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Hardware recommendation

Find recommended hardware specifications and optimisation tips for the best experience with Catenda Hub.

Sjaak Velthoven avatar
Written by Sjaak Velthoven
Updated over 3 months ago

This article contains information about the recommended system requirement to use Catenda Hub. Catenda hub can be accessed through the browser and does not need to be installed.

This article contains information about the following topics:

Hardware recommendation:

(June 2024)

For regular projects (up to LOD 300):

Processor

RAM

GPU

Intel Core i5 or eq.

8 to 16 GB

integrated / 4GB

For Dense Geometry projects (LOD 400 and above):

Processor

RAM

GPU

Intel Core i7 or eq.

32GB

8GB

Dedicated GPU vs Integrated GPU

Please make sure you are using your systems dedicated GPU and not the integrated GPU.
On Windows 10 you can make sure you use the dedicated GPU by following these steps:​

3D Viewer optimization:

Although Catenda Hub is well optimized and can run most models some users might want to set themselves up for success as best as possible. Here are therefore some strategies that can be used to optimize your workflow in Catenda Hub:

Many objects:

Of course loading less models will mean less objects and therefore better performance

Turning on incremental rendering speeds up rotating around models with a lot of geometry as not all of the objects have to be loaded when rotating.

As a final step you can make a query of the section you are working in. Usually when you section off part of the model the objects are still in memory and just hidden.
With a query these objects are completely removed and it will therefore be easier to work with the model. Keep in mind that you will not be able to use property libraries with queries because not all objects are loaded.

Point clouds

If you are using fixed point size you might run into low fps when a lot of points have been loaded in. You might also experience points taking longer to load when the memory budget of your system is reached. Points closest to the camera are loaded first so if you want to load points at a specific location it is better to navigate to that position and then turn on the point cloud so it starts loading points there first.

To combat hitting the memory limit and getting lower fps you can lower the point budget so fewer points are loaded in.

Browser settings

System requirements:

Catenda Hub is available through different browsers.

Requirements of browsers that can be used to access Catenda Hub:

Hardware acceleration

Please make sure you are using hardware acceleration.
Hardware acceleration options for the different browsers can be found here:

Chrome:

External factors

Please check if you have any browser extensions or other programs that could be slowing down your Catenda Hub experience.


Best browser by memory usage:

  1. Firefox

  2. Chrome

  3. Microsoft Edge

Cookies

With the data stored in cookies your browser will be able to know if you are logged in and some of your preferences in Catenda projects. Some preferences can differ per project while others will be the same for all projects. If you change your preference by for example closing a menu this will be remembered across browser windows and tabs.
If you for example close the filter menu in one tab and then refresh that same page in another tab, the filter menu will be closed in that tab as well.

This way the browser also remembers if you were logged in or not.
Say you log out in one tab to log into another account and then refresh the page of another tab, you will find yourself logged in with the other account which might not have access to the project you were in.

On chrome you will be able to manage your cookies like below:
Click on Cookies and site data

Click on Manage on-device site data

This is what your site data settings can look like:

To use Catenda Hub you need to at least allow the storage of data for hub.catenda.com during your session.
If you choose to delete data when closing all windows your data will be reset every time you use Catenda. If you delete your data each time all windows are closed your preferences will be reset every time after closing all windows of your browser.

Network speed

Control the quality of your network, so that the ratio between Download and Upload is

around 1:10 or above.

(this is an example, not actual requirement)

Proxies and firewall:

Users accessing Catenda Hub behind a firewall, proxy or other intermediary need access to the following domains and ports for the application to function properly.

Domains:

(* means DNS wildcard and . is a domain level separator, don't treat the below as regexes).

  • Catenda domains:

    • catenda.com

    • *.catenda.com

      • webviewer.catenda.com

    • *.*.catenda.com

We encourage you to use this new domain name.

You should not run into problems with more sub-domains like *.*.*.catenda.com but if you do it might be easier to allow everything from catenda.com

Maintained domains

The following domains will be maintained in the foreseeable future but not referenced in technical literature.

  • bimsync.com

  • *.bimsync.com

  • *.*.bimsync.com

Services

Catenda Hub uses the following services:

  • *.google-analytics.com

  • *.googletagmanager.com

  • *.intercom.io

  • *.intercomcdn.com

  • *.sentry.io

Plugins

If you only intend to use Catenda Hub through one of our plugins you these are the only domains you need to allow through your firewall.

  • For authentication of plugins and integrations

    • hub.catenda.com

    • api.catenda.com

    • bimsync.com

    • api.bimsync.com

  • For use of plugin

    • Revit plugin

      • https://revit.plugins.catenda.com

      • https://revit.plugins.bimsync.com

    • Archicad plugin

      • https://archicad.plugins.catenda.com

      • https://archicad.plugins.bimsync.com

    • Navisworks plugin

      • https://navisworks.plugins.catenda.com

      • https://navisworks.plugins.bimsync.com

    • Tekla plugin

      • https://tekla.plugins.catenda.com

      • https://tekla.plugins.bimsync.com

  • For use of integration

    • Solibri BCF Live connector

      • https://bcf.bimsync.com/

      • https://opencde.bimsync.com/

Ports:

80:
This port is optional but recommended for best in-browser user experience.
Protocol: TCP (For hub.catenda.com and www.hub.catenda.com only)

Clients that attempt to make a request on 80 are redirected to make the equivalent encrypted call on port 443.

443:

Protocol: TCP + UDP
All Catenda Hub traffic is TLS-encrypted on this port.

UDP is optional but recommended for best user experience as it allows compatible browsers and other clients to take advantage of advances in the HTTP protocol, such as HTTP/3 (formerly QUIC) which we are rolling out across the platform.

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