Technology Spec Guide

While a laptop is not required, IAD students have found that having a personal laptop that can run the required software offers them more flexibility in how and where they work without having to rely on the computer lab.

NOTE: To run the software required in many of the IA Concentration courses, your computer must meet or exceed the system requirements to run the software required in your 2nd year interior architecture and design studio and technology courses. We do not advise purchasing or building a PC that does not offer warranty service and support. The faculty will not be able to troubleshoot students’ personal computers.

In order to be able to run and use the design software, the IAD Program recommends purchasing a Windows-based computer.

This is largely due to the fact that Autodesk Revit (Required in the IA Concentration) does not run directly on a Macintosh operating system. This means that students who choose to purchase MAC computer will be responsible for configuring their Apple device with virtualization software (Parallels / VMWare) or with Bootcamp (Please note, Bootcamp is not compatible on Arm-based Apple devices) to allow the use of Windows environment; additional cost will be needed for virtualization and Windows licenses. However, this is the student’s decision to make, and students will be responsible for ensuring the computer’s compatibility, installation, and configuration as per Autodesk Revit requirements.

Note: These hardware recommendations are geared toward the IA Concentration due to the required advanced modeling software used in IA coursework. If you are in IPR Concentration, see the specific guidance under ‘IPR Concentration’ dropdown below.

Processor: Intel® i-Series, Xeon®, AMD® Ryzen, Ryzen Threadripper PRO. 2.5 GHz or Higher. Highest CPU GHz recommended.

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti or AMD RX 6800 or better

Memory: 32GB-64GB or higher is recommended

Hard Drive: SSD (Solid State Drive) storage of 1-2TB. Note: High-resolution images or 3D files can take considerable disk space where 250GB of space might not be enough. Program Revit ver. 2024 requires 30GB of free disk space; see manufacturer recommendations.

Display: 1920 x 1080 (higher resolution recommended but might impact performance. Note: Revit 2024 4K monitor is the maximum supported resolution).

Pointing Device: External mouse. You cannot effectively navigate Revit without a mouse.

Other: Consider purchasing the following:

A second mobile monitor.

• See second mobile monitor example here.

3-year warranty / protection plan.

Insurance: Protect your investment from accidental damage or theft. Check with your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance and verify coverage, recommend purchase of a separate policy for your equipment if necessary.

System Requirements for Revit and Enscape:

Please refer to the following links for system requirements necessary to run Revit and Enscape:

• • Revit: Revit Minimum System Requirements

• Enscape: System Requirements
• Note: We encourage the recommended or VR requirements for Enscape rather than minimum requirements.

Additional system requirements to consider:

• Rhino: System Requirements
• Twinmotion

During your time in the CSU Interior Architecture and Design Program, you will be required to use and are encouraged to explore using a variety of design software solutions. All of the software used in the IAD Program is installed on the PC desktop computers in the RDC Computer Lab and Gifford Lab, so computer and software purchases are not required.

Software that can be downloaded/accessed for free on a personal computer: 

• Students will have access to the Microsoft 365 suite of tools including Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, and OneNote.
• Bluebeam
• Students can get free one-year educational access to Autodesk products and services, renewable as long as you remain eligible. This includes access to Revit, AutoCAD, 3ds Max, and more.

Software that you will need to purchase for a personal computer: 

• Industry-leading real-time visualization plug-in for Revit, Enscape.
• Adobe Creative Cloud; 20+ desktop and mobile apps including Photoshop, Acrobat Pro, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign, XD, Premiere Pro, and more.
  • If you need Adobe Creative Cloud for a personal computer, you can get a discount directly from Adobe.
    • The student and teacher edition offers a lower monthly cost for the first year.
    • You can verify your student status with your CSU email address to receive the educational pricing. Check out the link for Adobe Creative Cloud.
• Rhino (and plugins such as Grasshopper)- not required but optional /helpful for studio work

If you are a Interior Products and Retailing (IPR) student and you do not plan on taking any elective courses that require advanced modeling programs, then you can focus your laptop requirements related to the following software: AutoCAD and Adobe Creative Cloud.

• System requirements for AutoCAD 2026 including Specialized Toolsets
• System & technical requirements for Adobe Creative Cloud apps

You should have a large enough eternal drive to store and work on all active projects. An external drive should be used for regular backups, and only those backups (not the active project files) should be copied to the cloud.