Archicad 23 Taking a long time to Save file.

[dkaramaneas]

Hi Guys,

The files are quite small but it is taking a long time to save.

Is there anything I can do to understand how to speed it up. I went through the archicad recommendations but does not seem to change much.

[Barry Kelly]

Are you using teamwork or is it a stand alone PLN?
Are you saving to a local hard drive, a network drive or a cloud drive?


Barry.

[DGSketcher]

What platform are you using? I have a fast Mac with AC24 and it can be irritatingly slow at saving PLNs and publishing modules. I am not sure if this is Mac related, when I was first running AC24 publishing MOD files was really improved, now after the latest Mac update it has slowed down again.

[dkaramaneas]

Hi Everyone,

This is my platform all i am doing is saving a plan to the native hard drive.

[Barry Kelly]

It might be a MAC issue - I have not noticed any problems in the Windows world.

One thing I have done is to add exceptions to my anti-virus software for anything to do with Graphisoft.
i.e I have excluded the Graphisoft program folders and Graphisoft data folders in the user profiles.
I have no idea if something similar can be done on a MAC.
This has helped with speed issues in the past.


Barry.

[dkaramaneas]

Thankyou Barry. i just think its time to upgrade... my computer

[Minh Nguyen]

Hi,

Thank you for your report!

Saving/opening a file may not just rely on how fast your processor is, but it also depends on your hard-drive type. If you are still using an Hard Disk Drive (HDD) for saving the file, the bottleneck could be there. Solid State Drives (or SSDs) should be 3-5 times faster in reading/writing compared to HDD. The amount of RAM available for this process could also play some parts in this. If you run Archicad with many Chrome tabs opened, this could also slow down the saving process.

I hope this helps you with the issue!

Have a great day!

Best regards,
Minh

[DGSketcher]

Hi Minh, I am on an 3.6GHz i9 8 core with 16Gb Ram and 512Gb SSD working on a 110Mb .PLN file and the save process not only for the PLN file but also each MOD file is painfully slow and a lot longer than I would have expected. Activity Monitor frequently shows Archicad as Not responding. I am using about 12Gb of my 16Gb ram. As I mentioned above on first install AC24 was flying on Save now it seems to crawl following the last Mac update.

I have just opened the file and the attached shows the memory report for Archicad, what troubles me about this is it is reporting 3 hangs already!? Having done no work and resaved the file it has now increased to 6 hangs and the virtual memory has jumped!!! Surely this isn't normal?

[Minh Nguyen]

DGSketcher wrote:
Hi Minh, I am on an 3.6GHz i9 8 core with 16Gb Ram and 512Gb SSD working on a 110Mb .PLN file and the save process not only for the PLN file but also each MOD file is painfully slow and a lot longer than I would have expected. Activity Monitor frequently shows Archicad as Not responding. I am using about 12Gb of my 16Gb ram. As I mentioned above on first install AC24 was flying on Save now it seems to crawl following the last Mac update.

I have just opened the file and the attached shows the memory report for Archicad, what troubles me about this is it is reporting 3 hangs already!? Having done no work and resaved the file it has now increased to 6 hangs and the virtual memory has jumped!!! Surely this isn't normal?

Hello,

This is definitely not normal! We haven't received any similar record in our system so far. Could you please help me with collecting some sample process when Archicad becomes freeze? I placed a screenshot in the attachment, we need to do that with the ARCHICAD process. The longer the sample, the better! We need at least 2-3 samples when you encounter this slowness/freeze to be able to see the big picture here.

Please let me know when you are ready, and I will send you a link for uploading those samples.

Thank you very much for your help!

Best regards,
Minh

[DGSketcher]

Hi Minh, Please PM me a link and I will upload soon. I have done numerous "Beach balled" Force Quits from AC24 caused during Publishing MOD files which have been reported through the bug system. I included my email in the reports but never had any response. When you say "freeze", do you mean just before I would do a Force Quit? I only ask because the hangs in my post above and what others seem to be reporting is AC doesn't always fully hang it just beach balls long enough to be annoying before it returns to normal.

Trevor

[Minh Nguyen]

HI Trevor,

Whenever you see the "beach ball" spinning, or when you see Archicad process becomes "Not Responding", that is the moment when we need to take the sample process. Ideally, please let the sample process run for 1-2 minutes. After a while, if Archicad cannot get out of the "Not Responding" status, you can save the sample and force quit Archicad.

If you Force Quit the process, unfortunately, the crash reports won't contain what caused the issue.
I'll send you a link via PM now!

Best regards,
Minh

[DGSketcher]

Hi Minh,

With patience AC never freezes BUT I just published 9 module files and there is 6 minutes between the first and last save with intermittent beach balls, usually when the mouse is moved. Saving the host PLN file is taking 50 seconds.

I have also looked at the latest memory usage from the same session I started this morning. I now have 112 hangs and a virtual memory of 242GB!!!!!

I assume the sample process is only a snapshot and not a recording of what is happening?

Trevor

[Minh Nguyen]

Hi Trevor,

6 minutes for 9 modules, each with ~2MB size is not too bad, it's actually quite normal, or even pretty good. For Windows, I notice that while the publishing process is carried out, between each file generation, there are some small/short "hang". The AC window became "unresponsive" for a while. It is interesting that the Activity Monitor can actually count how many times it freezes!

Regarding Virtual Memory size, I believe this shows the amount of disk space that can be used as RAM in case RAM runs out of memory. It should not reflect that AC needs that much VM to run. Could you please confirm this?

The process sampling indeed took a snapshot of the program (about 2-3 seconds, if I remember correctly). I did not make it clear earlier, sorry for that! If the slowness happens for 5 minutes, we can take snapshot of the process in the first 1-2 minutes (so between 5 or 10 samples would be enough).

I hope everything is clear now!

Best regards,
Minh

[DGSketcher]

mnguyen wrote:
6 minutes for 9 modules, each with ~2MB size is not too bad, it's actually quite normal, or even pretty good.

Hi Minh,

I'm going slightly off track here but 40 seconds to save any file, let alone doing it on a fast machine is not "good". Because we have no in-place modules I am trying to use the Iceberg module management for nearly 100 modules. What you are saying is it's OK to tie my machine up for an hour if I do a full refresh of the modules? Bear in mind this doesn't include the time taken in then updating the actual HLMs. This level of performance is costing me money to the extent that I am starting to look at my options. I don't believe I am alone in this frustration and perhaps others tolerate it because their module requirements aren't so onerous but it certainly isn't a selling point in what is supposed to be class leading software.

Sorry, rant over, but please feel free to convey my best wishes to the Devs.

Trevor

[Minh Nguyen]

Hi Trevor,

I see your point now. If that is the case, I believe we'll need the a file from you in order to replicate the issue in house, and compare the performance between your machine and ours. Can you upload your file (and also some samples process if available)? I will open a case in the system and have our developers take a closer look into it.

Also, could you clarify the performance between AC23, AC24 (freshly after installation) and the performance of AC24 now?

Thank you so much for your help, and I am very sorry for the experience!

Best regards,
Minh

[DGSketcher]

Update: Minh has kindly advised that part of my problem appears to be the number of files listed in the Recent List" of the launch dialog. Mine was populated with over a hundred files, many as a consequence of Publishing MOD files and some no longer existing. Having cleared the list my save times appear to be dramatically improved. So if you start seeing the beach ball when saving it could be time for a clear out.

[Minh Nguyen]

Hi all,

Thank you Trevor for updating the news here, and thank you for your help with the investigation! I just want to add a small remark, that this issue should be fixed with the second update of Archicad 24. Please follow Trevor's advice if you encounter the same issue!

Have a great day!

Best regards,
MInh

[Miha_M]

I can report the same issue here. Archicad 24 is saving at normal speed, Archicad 23 is taking way too long.
Both saving on the same SSD drive. And this is not just one specific file, but all project files I am working on v.23, as I prefer finishing the project or at least a project stage on one version.

Could this be dongle communication related? I don't know when and how, but in one project file I noticed that one wall hung toilet got replaced (without and human interference) with the same element, but this time as a MEP library part. As I tried to modify it I got a warning that I don't have a MEP license and I should restart Archicad in demo mode. I did have a MEP library loaded at the time. Deleting that element and replacing it with a standard library element solved the problem, but saving times are a real problem, that needs a solution.

My Archicad usage is local, no teamwork files at the moment.

[DGSketcher]

@Miha_M. My system is also local with no teamwork. Did you try clearing the recent list in the start up window?

The MEP aspect is one I can't help with other than to say I haven't had any issues.

[Miha_M]

@DGSketcher
It does help. Back to normal, thanks.
It's not a dongle issue. While cleaning the project list I noticed, that there was a substantial time lag while deleting some, but not all, files, which are located on a NAS.
Maybe local network access has some issues?