Long Import/Update times in Plotmaker

[Anonymous]

I've just switched from AC7 to 9 and am finding that it's taking an inordinate amount of time to import drawings into Plotmaker. Upwards of 2 minutes for each detail, for instance. On a layout page with say, 20 details, this means spending 40 minutes just to get them onto the page and updating those details after they've been changed in AC (add notes, etc.) takes just about as long. I was told by our Rep that this is normal?

MAC 400MHz G4, OS 10.3.9 1 GB RAM

Would a processor upgrade help?

Have reloaded the program twice in the hopes it was a bug of some kind, but get the same results.

[TomWaltz]

Jim wrote:
I've just switched from AC7 to 9 and am finding that it's taking an inordinate amount of time to import drawings into Plotmaker. Upwards of 2 minutes for each detail, for instance. On a layout page with say, 20 details, this means spending 40 minutes just to get them onto the page and updating those details after they've been changed in AC (add notes, etc.) takes just about as long. I was told by our Rep that this is normal?

MAC 400MHz G4, OS 10.3.9 1 GB RAM

Would a processor upgrade help?

Have reloaded the program twice in the hopes it was a bug of some kind, but get the same results.

Your processor speed and type are a little low for Archicad. The minimum requirement is 1GHz. The recommendation is a 1.8 GHz G5.

That said, Plotmaker can be slow on larger files no matter what, since BGArchicad must be launched, open the file, then process the update. I've never seen a delay as long as you describe, though. Once the first two steps are completed, the last part usually does not take that long.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jim,

I have found people in our office struggling with this too.
What I have narrowed it down to is that they are still working with AC7 systems.
What I mean by this is that they have a million details all in one window (floor plan,detail window or section window). Then importing each detail individually into plotmaker and aranging.
What this means is that every detail imported into plotmaker is zoomed on the appropriate detail but has the other million details with it making the plotmaker file huge!
So it is really recomended not to have more than a couple of details per detail window in archicad.
Does this sound like your problem?

[Anonymous]

Not sure about LBK file size, but I've found having lots of details in one window o.k. as it only has to load that reference once, then the copied references are updated almost instantly. Seems faster than updating multiple detail windows. I also try to organise details within the detail window in "sheets" with hotspots showing me the extent of what I can fit on a drawing, then stretch the imported view to the relevant hotspots.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jim,

Check out the size of your plotmaker file.
Yes I agree that after it updates the first one all the others are done almost instantly, however it takes hours to update that first one!

However it sounds like your case is less extreme as you import every page rather than every detail (do you not want to take advantage of AC auto titleing?)

I guess at least having every page of details in a serpate window at least would help.

Maybe this is nothing to do with your issues though........