working on a large modelling file

[pumaka_gabriel]

Is working on a large modelling file with 16 million polygons a problem? I'm not sure. But it's slow. We're on Windows and the processor is working slowly, memory is full, TW exchanges are unreadable on the ‘task manager’, at network level (40-80 KB/sec on a fibre network = <1%). firewall changed, switch changed.

Operating system used: Windows 5030

[Jan Millan]

You're definitely in heavy model territory at 16 million polygons. While Archicad can technically handle models of that size, performance issues are expected; especially in 3D navigation, Teamwork exchanges, and on hardware that isn’t specifically optimized for high-poly workflows.

For context, this article states anything above 1 million polygons to be “very large”, and performance degradation tends to become noticeable past the 500,000 mark. However, based on my experience running Project Audits in my previous role, the threshold we typically flagged as "very large" was around 5 million polygons.

Here are a few suggestions to help manage performance:

• Simplify geometry wherever possible, especially in high-detail objects or downloaded content that may not be optimized.

• Use Model View Options to reduce detail levels when not working on visualization outputs.

• Turn off unnecessary layers during active modeling to reduce the load.

• Consider breaking the project into smaller modules and hotlinking them, especially if teams are working concurrently.

[pumaka_gabriel]

Thank you Jan,
I understand that this is great. But the project manager and the design team have decided not to trim or optimise the file. It will continue to grow because the modelling is missing 30%. For the moment we have two options: accept the slowness of the file or buy new machines with 256 GB of memory. But will the Archicad file remain stable?

[Noemi Balogh]

@pumaka_gabriel did you consider re-sharing the project? Send & Receive shouldn't be heavily affected by the polygon size unless you continuously modify (add and remove) elements, like 1000s at a time without sending them back. Sending all changes to the server, saving a pln, repairing it and re-share on BIMcloud might fix a few things that can negatively affect your project, without compromising on LoD, if this is a concern.

I'm not sure it will be sustainable for the whole life of the project to keep it without any optimization though, because as the project database is growing, it will cause different type of annoying problems. There might be a few options that could help you without the project team compromising too much. Take a look on this article: How to Optimize Your Project Performance 

[k_bauschert]

I doubt that throwing more hardware at the problem will be a valid solution. 

Archicad dosnt scale well above a certain hardware level.

Pure polygon count is just a part of the performance stress, AC has also to calculate all intersections between the elements, even more so if solid element operations are involved. Optimizing the project as described above should give a bigger mid- to long term benefit justifying the shortterm effort.
If this is not wanted then tell the team to get used to inefficient mandatory coffee breaks.

[Magnus2]

When the project manager doesnt want to change anything then he has to live with more hours on the project. How does your design team work? Do they modell the project in a high LOD? Does it have a lot of complex objects?

You have already a heavy project. Throwing in more hardware doesnt solve your perfomance problem. 
The problem lies in the projects. At this point you cant solve it but you can handle it down a little bit.
As another User commented here is, that ArchiCAD constantly calculate your project to show it in-realtime. (f.e. large slabs are a huge problem, hundres of openings, SOE-Command,...)

What you can do to boost your perfomance a little bit is, set your Model representation to a lighter display (f.e. show curtain shematic), turn off layers you dont need and create a work layer combination in which you turn on/off the layers you dont need at the moment, maybe cut the project in several little projects,