Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

Morph or Object

gdford
Advisor

If i build something out of a one piece morph and I need to place several hundreds of these identical morph elements, is it better for Archicad to turn the morph element into an object and place the objects, or is it about the same difference to just place the morph elements?

Gary Ford
Self Employed - Modeling, Estimating, Construction
Archicad 12-26
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor
3701 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 24 Logical Processor(s)
(RAM) 128 GB
NVIDIA RTX A2000
6 REPLIES 6
jl_lt
Ace

Hi! In my experience is better and faster to turn it into an object.  My guess is that once its an object the software handles lt like a referenced instance

Sergey K_
Contributor

As I see it, if those hundreds of objects are the same, i.e. they are instances of one single element, then it could be convenient to convert the initial morph into an Archicad-object. If the initial element changes, you can update the Archicad-object and all other objects will update.

Also, if I remember correctly, Archicad-objects are better handled by the computer in large quantities, than morphs.
If you keep all the elements as morphs, it might be cumbersome to change their geometry, but possible to control them individually.

Ransom Ratcliff
Enthusiast

Another tip, if the object is complex enough to be a performance hit, you might optimize it further by re-saving it in Binary format. (I think you have to save it to an external folder rather than the Embedded Library, in order to see this option.) This removes the ability to edit the GDL later, but does speed up the 3D.

Also, if it is very complex and you have many of them, you might save some rendering time if you don't need it to cast shadows, since these operations can require complex calculations. This also helps in the 3D window, or any elevation or section that is displaying shadows. A simple statement in the 3D script will turn it off.

SHADOW OFF

I recall doing this years ago when we wanted to show a whole campus of buildings as context for a new building, so we saved the other buildings as binary objects and put those inert objects into our site model. The Shadow statement could easily be a parameter check box, so that they could be turned on if needed later.

Ransom Ratcliff
RATCLIFF CONSULTING LLC
Charrette Venture Group
ArchiCAD 4.55 - 26
Autodesk Certified Professional in Revit
macOS + Windows
Hmooslechner
Rockstar

just try it with your configuration like this - then You have Your answer - (german - just turn off the sound): 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azZe8U0L4jM 

AC5.5-AC27EduAut, PC-Win10, MacbookAirM1, MacbookM1Max, Win-I7+Nvidia

thanks

Gary Ford
Self Employed - Modeling, Estimating, Construction
Archicad 12-26
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor
3701 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 24 Logical Processor(s)
(RAM) 128 GB
NVIDIA RTX A2000

good information Ransom

Gary Ford
Self Employed - Modeling, Estimating, Construction
Archicad 12-26
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor
3701 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 24 Logical Processor(s)
(RAM) 128 GB
NVIDIA RTX A2000