Upgrade to less-than-current version of AC?

[Anonymous]

I am sort of in the same boat and considering upgrading because I'm so frustrated with the slowness at which my computer renders 3D objects. I recreate historic architectural elements from old photographs or fragments of historic objects (and they have to be extremely accurate because they become working/shop drawings for fabricators)... and the beach ball gets a lot of play on my computer. But, like Dave, the price tag for the brand spanking new Archicad is something my little company can't afford.
How do you upgrade to a new old version (like 15)? Will the WIBU key that I have now allow 15 to work? Is this a no-no?
One of the reasons I stopped upgrading is that converting files to a new version was such a nightmare. My projects are on the boards for years ... I tried the upgrade thing twice and it was such a disaster that I stopped.

I'm unclear as to whether it's my computer that's slow or what. I will be extremely frustrated if I go through the whole new computer/upgrade Archicad and have the same problems.

Any insights or comments are appreciated.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Oh.... I wasn't paying complete attention to your screenshot... that's the number of polygons in what we actually see... your two columns and curved wall and slab?! (Count of objects says that 8 objects use 981,122 polygons!)

That is WAY too many polygons for what is there... somehow the curved wall and columns, bases are modeled with a precision that is completely unrealistic for ArchiCAD.

Glad we at least have nailed down why 3D performance is so bad for you... I cannot imagine what the polycount is for your entire model!

Did you create those columns (I'm guessing they're the culprit) ... or did you download them from somewhere and convert them to GDL? Tell us more about how you made them.

[Anonymous]

The base and shaft are modeled with the profiler add-on and the cap is made as a complex profile using the wall tool.

My challenge is that I HAVE to model them in extreme detail because I need to authentically reproduce historic columns. The columns need to be an exact match for the historic columns, not just sorta look like them. I work from historic photographs that I've scanned at 600-1200 dpi and I zoom way in on the detail that needs to be recreated. Then I start to create profiles and generate 3D images that match the POV and light source of the photograph. I refine the profiles over and over and over and over again until I get as close as I can get. I'll usually go through the process ~20 times for each element until I get it right.

The fabricators will use my drawings to create the milling knives to make the profiles.

[Anonymous]

Like this.

[Anonymous]

This image shows the profile for the top of the shaft and the capital. The shaft is turned on a radius in profile and the cap is made into a square with the complex profile wall tool.
Per the detail on polycount, it looks as if the shaft uses the most polygons.

[Anonymous]

Here's the detail count. Since I used the wall tool to model the base and the cap - maybe that means that the profiler add-on is creating too many polygons?

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
Glad you talked with Kevin! Hard to say on the Morph Tool. I agree it will help make historical details much more easily... but it can also help you add more polygons to your model. 🙂

I looked at the youtube videos and I don't see where the morph tool is any easier than complex profiles and profiler. Maybe I'm missing something.

[Karl Ottenstein]

mc0m wrote:
My challenge is that I HAVE to model them in extreme detail because I need to authentically reproduce historic columns. The columns need to be an exact match for the historic columns, not just sorta look like them. I work from historic photographs that I've scanned at 600-1200 dpi and I zoom way in on the detail that needs to be recreated. Then I start to create profiles and generate 3D images that match the POV and light source of the photograph. I refine the profiles over and over and over and over again until I get as close as I can get. I'll usually go through the process ~20 times for each element until I get it right.

The fabricators will use my drawings to create the milling knives to make the profiles.

ArchiCAD users all over the world have been modeling historical buildings for decades.... but not with the precision matching that you're talking about. If an ornate capital needs to be reproduced... a craftsman will duplicate an existing one using their skills; it won't be automatically manufactured from the model.

If you're trying to drive a milling machine or 3D printer to generate absolutely smooth curves... ArchiCAD is the wrong program. There is a huge difference the 100% physical match that you're trying to do and typical construction documents - that are realistic representations at all required printing scales, or generating computer renderings that look photorealistic at all reasonable virtual camera distances (which sometimes requires making a specific element hyper-accurate, but leaving the rest 'normal').

A shop drawing instructs the mill to use certain radii and other measurements to reproduce your column. The shop drawing itself does not turn into a computer-assisted manufacturing (CAM) code sequence. Not from ArchiCAD anyway for curvy things. Timber framing, log cutting, sure. But milling rounded, decorative elements... not so much.

There is no way that today's ArchiCAD can, in the 3D window, display and manipulate a building of the detail you've described - and illustrated with the 400,000 polygons for a single column. It would be many tens or 100's of millions of polygons. Even the beefiest new Mac Pro wouldn't be able to cope. Some other 3D program might be able to do so... but I wouldn't know.

What is your final output - images, or masked images that match existing photos? Or construction documents? Or?

[Anonymous]

In this case there is no existing column and it has to be reproduced from a photograph - and the fabricator has to have an accurate construction document.

I reworked the model and converted all of the objects created in the profiler add-on to complex profile walls. This significantly reduced the # of polygons.