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System requirements

Details of System requirements

  • Module code ESA0001
  • Software
    • SCIA Engineer
  • FAQ topic

In order to use SCIA Engineer version 24, your system must have the following system requirements.

Hardware components

 

Minimum

Advised

Processor

Intel Core-i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 or similar

Intel Core-i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 or similar

Memory (RAM)

16 GB

32 GB, or more

Graphics Controller

256 MB, supporting OpenGL 2.1

4 GB, or more

Free disk space

5 GB, SSD

5 GB or more, SSD

Resolution

Full High Definition *

Full High Definition or more *

* 4K is supported for the new interface of SCIA Engineer 24

A 3D mouse is not supported.

Software components

Supported Windows OS

Windows Server 2019 (64-bit)
Windows 10 (64-bit)
Windows 11 (64-bit)

API link with Revit

SCIA Engineer 24 is compatible with: 
Revit 2024, Revit 2023

API link with Tekla

SCIA Engineer 24 is compatible with:
Tekla Structures 2022
Tekla Structures 2021

IFC

SCIA Engineer 24 is compatible with: 
IFC version 2x3
IFC4 (only import)

SDNF

SCIA Engineer 24 is compatible with:
SDNF version 2.0 (only import)
SDNF version 3.0 (only import)

Below you can find additional information concerning the hardware components.

Processor

For the processor two parameters are important: the number of cores and the clock frequency. When you perform a linear calculation, the number of cores is the main parameter that determines the speed of the calculation. In a nonlinear and eigenmode calculation, both the number of cores and the clock frequency are determining factors. Next to the previously mentioned calculation types, the design checks run multicore as well. We advise an Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 with at least 2.4 GHz.

Memory (RAM)

SCIA Engineer, the solver and the Engineering Report are 3 separate processes that each require memory to perform their actions. Next to these processes, also Windows (min. 1.5 GB) and all other applications take some memory in use as well. To not run out of memory when performing memory demanding calculations, we advise to have at least 32 GB of RAM in the computer.

Graphics Controller

A minimum memory of 256 MB and the support of OpenGL 2.1 is required to run SCIA Engineer. This means that SCIA can also be run with an onboard graphics card. For some models that are graphically more demanding, the onboard graphics card may fail to render the structure. For this reason, we advise a dedicated GPU (Graphical Processing Unit). A low to mid end GPU should be adequate.

Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

Every hard disk with a free disk space of 5 GB can be used to run SCIA Engineer. This does not mean that the HDD is not important. The read/write speed of the HDD has an influence on the performance of SCIA Engineer. In order to increase performance, we recommend an SSD (Solid State Drive). Some available SSD types are:

  • (m)SATA: cheap, worst performance;
  • M.2: best price/quality ration;
  • PCIe: expensive, best performance.

Note that it’s recommended to keep 10% of free space to avoid issues such as reduced performance.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR OLDER SCIA ENGINEER VERSIONS

In the table below you find the system requirements for older SCIA Engineer versions.

SCIA Engineer version Hardware requirements Software requirements
SCIA Engineer 22 SCIA Engineer 22
SCIA Engineer 21 SCIA Engineer 21
SCIA Engineer 20 SCIA Engineer 20
SCIA Engineer 19 SCIA Engineer 19
SCIA Engineer 18
SCIA Engineer 17
SCIA Engineer 16
SCIA Engineer 15
SCIA Engineer 14
SCIA Engineer 2013
SCIA Engineer 2012
SCIA Engineer 2011
SCIA Engineer 2010
SCIA Engineer 2009 & 2008