HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

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skybound13
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2014 3:37 am

HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Post by skybound13 »

Hello,

Has anyone used HighDesign 1.8.7 with MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra)? I have the opportunity to purchase a used iMac with 10.13, would like to confirm this before making the purchase.

HD 1.8.7 runs just fine on my MacBook Pro running 10.10.1 (Yosemite,) I am assuming that HD 1.8.7 will run on 10.13 based on this comment from Ilexsoft:

“Pre-2016 Versions. Legacy versions of HighDesign, older than 2016.0 (2015.x, 1.8.7) will not run on macOS Catalina as they are 32-bit applications and Catalina only runs 64-bit software.” [from article “HighDesign and macOS Catalina (10.15)“ at http://help.ilexsoft.com/doku.php?id=en ... &s[]=1.8.7]. So, sounds like HD 1.8.7 will run on the 32-bit operating systems but I’d like to see if any users can confirm this.

Thank you.

skybound13
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2014 3:37 am

Re: HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Post by skybound13 »

Hello,

The day before I posted this, I emailed Ilexsoft asking a similar question regarding running 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.12 through 10.15, they responded today with the following:

“HighDesign 1.8.7 does not run on macOS 10.15 Catalina or more recent versions of the system.
If you wish to buy a used iMac, I would suggest to purchase one that can be upgraded to macOS 10.12, 10.13 or 10.14: this way you can install and use HighDesign 1.8.7 and even the upcoming new HighDesign R6 when and if you decide to upgrade.”

macitect
Posts: 618
Joined: Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:52 pm
Location: California

Re: HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Post by macitect »

I'm still running HD 1.8.7 (last stable version!) on OSX.12.6... It runs fine.
I've had enough of 'upgrades' from both Ilexsoft and Apple... I stupidly updated my Mac OS because I had such high hopes for the new versions of High Design (2017 and then R5). 2017 is usable - just about, R5 not so much.

skybound13
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2014 3:37 am

Re: HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Post by skybound13 »

Thank you for confirming that HD 1.8.7 is running on macOS 10.12.6.

I am super wary of updating anything, I got burned when I updated Mavericks (preinstalled on my MacBook Pro) to Yosemite when I was beta testing HighDesign 2014/2015 - I somehow missed the fine print saying that version of Yosemite was a public beta. Now with the iMac I have a backup computer in case something goes wrong with doing a clean install of High Sierra from a bootable USB on to the MacBook Pro.

I haven’t tried HD 2007 or R5, sorry to hear that they're not doing as well for you as HD 1.8.7, but 1.8.7 is a tough act to follow, it’s really good.

bdgWesternMass
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2018 10:02 pm

Re: HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Post by bdgWesternMass »

I'm using R5 current release 2020-1-1715 on Big Sur and I find it quite usable. I admit that there was a period of time when the R5 would spin off into never-never land. That has been fixed in my opinion.

If you wanted to try R5 I would. Although I guess R6 is promised by Jan 2021:) so maybe wait for that relese and I can update this thread with early R6 experiences.

macitect
Posts: 618
Joined: Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:52 pm
Location: California

Re: HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Post by macitect »

bdgWesternMass wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:09 pm I'm using R5 current release 2020-1-1715 on Big Sur and I find it quite usable. I admit that there was a period of time when the R5 would spin off into never-never land. That has been fixed in my opinion.

If you wanted to try R5 I would. Although I guess R6 is promised by Jan 2021:) so maybe wait for that relese and I can update this thread with early R6 experiences.
I had been using HighDesign for years and would love nothing more than to continue. R5 had sooooo much potential, but turned out to be a massive disappointment for me. For example I thought the view ports allowing rotation and multiple scales on a single sheet would ease my workflow tremendously, but sadly there was just no end of text problems, alignment problems, layer problems and elements disappearing. I couldn't get the detail windows to work. The titleblock function simply didn't work. The straw that broke the camel's back was the fact I could not set up paper sizes to print to PDF.

I can't see that there has been any update since I tried it (about 9 months ago), which almost lost me an important contract. Luckily I was able to save the contract by jumping into Revit (which I HATE), but I've lost a LOT of money essentially beta testing. All the work I did was abortive because it isn't backward compatible (I wanted to take what I had into 1.8.7.)

My wish - and I really wish that the ilexsoft team were listening - is that they would refine and tweak rather than keep introducing new features when existing ones need serious attention. Especially with theses 'upgrade' licences, when there are no updates between major releases. HighDesign could be FAR AND AWAY the best 2D cad program out there - the foundation is there, but since 1.8.7 I think it's lost its way. :-(

skybound13
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2014 3:37 am

Re: HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Post by skybound13 »

Macitect,

Wow, things must have been really bad if you resorted to Revit! Shame it wasn’t possible to somehow export a DWG and import it back into HD 1.8.7.

You are 100% correct when you say the focus should be on refining and tweaking instead of introducing new features. Whatever is offered must be rock solid (as much as any software can be, nothing’s perfect.) A person will be pushed away (as you were) if what is there doesn’t work as intended.

I work very well with the way HD 1.8.7 (Pro) manages scales using Sheets (one scale per each sheet.) It looks like the current version now has a way to manage sheets (maybe now called “Layouts”?) by having a way to gather them into “folders” and collapse and expand the contents. That is one thing that I’ve thought would be nice but it hasn’t been difficult to work around, it just means I have to make the Sheets palette a little taller now and then.

We know that Ilexsoft is actively working on bug fixes (https://help.ilexsoft.com/doku.php?id=e ... ease-notes), but again, I agree that the focus needs to be fixing known issues - anything new needs to be paused. It’s like, we want users to look forward to awesome new features, not to look forward to bug fixes!

HighDesign does indeed have the potential to be the best CAD application. I hope Ilexsoft never neglects keeping it strong in the two-dimensional arena - I was actually a little scared to start seeing references to BIM in the same sentence with HighDesign! :-)

skybound13
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2014 3:37 am

Re: HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Post by skybound13 »

bdgWesternMass wrote: Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:09 pm I'm using R5 current release 2020-1-1715 on Big Sur and I find it quite usable. I admit that there was a period of time when the R5 would spin off into never-never land. That has been fixed in my opinion.

If you wanted to try R5 I would. Although I guess R6 is promised by Jan 2021:) so maybe wait for that relese and I can update this thread with early R6 experiences.
bdgWesternMass,

Thanks for the encouragement to check out the newer versions, I would like to download the trial version and at least give it a test drive.

vascomark
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 7:38 am

Re: HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Post by vascomark »

Hi, I also confirm that Highdesign 1.8.7 works correctly on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra. Unfortunately I also confirm that the R5 version is not usable. I only use the basic functions of 2D drawing but the R5 was really unusable. Even some functions like pulling 45 ° lines did not work on my Mac. I think I will hold onto version 1.8.7 for a long time even though I am worried in case I have to get a new 64 bit mac.

vascomark
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 7:38 am

Re: HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Post by vascomark »

I just discovered that it is also possible to use highdesign 1.8.7 on 64-bit Macs using a High Sierra or Mojave virtual machine via Parallel or VMware software. I found the solution at this link (written in Italian): https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-run ... s-catalina

skybound13
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun Sep 28, 2014 3:37 am

Re: HD 1.8.7 on MacOS 10.13 High Sierra?

Post by skybound13 »

Thank you, the confirmation regarding High Sierra and the tip to set up a virtual machine are helpful. And again, sorry to hear about R5 not being usable.

I hope to continue working in a 32-bit environment for a long time, my 2013 AD MacBook Pro seems to be working just fine, I bought that 2012 AD iMac and hope it still has a lot of life left in it. Of all the applications I use now I most fear losing Pages ’09 (4.0.1), I was very disappointed after I got this MacBook Pro and tried Pages 5.2 and learned that they stripped out the hyperlink and bookmark features. I use those features in countless Pages documents to great effect, some documents have a table of contents where I can click a section heading up top and it takes me down to that section, then there’s a link there to take me back to the table of contents. If I have to reference a different Pages file I’ll put a link in a document to open that, saves me tons of time. I’ve even used Pages for some relatively basic page layout but I saw a post on the formZ site where someone mentioned the Affinity suite of applications which includes a page layout application, I might give Affinity a try.

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