Understanding system requirements for Meridian clients

For successful installation and acceptable performance on a client computer, the Meridian client applications require the following minimum specifications.

Hardware specifications
Requirement	Minimum
CPU	Intel® Pentium® 4 3 GHz with SSE2
Memory	2 GB (4 GB recommended and for 64-bit) or higher depending on the other applications used with Meridian
Storage	Up to 750 MB depending on the options chosen.
Display	1024 x 768 resolution with true color

Hardware specifications

Requirement

Minimum

CPU

Intel® Pentium® 4 3 GHz with SSE2

Memory

2 GB (4 GB recommended and for 64-bit) or higher depending on the other applications used with Meridian

Storage

Up to 750 MB depending on the options chosen.

Display

1024 x 768 resolution with true color

The software requirements include:

One of the Windows desktop operating systems (with latest Service Pack) listed in the Supported Software document for this release of Meridian. We recommend the 64-bit editions of Windows and Meridian.

Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 (64-bit computers only, optional for 32-bit) for Local Workspace data management.

Note Microsoft does not support connecting to SQL Server Compact Edition by a UNC path (Local Workspace on a network share). If your organization requires such a connection, the Local Workspace data can be stored in Microsoft Access tables instead if an OLE DB driver is installed. Microsoft Office includes a 64-bit OLE DB driver named the Office System Driver that can be used to connect to Access, Excel, and text files. The provider name is Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.<VersionNumber>. If Office is not installed, the driver is available as a separate download from the Microsoft Download Center by the name of Microsoft Access Database Engine Redistributable. For additional information, see Jet for Access, Excel and Txt on 64-bit systems at ConnectionStrings.com.

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.1 Full Profile (the Client Profile is insufficient)

Some of the optional Meridian modules require the .NET Framework and other software to be installed. See the system requirements in the module's Administrator's Guide.

TCP/IP networking protocol

For document viewing, a version of the Java Runtime Environment that is specified in the Oracle AutoVue Client-Server Deployment Installation and Configuration Guide for the version of AutoVue that is installed with Meridian.

Sufficient access rights for installation of Meridian (that is, a member of the Administrators group of the computer).

Any additional requirements for specific operating systems or Meridian releases that are documented in the Release Notes.

Client computer specifications should be determined by the most demanding application that is installed on them. This is particularly true for heavy duty 3D CAD applications such as Autodesk AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, or SolidWorks. In such cases, you should always use a computer that meets at least the software manufacturer’s recommended specification, not the minimum.

To use the Meridian Web Client over the Internet or an intranet requires:

A web browser capable of rendering HTML 5 markup and of running JavaScript components. The supported web browsers and additional requirements specific to each browser are listed in the Supported Software document for this release of Meridian.

For integration with authoring applications installed on the client PC and to manage downloaded documents in the local workspace, the Application Integration component must be installed on the client PC. Application Integration communicates with web servers independent of the web browser and must be set to Remote mode as described in the BlueCielo Meridian Enterprise User's Guide. The local workspace location must be set to the same path in both the Meridian Web Client and in Application Integration options as described in the BlueCielo Meridian Enterprise User's Guide.

Note

By default, the Meridian Web Client versions prior to 2017 use ActiveX controls that must be installed on the client PCs to transfer documents and perform batch operations. Newer versions of Meridian use built-in, server-side component by default. The ActiveX controls can be enabled in the newer versions for backward compatibility by enabling the Enable Web Access client components option in the user’s preferences. In particular, the UseHTMLProgressComponent should be set to 0 and the DownloadDocumentWithRefs option set to 1 in each user’s Web Access profile file for compatibility with Windows 7 when Windows authentication is enabled for the Meridian website.

Editing the Web Access user profile files (preferences) is described in general for other settings in the BlueCielo Meridian Enterprise Configuration Guide. Also, the following options must be configured on the Security tab of Internet Options in Control Panel for each user. For either the Internet or Local intranet zone (as applicable for your environment), set all options under ActiveX controls and plug-ins to either Enable (recommended) or Prompt (and ensure the user always clicks Yes when prompted to use a control related to Meridian).
On Windows 64-bit operating systems, Internet Explorer 10 and 11 open web pages in 32-bit processes only. This is for backward compatibility with ActiveX components. Therefore, Meridian Enterprise installs and runs 32-bit components when necessary, particularly for viewing documents.