C3D analyzing the internal processes?

[lmac09]

Is there a way to view the processes that C3D 2014 is executing.  For example I triangulate a point cloud and the screen fades and displays (not responding).  Sometimes the program will recover and sometimes it crashes.  So I would like to be able to see what is happening internally such as...writing to disk, analyzing surface, creating contours, simplifying a surface, etc.

[kylenishioka808 · Accepted solution]

Here's what I do when I want to see whether C3D is thinking really hard vs. spinning its wheels.  You will need to learn what is normal vs. what a hanged process looks like.

Install Sysinternals Process Explorer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653).  it is like the deluxe version of Task Manager and can look much deeper into the running processes of Windows.

If you have a dual monitor setup, start Process Explorer first on one screen.  Click on one of the graphs at the top to bring up the System Information window.  I'm attaching a screen cap of my system & the process explorer readout.

Then launch C3D in your the other monitor.  If you have a single monitor setup, it may be tedious to flip back and forth, but the proecess will still work.  

Once C3D is up and running, go about your usual work and periodically glance at the System Info window and make mental notes of what normal CPU, memory load and I/O activities are.  If your computer system is fairly clean you should not have anything spiking the CPU & I/O.  If you have internet radio or streaming video running on in the background all day this will be messy.  Likewise for any stray background processes.  You have to learn to recognize your system's baseline behavior.  C3D will be listed as acad.exe and should consume a minimal amount of CPU even when you're not actively doing anything.  Memory load may vary but C3D will usually be one of your top memory hogs even with no drawing open.

If / when C3D starts chewing on something difficult, you should see the CPU spike and remain high while C3D is actively crunching data.  The memory load should also steadily increase while the CPU is active.  The memory load may level off, but it will not go down until you close C3D or close the drawing.  I/O is the data going into and coming out of the CPU.  As long as C3D is doing something productive there should be a decent (i.e. several MB) of I/O.  When you first open a large drawing, you will see a spike in I/O.  When you regen and save, you should see a spike.  If you rebuild a corridor or surface, there should be a lot of I/O.  

But I/O alone is not an indicator of whether C3D has hanged.  You need to look for a lack of CPU activity, a high but flat-lined level of memory, and a flat line on I/O.  And you have to wait a minute to make sure it's a not a temporary hiccup.  When I sync large data linked objects and regenerate, I've had my computer take 5 - 10 minutes to fully recover.  The I/O meter spikes occasionally throughout this time and it is the one thing that tells me that C3D is just thinking and not hanging.

[tcorey]

Madmarv, great post. Thanks.