topic Re: Bandwidth - BIMcloud for Archicad 26 in Teamwork & BIMcloud

Bandwidth - BIMcloud for Archicad 26

catalano — Thu, 11 May 2023 07:33:44 GMT

I'm part of a small architecture firm in Boston. With the new upgrade to Archicad 26 and the BIMcloud, the internet requirements are massive and costly. Is anyone that's part of a small firm working on Archicad 26 - and how much bandwidth do you have in the office?? Graphisoft is recommending 50mbps per user. I'd love it if anyone has insight on this!!

Re: Bandwidth - Archicad 26

Karl Ottenstein — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 17:26:25 GMT

Not your question - but as far as I know, nothing has changed in AC 26 and BIMcloud vs prior releases in terms of the amount of data exchanged. I've never seen this 50mbps per user number and it doesn't make sense to me at all... way more than you need. Can you give a link to whatever article advised that speed?

Re: Bandwidth - Archicad 26

Miha_M — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 18:28:19 GMT

Probably from this link: BIMcloud as a Service Connection Test - Graphisoft Community

Or this one: System Requirements – Graphisoft

Re: Bandwidth - Archicad 26

Karl Ottenstein — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 19:36:02 GMT

Thanks, @Miha_M

Several things are interesting about those articles. First, they don't recommend the bandwidth for BIMCloud Basic, or BIMCloud, only for BIMcloud as a Service - and we don't know which of the 3 options @catalano intends to use. Second, as a fully hosted solution, BIMCloud as a Service (SAAS) should not have any greater network demands...other than that it can host more file types than the other 2. In ordinary operation, TeamWork sends and receives very little data... it is only the initial upload and the initial download to each workstation that is potentially massive.

The listed "Acceptable" bandwidth seems, well, acceptable 🙂

Re: Bandwidth - Archicad 26

catalano — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 20:07:12 GMT

Thank you for commenting, Karl.

Yes, I am referencing Graphisoft's article on System Requirements. Our office currently uses a self-hosted (physical) server and we are looking to eventually migrate to BIMcloud As a Service. To clarify, are you saying the BIMcloud SAAsS shouldn't have greater network demands than a server, or than the other BIMcloud options? Do you have an idea why Graphisoft "recommends" 50 mbps per user? Are you working in a small size office as well?

Thank you for your responses!

Re: Bandwidth - Archicad 26

Karl Ottenstein — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 21:03:42 GMT

I'm not using TW at the moment, but the BIMcloud technology is nearly the same across all three platforms... with more and more features as you move toward the SAAS solution. BIMcloud SAAS is ideal for those offices that can afford it as there is no need for an in-house IT person... it is hosted on Graphisoft servers and maintained by them. It has additional file hosting features, but to my knowledge there is nothing about it that should make the network demands any different than the other solutions.

Someone actively using it will have to answer more specifically.

(Caveat on self-hosted BIMcloud is that if everyone including the server hosting BIMCloud is on your local network, then the internet speed is irrelevant.)

Re: Bandwidth - BIMcloud for Archicad 26

Miha_M — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 07:19:24 GMT

What is your current upload bandwidth and latency? How does the small office translate into active Archicad user numbers? The recommended bandwidth of 50Mbps is 6,25MB/s, but I think this is only needed for projects on a larger scale and affects the transfer time at large data transfers, like first time a project file is downloaded, etc.

I think if you don't work on multiple project files at once and your file sizes are about 500MB or less, you can work without major problems also on smaller bandwidth numbers.

The easiest way to figure out if this works for your office would be to test it. There was a 60 day free trial subscription offered during covid, but I don't know if this is still available.

Re: Bandwidth - BIMcloud for Archicad 26

catalano — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:16:35 GMT

We currently have 11 Archicad users and 200Mbps upload speed. What do you mean by 50Mbps is 6.25MB/s? Thank you.

Re: Bandwidth - BIMcloud for Archicad 26

Miha_M — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:57:49 GMT

1 Megabit/sec. = 0.125 Megabytes/sec, 8:1 ratio.

200Mbps/11 = 18 Mbps/user. With this numbers you seem to be above the GS declared acceptable treshhold of 15 Mbps. Your download speed is probably on the same or higher bandwidth. I'd say this should work, but I would suggest to test this out on a free trial, if this is still on offer.

Re: Bandwidth - BIMcloud for Archicad 26

Laszlo Nagy — Sun, 23 Oct 2022 22:20:50 GMT

200 Mbps/sec does not seems too much for an office.

I only have home internet but even that is 350 Mbps/sec.

Is there any specific reason why you guys are not using something more robust?

I don't know about other parts of the world, but here in Hungary, 1000 Mbps/sec connections are becoming the latest norm for home internet connections. (I have not upgraded mine yet because even 350 is more than enough for me.)

Re: Bandwidth - BIMcloud for Archicad 26

AllanP — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 03:30:02 GMT

i use to work for an Architecture firm doing Large Towers (over 40 stories)

it was all done in teamwork.

assuming BIMcloud is just a "Graphisoft hosted Teamwork server" then

Bandwidth over the internet:

At the end of the project a fully documented 47 story apartment tower with the entire model and all working drawings inside was 1.6GB (400 + Apartments) as an example.

Download or first login to a project:

when you first log into a teamwork model it will copy the file down to the local computer:

at 50 Mbps = 6 MB/s or max 5 minutes to download that entire file from the server.

all work after that is done by a difference engine

walls and lines are only a few kilobytes each

a days worth of work is at max a few MBs

so a send and receive at the end of the day, even at 5MBytes would only take less than a second on a 50Mb connection.

for a normal file of less than 500MBs it would take just over a minute to log on the first time.

you only need to "Release all" at the end of the day, you don't need to log out.

you only log out and log back in if there are problems with the file.

if you look at the average size of the saved files you currently work on:

say 200MB to 300MB

say you have a 10Mb internet connection

300MB = 300x8(bits per Byte)

=2400 MB

2400/10Mb connection

240 Seconds

240/60 sec per minute

4 min for fist download of full file (normally files start smaller and grow over time)

send and receive of a 10MByte change

10MB x 8 bits per Byte

80Mb

80Mb/10Mb/s

8 Seconds to send your changes, shorter than a save to you Hard drive.

to receive other peoples changes another 8-20 seconds depending on the size of the team.

send and receive for less than 30 seconds on average.

just remember to do send and receives every hour.

you should only require high bandwidth to the service when logging on and doing send and receives.

you only need a total of 50Mbs for the office, not per machine, as you will not all be logging on at the same time or doing send and receives at the same time.

for the 50Mbs connection your download or initial share would be less than a minute, your send and receives would be less than 10 seconds.

P.S.

Not everyone has access to 1000Mb internet,

i am only on 50/20 in Oz

internet does not have to be symmetrical for teamwork, if that is what is being used.