SimplyCount workstation system requirements
What a workstation needs to run SimplyCount symbol counting on construction plan sets — hardware, install modes, firewall rules and data handling. Written to be handed straight to IT.
No graphics card required. SimplyCount runs on the CPU. There is no NVIDIA, CUDA, or discrete-GPU requirement, so ordinary business laptops and desktops qualify — integrated graphics are fine. The two numbers that actually decide how a machine feels are core count and RAM.
Workstation specification
| Component | Minimum | Recommended | Large plan sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit | ||
| Processor | 4-core 64-bit Intel or AMD | 8-core modern (Core i7 / Ryzen 7) | 12+ cores (Core i9 / Ryzen 9) |
| Memory (RAM) | 16 GB | 32 GB | 64 GB |
| Storage | SSD, 5 GB free | NVMe SSD, 20 GB free | NVMe SSD, 50 GB+ free |
| Graphics | Not required — integrated graphics are sufficient | ||
| Display | 1920 × 1080 | 1920 × 1080 or larger | Dual monitors or a single 4K panel |
Why the processor and memory matter
- Processor — cores do the work
- Symbol search runs in parallel across CPU cores, so core count reduces search time more than clock speed does. A large multi-page set can occupy the machine for a considerable time; more cores shorten that directly.
- Memory — set size sets the floor
- Large plan sets are held in memory during a search. 16 GB is workable for typical sheet counts; 32 GB is the comfortable working figure; 64 GB suits very large combined sets and lets more of the job stay resident.
- Storage — SSD, not spinning disk
- Plan sets and their working files are read and written continuously during a search. A mechanical hard drive is the single most common cause of an otherwise adequate machine feeling slow.
Installation and deployment
- Two install modes
- Per-user — installs to
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\SimplyCountand requires no administrator rights. Machine-wide — installs toC:\Program Files\SimplyCountand requires administrator rights, suitable for shared or managed workstations. - User data locations
- Settings, licence and logs live in
%APPDATA%\SimplyCount. Plan sets and count files stay wherever the user keeps them — SimplyCount does not relocate your documents. - Uninstall
- Standard Windows uninstaller; no drivers or system-level components are installed.
Network and firewall
SimplyCount performs counting entirely on the local machine. Plan sets are never uploaded — drawings are not sent anywhere for processing, and a search itself needs no internet connection. The only outbound traffic is licensing.
| Destination | Protocol | Purpose | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| api.keygen.sh | HTTPS / TCP 443 | Licence activation and periodic re-validation | Yes |
| simplycount.com | HTTPS / TCP 443 | Product and support web links | Optional |
Allow outbound HTTPS to api.keygen.sh. This is not a one-time requirement: the licence re-validates periodically, so a workstation that permanently loses access to that host will eventually stop being able to run SimplyCount. If your environment cannot allow it, use the offline licensing option below instead.
Restricted and air-gapped environments
Offline licence files are available for machines that cannot reach the internet at all, so SimplyCount can be deployed in air-gapped environments. Request offline licensing when your seats are issued — it is not the default, and a standard licence installed on an isolated machine will fail at re-validation.
Data handling and privacy
- Your drawings stay on your machine
- Plan sets are opened, searched and saved locally. Counting does not send drawings to a server.
- What is written to disk
- A count file is saved alongside the plan set it came from, together with a working folder for that job. Usage logs recording search size and duration — not drawing content — are written under
%APPDATA%\SimplyCount. - What leaves the machine
- Licensing traffic only. To bind a seat to a workstation, SimplyCount sends your licence key and a Device Identifier — a value derived from your computer hardware — to the licence service. That is how a per-seat licence is enforced and how a seat can be moved between machines. No drawing content, file names, counts, or usage data are transmitted. Our Privacy Policy names both items explicitly.
Licensing and activation
- Licence file
- A licence is issued per user and stored locally as
%APPDATA%\SimplyCount\SimplyCount\license.lic. - Activation and re-validation
- A seat is activated once against the licence service, then re-validated periodically. Ongoing outbound access to
api.keygen.shis therefore required for standard deployments; see restricted environments above for the offline alternative.
Common questions
Does SimplyCount need a graphics card?
How much RAM does SimplyCount need?
What operating systems does SimplyCount run on?
Does installing SimplyCount require administrator rights?
Does SimplyCount upload our drawings to the cloud?
What firewall rules does SimplyCount need?
Can SimplyCount run on an air-gapped or offline machine?
Can I get these requirements as a PDF?
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