Hi, thanks for your input. Found a way not to have to cut up the site and reassemble. Just ignored the 1' minor contours and only used contours at the 5' range, i.e. 45, 50, 55, etc. This worked, but the whole thing still takes way too long. We are talking about 1.12 acres. In older versions of ArchiCAD have created sites way bigger so this is a buggy problem in 15.
Have noticed other areas where it is slow, but this is the first time that a laptop has been used as the main computer. Haven't been able to upgrade the Mac Pro yet and the laptop may not have enough oomph for my use on this project.