Basically you get what you get.
However there are options for converting 3DS files.
You can lower the 'Decimal' precision and you will get a smaller (less polygon) model, but you will also sacrifice quality - you may lose some of the detail.
You could open the 3DS file in other software and manipulate it to be a simpler model.
This may be easier than trying to do it in Archicad, but you need to have the other software (don't ask me what is best) and you need to know how to use it.
You can do it in Archicad but not very well.
You need to convert to a morph, then you can use the morph commands to reduce the number of polygons - again you will lose detail and some curves will become blocky.
Or you can manually edit the morph - deleting nodes and edges and creating single planes from many.
The more planes (polygons) you can reduce, the better.
Editing morphs can be tricky and laborious and your machine may struggle.
It pays to split the morph into smaller pieces if it is not already so you can work on those smaller pieces separately.
You can 'union' them all together at the end if you want to.
Feel free to replace parts of the morph with simpler forms such as slabs, walls, columns, even objects (primitive shapes).
These can all be converted into simpler morphs and unioned back to one morph.
The morph can then be saved back as an object for easier use (i.e. for other jobs).
Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
