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System Requirements for AutoCAD

By Microsol Resources | CAD

System requirements are the configuration that a system must have in order for a hardware or software application to run smoothly and efficiently. Failure to meet these requirements can result in installation problems or performance problems. If you don’t meet the requirements, it may prevent a device or application from getting installed, whereas the latter may cause a product to malfunction perform below expectations, or even hang or crash.

AutoCAD has been extensively used in a variety of industries. Engineers, architects, project managers, graphic designers, and many more professionals use it every day for their work.

While AutoCAD is not the heaviest modeling software out there, it still requires quite a bit of computing power to operate successfully. When it comes to technical specifications, you need to be aware of your workstation’s processor, graphics card, RAM, operating system, and a few other factors.

Also, keep in mind AutoCAD requirements are different between Windows and Mac machines. If you are going to use AutoCAD’s industry-specialized toolsets, you should keep in mind that they come with their own set of additional requirements.

In this article, we will share with you the system requirements for AutoCAD for both Windows and Mac computers. We will also provide you with the additional requirements for AutoCAD’s industry-specialized toolsets, find current and previous version software and hardware requirements for operating systems, processors, memory, disk space, as well as recommendations for virtual machines and cloud computing services.

What are the system requirements to run AutoCAD 2024?

We will take a look at the AutoCAD requirements for both Windows and Mac computers. We will also provide you with the additional requirements for AutoCAD’s Specialized Tools, along with a closer look at Map 3D.

System requirements for AutoCAD 2024 including Specialized Toolsets (Windows)

Supported operating systems

64-bit Microsoft® Windows® 11 and Windows 10 version 1809 or above. See Autodesk’s Product Support Lifecycle for support information.

Processor

Basic
• 2.5–2.9 GHz processor (base) ARM Processors are not supported.
Recommended
• 3+ GHz processor (base), 4+ GHz (turbo)

Memory

Basic
• 8 GB
Recommended
• 32 GB

Display Resolution

Conventional Displays:
1920 x 1080 with True Color

High Resolution & 4K Displays:
Resolutions up to 3840 x 2160 (with “Recommended” display card)

Display Card

Basic: 2 GB GPU with 29 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 11 compliant
Recommended: 8 GB GPU with 106 GB/s Bandwidth and DirectX 12 compliant

DirectX 12 with Feature Level 12_0 is required for Shaded(Fast) and Shaded with edges(Fast) visual styles.  Please be sure to use the latest video card manufacturer drivers from their website.

Note: AutoCAD uses your computer’s display card for a variety of essential graphics operations including but not limited to view manipulation, line smoothing, and text/linetype generation.  It is recommended that you have a display card with dedicated VRAM to support these operations at optimal speeds.

Disk Space

10.0 GB (suggested SSD)

Network

See Autodesk Network License Manager for Windows

Pointing Device

MS-Mouse compliant

.NET Framework

.NET Framework version 4.8 or later

System requirements for AutoCAD 2024 for Mac

Operating system

Apple® macOS® Ventura v13
Apple macOS Monterey v12
Apple macOS Big Sur v11

Model

Apple Mac® computers compatible with macOS Big Sur or above
Recommended: Apple Mac models supporting Metal Graphics Engine

CPU Type

64-bit Intel CPU
Apple M series CPU

Memory

Basic: 4GB
Recommended: 8GB or higher

Display Resolution

Basic: 1280 x 800 display
High Resolution: 2880 x 1800 with Retina Display

Disk Space

6 GB free disk space for download and installation

Pointing Device

Apple-compliant Mouse, Apple-compliant Trackpad, Microsoft-compliant mouse

Display Card

Recommended: Mac native-installed graphics cards

Disk Format

APFS, APFS(Encrypted), Mac OS Extended (Journaled), Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)

 

Additional Requirements for large datasets, point clouds, and 3D modeling

Memory

16 GB RAM or more

Disk Space

6 GB free hard disk available, not including installation requirements

Display Card

3840 x 2160 (4K) or greater True Color video display adapter; 12GB VRAM or greater; Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater; DirectX-capable workstation class graphics card.

 

Specialized Toolsets (Windows Only)
AutoCAD Map 3D Disk Space: 20GB
Memory: 16GB
Database & FDO Requirements (see below)
AutoCAD Electrical Disk Space: 20GB
Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable (x64) (16.0.5044.1000) or later, unless Microsoft Office 2016 (x64) or later is already installed.
AutoCAD Architecture Disk Space: 20GB
Memory: 16GB
AutoCAD MEP Disk Space: 21GB
Memory: 16GB
AutoCAD Plant 3D Disk Space: 12GB
Memory (recommended for 3D modeling): 32GB
AutoCAD Mechanical Disk Space: 12GB
AutoCAD Raster Design Disk Space: 1GB

 

AutoCAD Map 3D Additional Requirements (Windows Only)
FDO Provider: Certified With: Notes:
Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Standard and Enterprise Editions
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Standard and Enterprise Editions
Industry Models also support the versions of Microsoft SQL Server listed on the left.
This provider requires the Microsoft ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server (v17.10.2) to be installed.
Driver can be downloaded from the Microsoft website.
Oracle 12c Release 2 Oracle 12.2.0.1.0
Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition 2
Industry Models support the same Oracle versions as listed on the left.
Oracle 19c Oracle 19.3
Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition 2
Industry Models support the same Oracle versions as listed on the left.
Oracle 21c Oracle 21.3
Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition 2
Industry Models support the same Oracle versions as listed on the left.
Raster DEM, JPG2K, DTED, MrSID®, ECW, PNG, ESRI® Grid, TIFF, JPEG, ESRI® ASCII
Autodesk SDF 3.0
ESRI ArcGIS ArcGIS® 10.8.1
ArcGIS 10.7.1
ArcGIS 10.6.1
This Provider requires ESRI licensed components (ArcGIS Engine/ArcGIS Desktop) to be installed on Map 3D installed system.
MySQL 8.0
ODBC The FDO ODBC provider has been tested with corresponding versions of ODBC drivers that are shipped with the relevant supported operating systems version.
OGC WMS WMS 1.3.0
OGC WMTS WMTS 1.0.0
OGC WFS WFS 2.0.0
SQLite SQLite 3.27.2
PostgresSQL PostgreSQL 13.9 + PostGIS 3.0

 

ODBC Drivers Tested Versions
Microsoft® Access® Driver (*.mdb, *.accdb) Microsoft Access database engine 2016 (English) 16.00.4999.1000
Microsoft® Excel® Driver (*.xls, *xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb) Microsoft Access database engine 2016 (English) 16.00.4999.1000
MySQL® ODBC 8.0 Driver 8.00.31.00
SQL Server® 10.00.22000.01
Oracle® in OraClient21Home1 21.00.00.00

 

If you are using an older version of AutoCAD, you can select the product below to view the system requirements for that AutoCAD version:

What are the system requirements to run AutoCAD 2023?
What are the system requirements to run AutoCAD 2022?

 

INDUSTRIES: Architecture, Buildings, Civil Engineering, Civil Infrastructure, Construction, Manufacturing, MEP Engineering, Structural Engineering

Published on March 25, 2022 in CAD.

About the Author

Microsol Resources delivers integrated solutions that help customers design, simulate and analyze their ideas, increase operational efficiencies, and maximize their return on investment in their technology solutions. As a team, we are passionate about helping customers improve their productivity and overall business processes. How can we help? Just reach out.

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