BIM Server as regular file server?

[Gus]

I'm just brainstorming here.

I link a lot of PDF sheets from contractors, engineers, shop drawings etc, to ArchiCAD and I've considered having those pdf's maintain the same name on the BIM Server in a library maybe? This way every time a shop drawing was updated in the BIM server, it would also be updated in my ArchiCAD file, and there would be a true living set of documents. Also, it would be cool if the latest engineering model could be saved in that library under the same name and imported via the library every time it was changed automatically so the engineering model was always up to date as well. Has anyone done anything like this before? I love the idea of having everyones most up to date info and model in my model automatically at all times. I was considering possibly using Teckla BIM Server in this way as well.

Any thoughts?

[Laszlo Nagy]

My first thought about this is how large those ARCHICAD files will be if you place all those PDFs into the them.
I think we are still at the point where hardware resources are not unlimited and so one has to be smart about how large they let their ARCHICAD Project File swell in size.
After a certain point one should start separating the Layout Book into a separate file. Or divide the model into multiple Project Files. Whichever makes it possible for the project to stay handleable.

[Gus]

Thanks Laszlo, as usual, your advice is really helpful.

Do you know of a way to analyze a file to determine what part of the file is taking up the most memory?

Also, what is considered a large file (or too large of a file) now-days in ArchiCAD 19?

[Laszlo Nagy]

Here is a Help Center article about speed issues, gives a lot of food for thought for both 3D and 2D slowness:

http://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/troubleshooting/performance/summary-of-typical-3d-speed-problems-2/

I think it is hard to say what is a size that is considered large, but I would say that anything that is hundreds of MBs in PLN file size is a large enough file so if the model is not handled correctly problems and slowdowns can occur.

But size in itself does not necessarily mean slowness. And reversely, a smaller file size does not mean it will be fast. I remember I got a file a few years ago, it was a few 10s of MBs but it was incredibly slow. Turned out it was because nobody had any idea of Library Management and its library was full of linked PLA libraries, thousands of duplicate objects, etc. which slowed down the whole file tremendously.
So one has to analyze the file, preferably based on the points mentioned in the above article to find the exact cause. Many times it is a single thing or a single user behavior or work method that is causing it.

As a closing guess, if you like to place PDFs and images in your Project files, those can really bump up the file size considerably if they are numerous, large and high resolution.