Bangalore, India
The 64-bit version of BricsCAD V13 (X64) is now in beta and will soon be available for the general public from BricsCAD V 13.2.2 onwards. The main advantage of a native 64-bit version will be the ability to open and mange large DWG files faster and more efficiently.
The terms 32-bit and 64-bit refer to the way a computer's processor (also called a CPU) handles information. The 64-bit version of Windows handles large amounts of random access memory (RAM) more effectively than a 32-bit system.
The current 32-bit (X86) version of BricsCAD runs under 64-bit Windows OSes. However, it is not capable of exploiting the benefits offered by a 64-bit OS. It now runs as a 32-bit application in a 64-bit OS.
A 64-bit Windows OS is now default on all new laptops and even desktops. With native 64-bit support, BricsCAD V 13.2.2 onwards is able to access RAM and other resources offered by the 64-bit OS fully and more efficiently.
- On machines with a 64 bit operating system, both the x86 and x64 versions of BricsCAD can be installed, side by side. Though they install and behave as separate applications, it is not recommended to run 32 bit and 64 bit BricsCAD sessions simultaneously, because this may lead to ill behavior of the COM API.
- The BricsCAD installer switches to using .msi for the x64 installer. For the x86 installer the switch to .msi is deferred till V14.
- The product language name has been added to the name of the install folder, i.e. the default install folder now is C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD V13 en_US\. Different languages can thus be installed side by side and they will behave as independent, unrelated applications. Please note that this is only true for the x64, msi based versions. For the x86 version this change is deferred until we switch it to .msi, that is with V14.
- The x64 version does not support VBA (the integrated Visual Basic for Applications), but it does support the COM API, which allows e.g. Visual Basic programs to run using BricsCAD x64.
You will see significant improvements while open drawings that run into hundreds of megabytes, or while doing rendering operations that need multi-gigabytes of RAM.
I foresee that in the future 32-bit Windows OS will become obsolete and 64-bit will soon be the de facto standard.
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