Tips Needed For Faster ArchiCAD - Trace Reference Killing Us

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

we are working on a 100 unit development, consisting of two towers of 8 stories over 2 levels of basement parking.

Set up:
Block A1 Module File: all typical units, balconies and floors for Block A1 created here.
Block A1 Tower File: Modules arranged to create Block A1
Block A2 Module File: all typical units, balconies and floors for Block A2 created here.
Block A2 Tower File: Modules arranged to create Block A2
Master File: Block A1 + Block A2 moduled in and arranged over the 2 levels of basements which are modelled straight into this Master File

Currently layouts are split between the Block A1 + A2, and Master files.

Now this is a big project but by no means is it the biggest project documented in ArchiCAD.

What we need are some tips on how to speed up ArchiCAD, especially when the trace reference is turned on. It practically grinds to a halt once Trace is turned on.

We were on 4 year old iMacs, so we tried running the OS from an external SSD drive over Thunderbolt, zero to minimum increase in speed.

We then bought a fully spec'd I7 iMac, again zero to minimum increase in speed.

We then bought a 6 core, 16GB Mac Pro, yet again zero to minimum increase in speed.

We have some feedback from Graphisoft who suggested to adjust Model Views to turn off door handles and knobs. They also suggested exporting PMK files and creating layouts in a separate file. These we have done but again zero to minimum increase in speed. We also relinked all modules to come from Teamwork files instead of coming from external .mod files published from the Teamworked files.

Question is does anyone have any tips on how to speed things up in ArchiCAD especially when Trace is turned on?

Much thanks in advance for any help.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Mike

The big trick we've come across is to not trace views in the view map but to
trace from the project map! This way the trace ref doesn't have to rebuild layer sets, mvo's, reno filters etc.
The ONLY exception we use for this is tracing layouts with only pmk's placed on them.

[alemanda]

I had the experience that some time, in floor plan, fills with circles and arcs can slow down ...

[Erwin Edel]

Try looking into the redraw options and what not in the work environment settings. Simplified 2d settings are available for pans, zooms etc That should help speeding things up a bit.

Turn off vectorial hatching while working for on screen display. Along with line width, handles, etc, anything you don't need to have on all the time.

Make clever layer combinations to focus on working on different disciplines (MEP, interior, structural, etc), where you turn off layers that are not needed.

Close windows you are not currently working in (elevations, sections, worksheets, schedules).

Be careful with complex profiles that have holes inside them, this will slow down the projected cuts in plan view.

Be careful with objects that generate projected 2d views, these can slow things down too. If possible create seperate layers for those, so you can turn those specific elements off when working on things if you don't need them.

You say you have a lot of module files, if you cut up the building in to small 'workspaces', you should be working in small project files which all come together in a big file where you would preferably do almost no actual work.

Good luck! Sounds like a great project to work on.

[alemanda]

Yes, be careful with things that are projected into floor plan. Curtain wall and also windows and doors slow down the 2D redraw very much.

[Erwin Edel]

Curtain walls have an option to appear simplified in model view. This helps speed up things as well.

[Anonymous]

Mike.
A project of this size shouldn't present any problems, I have been working on a project of about 150+ apartments all referenced into master file and experience no slow downs with trace reference.
Generally I do not reference layouts, only levels below / above so there is no change of layers or MVO (this would probably slow things down). I also do not have labels and dimensions shown in trace as these require processing time to generate and slow things down.
Regards,
Scott

[Anonymous]

fuzzymike2002-

try: View>3D View Settings>3D Window Settings>.....Turn OFF (in OpenGL) "Transperency in Shading" and "Sun Shadows". Helped me speed things up. Yes..AC18 is very sllloooowwwww when using trace reference. Makes me want to chuck my computer out the window. Also (on my iMac) takes a good 5 minutes to get AC18 fired up and running before I can open a .pln.

Greg

[Anonymous]

I've just started having this problem. Seems the screen has to redraw every time I move the cursor. Can't work at all with trace reference on. When I first updated to 19 I had no problem. Migrated the attached project from 18 (which does not do this), worked great for weeks, even after updating to windows 10--no problem. Then, blam, crawling. (see below for my hardware)

I also opened several other smaller projects and still have the problem, The file is just a single family residence.

I tried all of the suggestions below to no avail. BTW, having to limit myself to not using any view as trace reference will severely cramp my process.

Help would be appreciated. Thanks,

[NCornia]

Jeff.

It is an issue we are aware of and a fix will be included with the upcoming Updates for ARCHICAD 19 and 18. Although there is no definite ETA for these Updates yet it should be sometime soon, maybe a matter of weeks. It depends upon Quality Control test results. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Some things to do in the meantime to decrease the lag:
- Close the Renovation Palette if you have it open.
- Turn off the 3D Cutting Planes when in Floorplan.

Help Center - 2D pan and zoom gets slow, laggy and unresponsive when Trace Reference is on
Help Center - 2D pan and zoom gets slow and laggy when a 3D cut plane is active
Help Center - 3D Cutting Planes

Best regards,