Hi,
If you will be using VizRender for the render and drive thru - the video
card memory requirements are not as important as you might think. The
rendering process itself does not rely on the graphics card, rather on the
cpu and RAM memory. The video card performance is only relevant in terms of
the GUI while setting up your scene if you have a complex model. Once you
go to actually render you don't need a video card.
If you are interested in real-time simulation / rendering then yes - the
more video memory you have the better, the key factors here are the
complexity of the model (how many triangles in your surface), and the size
(resolution) of the bitmaps you may be using to texture the geometry. For
this I would recommend as a minimum 64megs (video memory) but 128 would
probably be better. GeForce 4 would be the minimum type of card you would
be considering though I believe NVidia has an array of even more powerful
cards.
For those of you who didn't get a chance to see Rapid Design Visualization
(RDV) at Autodesk University last week I would encourage you to have a look
at our website www.rdvsystems.com. You can download a free trial version of
the software which enables you to create real-time, internet enabled
simulations directly from Civil3D. It is designed for the typical Civil3D
user who has little or no experience in visualization to quickly create
drive thrus and other informative 3D presentation materials.
Good Luck,
Natan Elsberg
natan@rdvsystems.com
RDV Systems - www.rdvsystems.com
"plt" wrote in message news:41b61331_2@newsprd01...
> I am looking for some system suggestions for Civil3d (processor, ram,
> video), especially video for the rendering and "drive-thru" feature. Any
> suggestions on brand and model of video card is greatly appreciated. Is
> Civil3d more or less demanding than Envision?
>
> Thanks,
>
> plt
>
>