Teamwork File Slow, Normal Performance On PLN Version

[AndreSteynbergOLA]

Hi everyone

trying to assist a remote worker with a bit of a weird BIMCloud issue.
Facts as I have it : brand new good spec Windows 11 Laptop (think i7, 64GB RAM etc) good internet connection (100mb fibre connection, low latency) Archicad 28. 

So the user complains that the BIMCloud file works slowly, not necessarily the Sending / Receiving, but just working in the file especially Layouts.
Moving Views around they experience significant lag and it will take say a minute to move a single View.

Weirdly, saving the same file out to PLN solves this issue.
We don't experience any of the above in our local office, file + performance works perfectly.

We've gone through the normal solutions as per the GS Support page (clear cache etc) but problem still persists.
We'll try a fresh install of Archicad next but if someone has come across this issue and has any insight I'll appreciate some input.

Cheers!
Andre

[Rossjk]

Try disabling other cloud based software to

see if any of those are slowing it down?, ive had this issue with cloud phone software running in the background

[Shawn M]

If you are using Archicad 28 or 29 with the new global libraries, this is unfortunately not a problem with your hardware. BIMcloud SaaS has poor optimization for the new global libraries (by default, Archicad 28 includes 49 library packs). Every Send & Receive checks EACH library pack for the “up-to-date” status of libraries hosted on BIMcloud.

Our office spent a considerable amount of time and money upgrading all hardware:

• Full hard drive wipe and clean installation of the operating system, software, and applications on all workstations.

• Switched to a new ISP with a fixed IP address and direct-wired access to our office network.

• Upgraded our entire network infrastructure, including wireless access points, to Ubiquiti Dream Machine SE and USW-Pro hardware, with full UPS backup.

• Implemented a Synology NAS with ZeroTier remote access.

• Purchased a top-of-the-line Mac Studio M3 Ultra (32-core, 96 GB RAM).

Result: zero performance increase.

After months of back and forth with Graphisoft support, it became very clear that Archicad 28 and 29, along with BIMcloud, do not adequately support modern hardware.

[Barry Kelly]

@Shawn M 

So you are saying if you open an older 27 file with the old monolithic library and no global library packs loaded, and you open this in 28 or 29 as a teamwork file, there are no speed issues?

If that is the case then, it would appear that the multiple library packs are an issue.

Barry.

[karsten_bauschert]

We also experience frequent slowdowns of teamwork projects which run smoother if saved as PLN.

Network perfomance should only be an issue with real network interaction like send/receive but not with swiching floorplans or entering 3D, shouldn´t it?

The only difference i can think of is the additional user data for every element (reserved or not)...
Everything else should run locally, with local cache.

[Patrick M]

some things to try before going too deep into the file:
-turn all trace references off (an option in AC29, so may be tricky in 28)

-turn off auto-reserve in the work environment (only an option if you are on bimcloud saas, not available for bimcloud basic)

-turn off send and recieve reminders in the work environment

-check internet speed regularly. sounds like your check shows they should be ok, but if the have unstable connections... maybe try hardwiring, instead of wifi?

-kick all people not active in the file out. More connections means more file bloat.

-

...

if all that fails, check for:
-excessive solid element operations (hunt for roofs and meshes in particular, as they tend to accumulate the most)

-excessive polygons (try to keep it under 2-3,000,000)

-polygons contributing to more than 15-20% of total polygon count. Even on a low polygon model, 1 bad object or element can ruin the file performance

-large embedded library or large file sizes in the e/l

-excessive 2d content in a single view. oddly, in my tests, more than 50-75,000 lines/fills/etc. in a single viewpoint, even when not visible or in an open viewpoint can cripple a file

-drawing manager: check for missing internal views and excessive external drawings (PDF/DWG). Archicad can become a bit of a file server for people not routinely maintaining their files. I recently audited a file with 250 pdf and dwg's... same issue you are describing, super slow in t/w. once I purged the drawing manager of most exteranal drawings, it sped way up.

...

the t/w file is inherently larger than a pln anyway, since it breaks it into caches and maintains even inactive connections data. Sounds like you've tried to mitigate this with the cache clean up...
...
I feel your pain. It wasn't long ago, graphisoft adopted the slogan "faster than ever"... seems they blurted that out at a release party and figured they were done trying to deal with performance and speed... it's gone downhill the past few versions for sure!

[marcoariveross]

Hi
It's definitely an issue with BIMCloud as a service and its architecture. It doesn't work well and struggles with version 29.

If you make it PLN (Project-Based Network), you can't collaborate, but it greatly improves Archicad's performance.

However, using BIMCloud Basic still feels much faster than the as-a-service version. Even when working over the internet and on a local network...

They need to optimize something. When will it take?

[Shawn M]

@Barry Kelly 

Correct. For all Teamwork files using the old monolithic libraries (27 and 28 in our case), speed and productivity are significantly improved.
As others have mentioned, a solo PLN file is even faster—by leaps and bounds.

Transitioning to monolithic libraries was a recommendation from Graphisoft support (see quote below):

Recommendations

1. Library Structure: If feasible, consider transitioning to the monolithic version of the Archicad 28 library. Alternatively, remove any unused library references from the plan. This will likely lead to a noticeable reduction in Send & Receive operation times. However, the Global Library with LibPacks, introduced in Archicad 28, will remain as the standard library for new projects started from the Archicad 28 USA online template and future Archicad versions, i.e., Archicad 29 and beyond. Further information on the Global Library is provided in the "Global Libraries: Introduction" article here.
2. Library Part Maker: If the plan does not utilize any library parts created with the Library Part Maker add-on, disabling or removing the add-on might help improve the speed of the Open operation.

However, the statement “…Global Library with LibPacks, introduced in Archicad 28, will remain as the standard library…” clearly indicates that using monolithic libraries will not be viable as Archicad continues to update. In addition, the Accessories Library and SaaS Additional Surface Catalog do not have monolithic versions available for 28.

The “Library Part Maker” also caused some confusion on our end, as it is a Graphisoft-developed tool.

[Shawn M]

@Patrick M 

We went very deep with Graphisoft support—so far that we even got the sales directors involved. Our support tickets spanned 10 months.

The issue with Archicad losing access to a cloud-based BIMcloud license was eventually fixed in Hotfix 28.3.2. Yes, we really pushed Graphisoft hard on that one.

FastLogger, GCPing, process IDs, support packages—you name it, we did it.

I even discovered that Archicad itself doesn’t use the performance cores on our M3 Ultra. Here’s what I wrote to Graphisoft support:

Performance Observations

On both the Mac Studio M3 Ultra (32-core) and a PC running Intel i9-13900K (24-core), Archicad consistently utilizes only one CPU core. On the M3 Ultra, it’s often worse—the primary core being used appears to be a slower efficiency core, rather than a performance core. Please see the attached screenshots for reference.

Additional observations:

• CPU usage rarely exceeds 2%

• GPU usage is negligible

• RAM usage spikes to as high as 75–80 GB

This is deeply concerning. Even your own knowledge base notes:

"In some cases, 8 cores are faster than 4 cores, but you will not see a difference as big as going from two to four."
Multiprocessing and Archicad – Graphisoft

Modern CPUs are not reverting back to 4-core designs. Top-tier CPUs now have 24 cores or more. When investing in high-performance hardware, users naturally expect corresponding performance improvements. However, in our case, performance on the M3 Ultra is only marginally better than on older machines.

It’s worth noting that the M3 Ultra is currently among the best single-thread CPUs on the market—surpassed only by AMD’s Threadripper line—and yet we are not seeing the expected gains.
References:

• Single Thread Performance Benchmarks

• Multi-thread Performance Benchmarks

It got to the point where we seriously considered switching to Revit, as it was starting to feel like an Microsoft Excel vs. Lotus 1-2-3 scenario between Archicad and Revit.

We ended up having to purchase Revit and ModelPort to reach our deadlines.

[torben_wadlinger]

A really underrated (and often unkown) feature is turning off network compression!

I'm a German user, for that reason I can only guess how the English menu names are. But look at

Options > Work Enviroment > Network and Update

Turn off network compression