xGrid and ArchiCAD

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know if ArchiCAD has the ablity to be uses with xGrid?
This would be a huge help in some renderings and some calculations that need to be done from time to time.

xGrid

[Anonymous]

Probably not. At least I haven't heard anything and I bet it would be all over this place if it worked.

The good news (or at least rumor) is that Apple is working toward building xGrid into the system so that any network can become an instant super computing cluster. Of course this would still probably require that AC support multiple processors. Now that this whole multi-processor thing seems to have settled in for a while with the Xeon & PPC architectures, lets hope GS can find the time to make some productive use out of all that surplus power.

[__archiben]

jptrott wrote:
Does anyone know if ArchiCAD has the ablity to be uses with xGrid?
This would be a huge help in some renderings and some calculations that need to be done from time to time.

at the moment i think that it's pretty much limited to jobs reduced to a series of unix command lines:

Apple: wrote:
3 What software does an Xgrid cluster really execute?
• Xgrid is a system for starting processes on many remote computers and gathering the output
of those processes back when the computation is complete. In its simplest guise, Xgrid allows
you to make a list of UNIX commands and run them on a number of computers simultaneously.
However, Xgrid can be extended to more complicated computational scenarios.

drop over to the wish here and make your case to graphisoft:
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=1143

~/archiben

[Djordje]

~/archiben wrote:

jptrott wrote:
Does anyone know if ArchiCAD has the ablity to be uses with xGrid?
This would be a huge help in some renderings and some calculations that need to be done from time to time.

at the moment i think that it's pretty much limited to jobs reduced to a series of unix command lines:

Might this be behind the decision of Pixar to move to Macs (aside from pleasing the Boss?)

[Anonymous]

Found this interesting article on Apples Web site

Speaks about renderings and animation!

http://developer.apple.com/hardware/hpc/xgrid_intro.html

[Anonymous]

I just read the Xgrid guide, found it in apples newsletter which discusses the use of Xgrid http://www.apple.com/acg/xgrid/ . I am not a computer geek and thus found the guide hard to understand, but my take on the article is that Xgrid doesn't treat the networked cpus as individual cpus but as one cpu. I am probably wrong, but if I am not, doesn't that mean that the software does not have to be multiple processor aware. Doesn't it mean, that the Xgrid software does the work.
AV works seems for us to be the best solution for rendering. We will not spend the time and money to export to a third party rendering program. It just doesn't make sense for us. But when rendering to a 4000 x 3000 pixel size , the rendering takes more than an hour. Being able to farm it out to 2 or 3 or 4 of our underused computers makes sense. If there is a way to make this work, it would be a dream come true.

[Anonymous]

Any news / luck using xGrid with ArchiCad for rendering now that its in the operating system and AC10 is here?

[Anonymous]

We have not pursued this course of action. I think it would work. Just have not had time to look any deeper. Sure seems to make sense. We have an outside computer geek, maybe we will hire him to look into it. Since the topic has been revisted, has anyone else looked into it???????
If you did, what did you find. Worth the time to look into?????