VectorWorks System Requirements
There are two different theories about system requirements – Those that barely make it, and those that carry us through the late night emergency drawing marathons.
| Mac General Requirements | Minimum | Typical | Ideal |
| Operating System | OS 10.4.10 or later | OS 10.4.10 or later | OS 10.4.10 or later |
| Processor | PowerPC G4 | PowerPC G5 or any Intel Mac | Any Intel Mac with one or more Core 2 Duo processor/s. Dual processors will be up to 40% faster for ray traced RenderWorks modes, so the more processors the better for this rendering mode. |
| Other Hardware - Drives | DVD/CD-RW | DVD-R/CD-RW | DVD-R/CD-RW |
| Other Hardware - Graphics Card | Any Mac Card | Any Mac Card | NVIDIA Card |
| Screen Resolution | 1024 x 768 (XGA) | 1280 x 1024 | 1680 x 1050 or 1920 x 1200 |
| Display Colour Depth | 16 bit | 32 bit | 32 bit |
| Other Software - QuickTime® |
QuickTime® 6.5.2 or later | QuickTime® 6.5.2 or later | QuickTime® 7 or later |
| Windows General Requirements | Minimum | Typical | Ideal |
| Operating System | Windows XP SP2 | Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista | Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista 32 or 64 |
| Processor | Pentium IV | Pentium IV or Intel Core 2 Duo | Intel Core 2 Duo processor/s. Dual processors will be up to 40% faster for ray traced RenderWorks modes, so the more processors the better for this rendering mode. |
| Other Hardware - Drives | DVD/CD-RW | DVD-R/CD-RW | DVD-R/CD-RW |
| Other Hardware - Graphics Card | Separate card with 16 mb VRAM. Video systems on the mother board that utilise system RAM are not recommended |
Good quality card with OpenGL support and 128-256 mb VRAM | Good quality card such as Nvidia, with OpenGL support and 256-512mb VRAM. |
| Screen Resolution | 1024 x 768 (XGA) | 1280 x 1024 | 1680 x 1050 or 1920 x 1200 |
| Display Colour Depth | 16 bit | 32 bit | 32 bit |
| Other Software - QuickTime® [can be downloaded from Apple or installed from the VW 2008 DVD] |
QuickTime® 6.5.2 to 7.2 (higher versions not recommended) | QuickTime® 6.5.2 to 7.2 (higher versions not recommended) | QuickTime® 6.5.2 to 7.2 (higher versions not recommended) |
| RAM Requirements (Mac/Win) | Minimum | Typical | Ideal |
| VectorWorks | 512 mb | 1 GB | 2 GB |
| VectorWorks with RenderWorks | 1 GB | 1-2 GB | 2-4 GB |
| Design Series (Architect, Landmark, etc) | 512 mb | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| Design Series with RenderWorks | 1 GB | 1-2 GB | 2-4 GB |
| Free Hard Disk Space (Mac/Win) | Minimum | Typical | Ideal |
| VectorWorks | 4 GB | 4 GB | 4+ GB |
| VectorWorks with RenderWorks | 4 GB | 4 GB | 4+ GB |
| Design Series (Architect, Landmark, etc) | 6 GB | 6 GB | 6+ GB |
| Design Series with RenderWorks | 6 GB | 6 GB | 6+ GB |
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