Background Conversion Issues

Starting from ARCHICAD 19, all calculations necessary for opening 3D-related views or viewpoints will be run as background processes.

Supported viewpoints:

  • 3D Window
  • Section
  • Elevation
  • Interior elevation (except when “Add bounded area” or “Detect and Fit to Zones” are enabled)
  • 3D Document

If the background process is successful, the requested view takes only a few seconds to open.
However, there may be some non-thread-safe library parts or objects placed in the plan file, which can disable background calculations:

  • Zones
  • Objects including text engine operations (except set style and define style commands)
  • Objects using the following requests: “CUSTOM_AUTO_LABEL”, “ZONE_COLUS_AREA”, “MATCHING_PROPERTIES”, “ASSOCEL_PROPERTIES”, “STYLE_INFO”, “TEXTBLOCK_INFO”, “FONTNAMES_LIST”
  • Objects using variable named macros, requests, or non-thread-safe macros.
  • project2 command or symbol fill definition are counted as non-thread safe macro calls.

The relationship between GDL add-ons and background processing depends on the add-on itself.
Deterministic add-ons (not affecting background processing):

  • Polygon Operations
  • Property Add-on
  • If used in read-only mode, and with files loaded in the active library: Text or Data I/O Add-ons, XML Add-on

Non-deterministic add-ons (disabling background processing):

  • DateTime Add-on
  • FileManager Add-on
  • If not used in read-only mode, or not with files loaded in the active library: Text or Data I/O Add-ons, XML Add-on

The object scripts are examined statically, so the background conversion is disabled even if the obstacle function itself is not executed with the current settings of the library part. The object itself and all called macros are checked as well.

To check the loaded library parts’ compatibility with background processing, use the “Check Background Update Compatibility” command of the Library Developer menu.