Too Many Trees in Site Plan?

[Chadwick]

I have posted a similar problem in the "Workingn In ArchiCAD" forum but I think it applies here as well.

I am trying to do an overall aerial shot of a 300,000 SQ FT site. ArchiCAD cant even generate it in wire frame mode. The progress bar stops at a certain point and then the remaining time just keeps going up. I let the computer try to complete it overnight but it still kept going - it got up to 3706 minutes before I cancelled the task. I've noticed that if I reduce the marquee to a smaller area or reduce the objects I can get a wire frame after 2 or 3 minutes. Its trial and error though to figure out what ratio of marquee/objects is needed for it to work though. I am using trees and shrubs from the Gardenworks/ArchiBAM 3D library. Is it possible that ArchiCAD can only calculate x number of polygons/objects in the 3D window? If so does anyone have any idea what this limit is or how to get around it?

I will upload the tree object that is most common. I cannot upload the file due to privacy reasons.

I appreciate any help.

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

How many trees are you putting in your model? And how large (in inches/mm or pixels) will each tree be in your final rendered shot?

Chadwick wrote:
I am using trees and shrubs from the Gardenworks/ArchiBAM 3D library.

In that library there are 3 generic trees named Simple Tree Rough, Simple Tree Medium, and Simple Tree Smooth.

Simple Tree Rough will give you relatively few polygons. For anything other than a really closeup view (where no ArchiBAM tree will look realistic anyway, and you would need a fully modeled tree for that shot), the Simple Tree Rough is more than OK and it is the texture that matters.

If the trees are too many and you need only one shot, it might make sense to render a few bunches only and then Photoshop-clone paint them all over the place.

[Chadwick]

I am not sure if the trees are smooth or rough - that might have something to do with it. I'll check it when I get back on Monday. Also, if I only have 3 or 4 trees in the marquee and some of the building model it still wont generate a 3D view. I replaced all of the ArchiBAM trees the default 3D tree that comes with ArchiCAD and it generated fine. So its obviously something to do with that library part.

Thank you for your help.