Karl wrote:
I don't think that there are any tasks that ArchiCAD does that are data intensive enough for distributed computing today, other than rendering - and there is already a network render module for LightWorks, but GS does not license it.

That is interesting .. i did not know that Lightworks had a netrender module. I mean it makes total sense, i guess i just never thought about it. It raises an interesting possibility.

Although rendering really is the only ArchiCAD task i can see that would take advantage of distributed processing, i would not limit that to Lightworks rendering. Although most offices doing animations will use something like Cinema4D or Max, or outsource, there are some using Lightworks quite successfully for stills, compositing with Sketch Renders or Hidden Line renders for example. It is however difficult to do for longer animations particularly for the larger projects more likely to be doing lengthy animations. I'm not saying it is impossible - you can always manually break up the frames and run them on individual machines. However a dynamic network rendering system along the lines of the C4D NetRender application is I think one of the reasons many firms go to something like C4D, it is not necessarily just to improve image quality as there is a substantial difference in the learning curve for something like VRay as opposed to AC's internal rendering options which are relatively point-and-shoot.

Now of course i am not suggesting it is a good idea that GS pursues this - they have much more important things to be directing resources towards. It would however be something i think many people would find attractive and a definite marketing point.