topic Mac OS - What does this mean? in Installation & update

Mac OS - What does this mean?

Stress Co_ — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:53:58 GMT

Attached is a screen shot of Apple's "Activity Monitor" (CPU tab)
It's what was going on while Archicad was opening a 3D window (the spinning pinwheel of death was on screen).

I laymen's terms.... what does it mean?

Time to upgrade to a faster processor?

The 3D window eventually opened .... but it took a very long time.

Re: Mac OS - What does this mean?

Dwight — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:59:03 GMT

The Spinning Wheel of Death Explained Desk Replies:

The Activity Monitor is telling you that Archicad is so occupied with work it doesn't have time for frivolous queries like "How's it going,eh?"

Archicad will do this whenever it is trying hard to figure out or render your model. Was this a particularly complex model? How many polygons?

Re: Mac OS - What does this mean?

Stress Co_ — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:58:37 GMT

Dwight wrote:
The Activity Monitor is telling you that Archicad is so occupied with work it doesn't have time for frivolous queries like "How's it going,eh?"

It only asks that in the Canadian Version.

Dwight wrote:
Was this a particularly complex model? How many polygons?

Not so much.. mostly it's the site mesh. 7,232 total

I did find some corrupt objects (wallbuilder addon). Deleting them speeded things up.

I just added 4Gb ram. Maybe it's just time to upgrade,.... to a 24" iMac?

Re: Mac OS - What does this mean?

Dwight — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:25:05 GMT

Corrupt elements!
They are everywhere and if you don't pay them off, no heat or elevator before 0700.

Re: Mac OS - What does this mean?

Thomas Holm — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:53:21 GMT

Stress wrote:
I laymen's terms.... what does it mean?

Archicad is essentially a single-threaded application. That means that it does one thing at a time.

If something takes a lot of time, it doesn't answer queries from you or from the operating system until that thing is finished.

This is one of the best arguments for using an externl renderer (outside of Archicad) - you can go on working on your design while the renderer works in the background.