WISH: Performance metrics

[Archireid]

2 aspects to this wish:

A way to determine which system will perform better in archicad, either a built in benchmark, or some way of seeing view load times, rebuild times, frame rate in 3d views etc

Currently the only reference for performance that I know of is the minimum and recommended specs which rarely get updated.

Secondly these performance metrics could be used to help diagnose performance issues - ie: is a particular view taking longer that the others, or a specific object slowing everything down, or running out of ram etc

I'm fairly sure some of this info is already available in the session report window, but having it all in a concise, accessible format with repeatable results to compare systems or projects would help.

[jl_lt]

I would find it quite useful. Unless the effort for self-assesment and self-evaluation (AI reflecting on itself?) from the software takes up even more resources.

Cheers!

[Archireid]

Good point, perhaps not constantly running, but a toggle, or a manual option to turn on and off when needed.

Could also have the results upload to a database, so we can see how different systems compare.

[Laurentiu C]

Awesome ideas, it can definitely come in handy when dealing with complex projects or trying to optimize for fast workflows where you really don't want to wait 10 seconds for a view to load.

[Erwin Edel]

Maybe include polycount, instead of offering as a goodie as well!

Polycount has basically been my model performance test so far. Sometimes library parts or complex profiles generate a rediculous amount of polygons.

There are faucets that can generate like 70k polygons and you might just have 100 washbasins with this faucet that you just randomly picked because it looked nice and it's generating 70% of the polygons in your model, for example.

Edit:

In case anyone thought I was overstating the polygons:

I was off by 526 polygons.

[Laurentiu C]

Thats what we use so far as well. I asked about the posibility of including Polycount inside the base version, Seems like they'll look into it and evaluate. Hopefully a future version 😊

[Archireid]

Honestly for me, polycount has only helped when Im doing multi-residential and like you mention, have 100+ copies of high poly objects. 

I have plenty of single residential or light commercial projects that perform terribly, with no obvious outliers on polycount.

Same with generating views where all the high poly 3D elements are turned off, still get annoyingly long load times,

My guess is perhaps its solid operators, or complex profiles? With no performance metrics to point to the issue you have to manually try to adjust through guesswork, very time consuming and often doesnt actually fix the issue.

[schagemann]

Good idea - although I suspect there are too many factors (CPU, overall RAM usage, network latency, to name but a few....) to take into account to provide a really meaningful analysis of why a particular file is slow on a given device.

Until Graphisoft figures this out it is down to good old guesswork and regular file maintenance...

If you need a guide have a loo at the following: https://smart.macinteract.com/z/smart-check/

There is also another one to do a check of your AC Template... https://smart.macinteract.com/z/smart-template-check/

[Lingwisyer]

You could probably see your FPS in the 3D Window using FRAPS or similar.

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Modeling/In-Archicad-How-can-I-view-the-realtime-FPS-of-the-3D-v...

[k_bauschert]

+1

We need more info to help troubleshooting bottlenecks.

[Laurentiu C]

I just want to reiterate the benefits of this wish and detail some of the ideas that were already said.

2D views metrics

This would entail the ability to see the draw/redraw times of different plan, elevation & section views and also an fps viewer for different zoom levels.

This would include metrics for things like worksheets, schedules, 3D documents and Details, which are also 2D based.

Layouts should also be considered because projects with a lot of layouts tend to get bigger in file size. So information about which layouts impact the file size would save quite a bit of of space.

3D view metrics

This is definitely a complicated area to measure because Archicad isn't dynamic like a video game would be. So even if an fps counter could help, it would vastly differ between times when the camera is moving and when it's static.

That being said, some metrics should be considered, especially because shadows can be very problematic in some models, and a way to determine where the problem is located would improve the 3D experience.

From what I know, open source tools like PresentMon from Intel could be integrated in Archicad and maybe just part of that could give some quick feedback.

Also having some way to display which graphics card Archicad is using, or a way to enforce the use of the dedicated graphics would probably also help. Even if this is as easy as opening the Task Manager on Windows, having a place that displays it inside Archicad will probably clarify it for a lot of people.

Library parts metrics/ Tool metrics

This would entail the ability do measure the following of all elements: 

- draw/ redraw times (in 2D plan & section/elevation)

- preview times (in 3D, with/without shadows or in PBR)

- polygon counts (like the goodies addon)

- load times for each object (when loading the library on startup)

- load times for lcfs/ packages

- file size (visible also in the Object Selection Settings, not just Library Manager)

This information could be displayed firstly for each object in the Object Selection Settings, in a new section under the Information tab.

Secondly there should be an overview of all used objects to visually compare and identify problematic spots.

Having this info easily accessible would be of great help for both developers & regular users.

Developers would be more informed when they decide to optimize their objects/ library parts, project managers could identify troubling objects and decide to remake them, users could choose to lower resolution or decide to use another object or re-import it from another source.

Publisher / Export metrics

Right now when publishing we can only see the file-size of each exported file.

Export times for layouts would also be very beneficial and wish some machine learning maybe Archicad could even predict export times ahead of doing it.

It's very common to hit the publish button and take a break, so having some rough estimate of how long it will take can be a small quality of life improvement.

BIMx should also be included because those export times can add up to quite a few minutes and it would be useful to understand which part is taking so long to export. If users had an estimate of how much something takes then and they could make the decision to leave that part out or prioritize the right amount of information (layouts, 3d views/etc).

A built in performance optimizer

This tool would gather info from throughout the mentioned metrics an give recommendations to optimize the file.

This could include stuff like, deleting unused views, unused layouts, unused masters, unused embedded objects, informing about problematic objects or complex objects, problematic views with high loading times, 3D views that are hard to navigate (because of shadows).

Troubleshooting & support

One of the additional benefits of having built in metrics, would be seen in the communication with the support team. For performance specifically, it's hard to explain a problem that you are experiencing without having anything to point at. So having some numbers or a report that users can give to Graphisoft to look at would greatly improve the communication and reduce the time it takes for support to troubleshoot these issues. 

It could potentially result in more feedback from users and point the development team to tackle performance improvements that are widely reported.

A benchmarking tool

This would allow users to understand how their current useful their current hardware is and also if, why, and how impactful a hardware upgrade could be. It would also allow all users compare different hardware configurations from other users and thus make a more informed decision based on their needs & budget.

Benchmarking is already widely used among other industries, notably V-Ray from Chaos and Cinnebench from Maxon. Maybe some kind of collaboration between Graphisoft and Maxon can render some surprising results considering their quite vast expertise.

This benchmark would need to measure a standard set of metrics that were mentioned above and also rendering times from the CinneRender / Caneware.

It can also be a marketing point to showcase performance improvements in each release of Archicad.

Conclusion

All in all, I believe this wish has the potential to impact almost all of the userbase and even help Graphisoft's support/dev teams. If implemented it would give users more tools for a smoother experience and improving the quality of the time spent in the software.

Also, Revit doesn't have anything close to this from what I know, so Archicad could be first.

I hope this gets considered by Graphisoft in future releases.