Is Archicad really suitable for medium-scale landscape projects?

[GrudenJ]

Hi everyone,

I’d like to hear some honest opinions from people who are using Archicad for landscape projects.

I’m currently working on a project that covers a fairly large area. I imported a geodetic survey plan with 1 m contour lines. It’s detailed, yes, but nothing unusual for landscape architecture. The problem is that the file becomes extremely laggy as soon as the contours are visible. Zooming and panning slow down a lot, and rebuilding views takes far longer than it should.

I’ve already adjusted my settings to favor performance as much as possible, and I’m running this on a very high-end machine (i9-14900K, RTX 4090, 128 GB RAM), so hardware really shouldn’t be the issue. I can make it somewhat manageable by constantly turning layers on and off and being very careful with what’s visible, but it’s still far from comfortable to work in.

What really makes me question things is that the exact same survey drawing runs perfectly smoothly in AutoCAD.

So now I’m wondering: is this just how Archicad handles complex 2D vector data? Is there a better workflow for dealing with detailed contour information? Or is Archicad simply not the best primary tool for larger-scale landscape projects?

I’d really appreciate hearing how others deal with this kind of situation.

Edit: As seen in task manager, the CPU usage doesnt go above 10 %, and cpu usage doesnt go above 20, when panning and zooming around (when everything is very very laggy).

Operating system used: Windows Windows 11 Pro 26100

[Botonis]

Archicad is perfect for anything.

But you need to optimize the modelling process so the file stays fast.

I never create contours on the mesh. There is no point. You are adding several extra points on the mesh. Those points were never measured on the field so realistically they don't exist. Contours are just theoritical lines to represent the levels.

Just use the points for the survey measurements (a id-xyz txt file exported from the GPS)  and use the Contour Object to show the Isolines.

https://bimcomponents.com/GSM/Details/23474

[GrudenJ]

I dont! These are 2D polylines. Sorry, forgot to mention that i am not 3D modelling anything (yet), this is just a 2D geodesic survey drawing in archicad.

Here is a screenshot for additional context:

[Botonis]

This is different then.

A complex 2d in Archicad imported from Autocad will probably cause lagging. The 2d engine of Archicad is different than Autocad.

So you have to optimize the DWG.

I would turned off the ISO lines or deleted them prior importing and create new ones via the object I sent you...

I don't know if purge or kill commands in Autocad will make any difference. Each case is different.

[GrudenJ]

I will try recreating the isolines with that object, thank you! But this is what i mean about larger scale projects in archicad... Due to time constraits i only wanted to create a 2D drawing for the current stage of the project, but as far as i can tell  Archicad doesnt seem to be the best option to use for this. Which is a shame, since i do enjoy Archicad even just for drafting much more than Autocad or other options...

[Botonis]

May I disagree.

For recreating the topography It is really simple.

You just need the survey txt file. Not a DWG.....

You import this and directly you have the whole area as a 3D mesh.

You just use the object and instantly you have the ISOlines.

Then use any part of the DWG that you might need and use it a reference file.

If you need something more advanced in matters of survey management, coordinates not just in 2d but in 3d  etc. then you might want to try 

https://www.land4cad.com/

[GrudenJ]

Of course you may, i don't really know what i'm talking about. I will try importing the .txt file, but i have to clean it up first, since it also includes buildings. Thank you!

[Botonis]

Check this:

https://support.graphisoft.com/hc/en-us/articles/23273448569361-How-to-import-a-TXT-file

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piFSUdcfcGs

The process is really staigth forward.

[Pertti_Paasky]

Maybe curves are too detailed. You can reduce any polyline in QGIS and export to dxf.. It´s free and it is very useful for landscape architects.

[Pavel_N]

Back to the core of the problem - I've also wondered many times why Archicad can't utilize the processor and graphics card by more than a few percent? If a GS developer could comment on this, that would be great.