• troubleshooting

Troubleshooting techniques

This article describes general troubleshooting techniques.

(This article is a stub)

see also TechNotes/Working faster with ArchiCAD

Slow 3D

3D speed

Typical problems:

Too many polygons

• count number of polygons
• find objects with too many polygons
• 3DS, C4D objects, curved objects
• element detail (door knobs and the like)
• scale-dependent objects
• layering
• Rendering tricks (background)

Element Interactions

• Find Solid Element Operations
• Delete Solid Element Operations
• Problem objects: meshes
• Zones
• Find duplicates
• interactions between hidden and visible layers
• registry keys to control SEO

Shadow casting

• 3D window settings
• curved elements
• trees
• huge polygons ("infinite" slab or mesh)

Empty 3D Window

Bugs/blank 3D window

Slow sections

• shadow casting
• detailed objects
• curved elements
• how to replace 3D objects with 2D proxy objects
• layer usage

Slow 2D

See also article 2D speed

Density

• Using edit selection set to count lines
• 2D objects from AutoCAD
• trees, foliage
• details in different scale (BIM does not mean drawing in 1:1 detail)
• use bitmap fills in model view
• number of groups

Parametric objects

• doors and windows typically draw slower
• zones interact with walls
• complex profiles
• symbolic vs. projected views
• "Requests" in objects - e.g. door marker that reports which room it belongs to

Feedback problems

• DirectX problems
• Trace reference on/off
• viewpoint or view as Trace reference?
• try switching off palettes (navigator, navigator preview, info box)
• "Model Display in 2D Navigation" WE setting

Large ArchiCAD files

See article File size

Large output files

• Check attributes
• symbol fills, symbol lines explode in DWG and PDF
• typical: gravel fill, thick dashed line

Crash, hang, freeze

see Crash and Freeze

Reseting ArchiCAD

see TechNotes/Preferences Cleaning

Display problems

elements missing in 2D/3D

• interaction with hidden layers
• libarry cache deleting
• aborted 3D/section generation - find corrupt elements by halving algorythm
• missing macro, third-party add-on library

Slow copy/paste

• "copy as image"
• missing libraries

see: TechNotes/Speed problems in copy-paste operations

Slow I/O

• find which stage is slow
• Network problems
• missing libraries

Opening old files

Find ArchiCAD compatibility table here: ArchiCAD versions

Supported file formats

FileExtensions

WIBU (protection) problems

Start troubleshooting with this page: WIBU-Key

Hardware issues

• Recommended Video cards: Video Cards

• Other Hardware recommendations: What kind of machine should I buy

• About Multiprocessing: Multiprocessing

• About 64-bit: 64-bit

• About operating systems: *Windows XP 64-bit edition *Windows Vista

ArchiCAD Error Messages

See: error messages

Opening Support Packages

See: Troubleshooting/OpeningSupportPackages

---