which were traced back to bugs in newer releases of QuickTime, so updating QuickTime on Windows is not a risky choice.

64 Bit Windows
On the Windows platform, the user must choose whether to run with a 32 bit or 64 bit operating system. Vectorworks runs well and is fully supported in either environment, and we have no known problems in Vectorworks 2009 caused by running under a 64 bit operating system. Having said that, the following are also true:
•Vectorworks 2009 does not use 64 bit addressing and does not benefit from running in a 64 bit environment.
•Vectorworks does run about 5% slower in a 64 bit environment due to a 32 bit emulation layer.
•We have noticed that drivers for 64 bit Windows are somewhat more problematic than those for the more mainstream 32 bit versions of Windows. Should you choose to run 64 bit Windows you should make sure you carefully choose your hardware and driver versions to avoid problems.

Optimizing Performance
Newer processor architectures often bring substantial improvments in performance. Mac Intel CPUs are substantially faster than G5s and we recommend using Intel based Mac hardware in all performance-sensitive applications.
Faster or slower processor clock speeds have a predictable impact on Vectorworks performance. We choose our recommendation based on our perception of mainstream needs and the current available hardware.

RAM requirements are usually driven by performance considerations. Large files and especially complex rendering modes such as HDRI and radiosity consume large amounts of memory. When RAM runs out, Vectorworks usually continues to function, but is slowed significantly by the need to access the hard drive to provide virtual memory. Extreme lack of RAM may cause operations to generate errors in cases where given sufficient RAM they would otherwise succeed. Faster hard drives can have an unexpectedly large impact on system performance especially when virtual memory is actively being used.
Hard drive size requirements are driven by the total size of Designer with Renderworks including all content files. You can easily reduce this size by opting to not install some Vectorworks content files.
Video Cards

IMPORTANT - Vectorworks 2009 has a completely new document interaction interface which depends on a high bandwidth interface between the CPU and the screen. This has the potential to provide a very fast and fluid screen interface if used on appropriate hardware or a noticeably slower interface if used on the wrong hardware. It is especially important to choose a CPU and video card which are current-generation if you use Vectorworks on a very high resolution 30" monitor. Some users may be dissatisfied with 30" monitors when used with older generation processors or video cards.
We strongly recommend that all users check that their video drivers are current. Most functional problems have been traced to older video drivers during our testing.
More Information
For the latest information on our video card recommendations for Vectorworks 2009, go to the Vectorworks Knowledgebase and search for "opengl".
For the latest support information on Vectorworks 2009 go to the Vectorworks Knowledgebase and search for "2009". VectorWorks 2008 System Requirements. For additional info on Mac Intel & Dual Core Compatability please return to the FAQ General Section.

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Vectorworks 2008 System Requirements

The following are minimum system requirements to run VectorWorks 2008. In many cases we would recommend a significantly more capable machine than is described by these minimum requirements. The VectorWorks user experience is always improved by faster processors, additional RAM, and larger screens.

General Requirements for Macintosh
Operating System:   Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later
Other Software: QuickTime 6 or higher    
Processor:  PowerPC G4 or newer / Universal binary runs native on Intel Macs    
Other Hardware: DVD-ROM drive   
Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768 (XGA)    
Display colour depth: 16 bit    

General Requirements for Windows
Operating System: Windows XP SP 2 / Windows Vista
Other Software:  QuickTime 6.5.2 to 7.2 (higher versions not recommended)
Processor: Pentium IV or newer
Other Hardware: DVD-ROM drive
Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768 (XGA)    1024 x 768 (XGA)
Display color depth:  16 bit

Further Requirements

VectorWorks
RAM    1GB
Hard drive space    4GB free
VectorWorks plus RenderWorks
RAM    2GB
Hard drive space    4GB free
VectorWorks Designer
RAM    1GB
Hard drive space    6GB free
VectorWorks Designer plus RenderWorks
RAM    2GB
Hard drive space    6GB free