Instancing Objects

[kittonian]

Is it possible, as it is in Cinema 4D for example, to create "rendered instances" of objects so that high amounts of repetitive objects do not cause a slow down? For example a bunch of the same trees, bushes, footings, etc., where you would place one object and then instance that object so that it becomes a reference to the original instead of adding to the polygonal count of the scene/project.

[Barry Kelly]

Short answer - no.
Or at least not that I am aware of (not being familiar with how Cinema 4D works).

Barry.

[runxel]

Well, at least this is how the Archicad GDL objects seem to behave.
Heimo Mooslechner did some videos on this topic, where he compared the performance under high numbers of morphs and objects.

[Erwin Edel]

I think the closest you can get to proxy/instanced objects in ArchiCAD is to use the simple/detailed 3D settings of most native ArchiCAD objects.

The PolyCount addon allows you to mass set these, but results may vary. You do need to remember to change the settings back and forth as you do the renders.
You can hide furniture details like handles, faucets and such with model view options, but not the 3D detail level that I can tell.

A whole different approach, that I sometimes use, is where I hotlink my entire ArchiCAD model of the building to a separate 3D presentation project where I add all the site work, people, trees etc etc so these do not clutter my bim model/technical drawing. It's a bit like how I use to work with Artlantis, export from ArchiCAD, add the 3d presentation stuff in Artlantis, except now it is a separate ArchiCAD file.

You could also make a special renovation filter for the 3d presentation models and set the objects to only show on that renovation filter. I use this a lot when I just add a bit of flavour site work that might be different for different cameras. What works in one camera composition, doesn't allways work in another.

[kittonian]

All good suggestions and I appreciate the responses. I generally do my trees, etc. in C4D to achieve better realism, etc., but in this case I am doing a deck over a flat roof and needed to use a detailed object for each footing. There ended up being hundreds of them placed around the area and of course ArchiCAD, especially when viewing a section or elevation, took forever to draw them.

The simple vs detailed is definitely a consideration, and to be honest, I did not think of that. We ended up using a separate layer just for those objects and kept it turned off as much as possible throughout the design process.

Such a shame that AC doesn't support instancing.