Article Updated: March 4th, 2024

These policies ensure proper support for Archibus products and compatibility between Archibus products and the technologies that interact with them. 

Archibus Software Updates

Archibus Releases

With so many components to Archibus, not all Archibus components are updated with each release. Some components might be updated on a different schedule according to market requirements or security update requirements.

Support of Previous Versions of Archibus Web Central and Smart Client

Eptura supports the following:

  • current released version
  • versions that were released within 18 months of the release date of the current released version

For example, suppose Archibus V.2024.04 is the current released version and it was released in December 2024; this means that Eptura supports all versions that were released since June 2023. Those versions include:

  • V.2024.04
  • V.2024.03
  • V.2024.02
  • V.2024.01
  • V.2023.04
  • V.2023.03

Continuously-updated Technologies

Continuously-updated technologies – as well as the continuous list of security patches issued by operating system manufacturers – bring the topic of software updates to the fore. Customer sites often update their Web browsers, operating systems, mobile operating systems, and IT security guidelines on a more or less continuous basis. While the new versions bring new features and security, sometimes they force an upgrade to your Archibus version.

For instance, security policies at some sites may change to disallow use of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0 protocol. To use TLS 2.0, Windows users must run .Net 4.5, which is only supported in newer versions of Archibus and Autodesk products. Sites that have recent versions of Archibus have no concern in these cases. Sites that do not have recent versions would need to upgrade their Archibus and Autodesk products.

Updated Technologies

The manufacturers of the Microsoft Edge browser, the Google Chrome browser, and the Mozilla Firefox browser provide continuous updates to these technologies that many customer sites load immediately. In making these updates, these manufacturers take on the responsibility of ensuring that the environments are upward-compatible, that is if an application like Archibus worked with the previous versions, the application will work with the updated version.

Customer sites that wish to maintain complete compatibility may wish to turn off these automatic updates. Prior to 2012, that may have been a valid response. However, in recent years, Archibus has not seen any significant issues arising from automatic updates to the Windows operating system or the browsers. With security being a key concern, and with security being the driver of many of the updates for these technologies, the benefits of using the automatic updates significantly outweigh the risks.

New Archibus Versions

Before shipping a new version, we test the new version of the Archibus Web Central and Smart Client software against the most recent version of the supported technology available at time of release. For instance, when V.23.1 shipped in July 2016, the most recent production release of Google Chrome available at the time, V.52, was the one tested.

Existing Archibus Versions

Suppose Archibus V.2024.04 is released; as outlined above, in this case we support versions back to V.2023.03.

In this scenario, suppose a customer reports a problem with V.2023.03 of the Archibus software and the current version of Windows 10. Since Windows 10 is on the V.2023.03 list of supported products, we will make every reasonable effort to resolve the issue, and will issue a patch for the issue if the issue has a significant effect on productivity in the field and if technically feasible to do so.

As a regular part of development, we perform ongoing testing of new products with the newest versions of the Windows 10 and 11 builds, as well as the latest versions of Google, Chrome, and Edge browsers. These tests ensure that new Archibus products stay in sync with changes in these technologies.

Other Technologies

For other technologies, we test against specific versions of:

  • mobile operating systems, such as iOS and Android
  • Java and the Java Development Kit
  • application servers, such as Tomcat

We do not have an automatic support policy for these technologies, since new versions of these technologies may require minor changes to the Archibus software in order for all features of the software to run as intended. For these technologies, automatic updates are not recommended; rather, it is recommended to wait until a fully tested version or update of Archibus has been released.

AutoCAD and Revit

Users of Autodesk's AutoCAD and Revit should check their Autodesk product requirements, as these products have their own dependencies.

With respect to automatic updates, AutoCAD and Revit users that are using special certified drivers for high-end graphics cards may wish to leave the Windows 10 operating system updates in place, but disallow automatic updates to the graphic card video drivers. Invoke the Device Installation Settings located under the Hardware tab of your System Properties dialog window, and select the "Never install driver software" option.

With respect to Archibus compatibility, only the specific versions of AutoCAD and Revit listed in System Requirements for Archibus are supported.