topic Re: Reducing polygon count / improving performance: Moving bathroom objects to a Hotlink module? in Project data & BIM

Reducing polygon count / improving performance: Moving bathroom objects to a Hotlink module?

Heftor — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 10:39:15 GMT

Hi,

We are currently modelling a building, and after running a polygon count analysis, I noticed that the bathroom objects are consuming a significant percentage of the total polygon count.

To try and make the project more lightweight and improve performance, we are thinking about moving these bathroom objects into a separate file and bringing them into the main project via a Hotlink module.

However, before we proceed, we wanted to ask the community:

Is this approach feasible and actually useful for reducing the polygon load in the main working file?

Our goal is simply to have a lighter, faster main project file while working. Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated, does make any sense this change?

Thanks in advance!

Hector Alonso

Operating system used: Windows

Re: Reducing polygon count / improving performance: Moving bathroom objects to a Hotlink module?

CosminF — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 20:22:21 GMT

Hi,

Are the objects you are using from the default library? If so you may want to look into disabling their accessories (faucets, etc) as they look pretty but bring in alot of geometry.

Also you might want to change the Model View Options to schematic and be sure accessories in 3D are unchecked:

Re: Reducing polygon count / improving performance: Moving bathroom objects to a Hotlink module?

Heftor — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:05:12 GMT

Hi Cosmin,

Thanks for your reply, The objects are from the Bimcloud library, I will bring the details from the accesories down.

Thanks for the tip.

Regards,

Hector

Re: Reducing polygon count / improving performance: Moving bathroom objects to a Hotlink module?

Lingwisyer — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 04:23:58 GMT

The objects will bring in the same number of polygons whether they are in a hotlink or not... As Cosmin has mention, you could reduce the MVO detail level, and possibly even turn them off in 3D. Or if you do not need to even see them to do what ever work you could just turn off their layer. It will not make the file lighter, but it can improve performance with few polygons to render. If you are actually talking about inserting this building in a overall site model, you can exclude these objects using design options instead of nested modules.

Ling.

Re: Reducing polygon count / improving performance: Moving bathroom objects to a Hotlink module?

JeffH — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 13:49:50 GMT

The other thing you could look at is the resolution of the placed objects.

Some of the items are set much higher than needed.

Re: Reducing polygon count / improving performance: Moving bathroom objects to a Hotlink module?

Patrick M — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 21:26:23 GMT

from the screen shot you shared, if your file is running slowly, I do not think it is a polygon issue.
I manage BIM systems for an office that routinely hits 12,000,000 polygons in a single file. If you have a single element over about 10-15,000 polygons, maybe red flag that. If you have a single element type contributing 25% or more of total polygons, maybe. But at 147,000 total polygons in the file, I do not think those are the issue.

Re: Reducing polygon count / improving performance: Moving bathroom objects to a Hotlink module?

Lingwisyer — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 01:49:03 GMT

I sometimes have site meshes that are over 100k polygons...

Re: Reducing polygon count / improving performance: Moving bathroom objects to a Hotlink module?

karsten_bauschert — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 14:04:13 GMT

i understand the notion to have an optimized project right from the start.

but i wonder if you have any problems with performance?

as others stated, we face "real" problems with huge BIM project with many external IFC hotlinks, complex sites and sophisticated (round) geometry 😉

So maybe my advice would be:

Dont worry, it can be much worse!

Re: Reducing polygon count / improving performance: Moving bathroom objects to a Hotlink module?

Heftor — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:08:01 GMT

Hi Karsten,

Thanks for the message, I was excluding variables to find why is the computer running slow.

In the meantime, I was speaking with more colleagues and they mention that the file is not too big to behave so slow.

I colleague that works next to me, he had some issues with the same project but only when he is preparing the layouts, so we´ll see.

I have an appointment with the costumer service from AC to dig into this too.