Supercomputer for showcase?

[joerituijn]

I've been trying to work with showcase 2014 but it seems I need to upgrade to Cray Titan. Loading a model takes 5-10 minutes and don't even attempt to rotate the model or do something with it. I'm just wondering if this is a computer issue or are other people experiencing the same trouble?

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model Precision WorkStation 490
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5335 @ 2.00GHz, 1995 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A08, 25/4/08
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 4.00 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.88 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.99 GB
Available Virtual Memory 4.41 GB
Page File Space 4.00 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Graphics Quadro FX 3450, 2Gb memory

[MarionLandry]

Hi,

Can you give us information about the project you are using?

What is the source file?

How many objects?

What is the frame rate you are getting?

How many materials?

Being aware of your file size will make a difference. Sometimes we are tempted to load a highly detail model in Showcase where in fact, half of the object we don't need for the visualization. # of material in the scene will also make a difference. Most project have a long list of materials with many diplicates that end up taking a lot of time to computer where in fact, it can all be the same material. 

I do have a list of tips and tricks that can help you manage the size of your scene depending on the software of origin. Let me know and I will send you the list over 

Marion

[cikho]

what marion said, and i add:
what's the polygon count of the scene? (view -> scene statistics)

if the geometry comes from a cad software, and it's rich of details (screws, bushes etc) try to delete the surfaces and geometries you don't need (eg inner parts not in sight).

another suggestion, try to upgrade your ram a bit, 4Gb is good, 8gb is better 😛

also, check the card drivers, in the autodesk support web sites you will find a suggested one for your card 🙂

[joerituijn]

Thanks for the replies. I have different problems;



1. Open file; no thumbnails are shown in my dialog. Just icons
(thumbnails do show in windows explorer). Since I'm using Vault as well with
a numbering scheme, all my file names are just numbers. That is rather
annoying. So I'd have to browse my files in windows, find the file l'm
looking for remember the number and open it in showcase.

2. Once I click open, loading just the environment easily takes a
minute. Converting a single part takes one minute at best but usually takes
several. So I'm not talking about a small assembly here with different
materials and higher complexity, just one part.

3. Once the model is loaded, the system is slow; ie. rotating a model
is seriously problematic. I haven't even attempted to change colors,
materials or render quality.

4. Showcase isn't multi-threading, it only uses one processor (or
core). Not sure if that's a bad thing, since it fully consumes one core.



I have attached a model (just a cube, nothing else) that takes forever to
open.



Thanks,

Joeri





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[Steve_Curley]

No file...

These forums have restrictions on the type of files which will attach. If you ZIP (not rar or 7z or anything else - just zip) the file and the resulting archive is below the filesize limit (5MB) then it will attach. Simply reply to this thread and attach the zipped file to that reply. Oh, and just renaming the file to .zip is not an acceptable circumvention of the restrictions, it should be an actual zip archive.

Also remember to check the post, once submitted, to make sure it did attach. You have a short time after submitting the post to edit it and try the attachment again (if it failed).

[MarionLandry]

Hi

After looking more closely at the spec of your computer I can suggest few things:

- Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB, you can increase that to 8 if you want. (this will come into play if you are rendering Raytracing)

- 20 GB free hard drive space - you don't have much on your laptop

-Certified hardware-accelerated graphics card with a minimum of 512 MB graphics memory (1 GB recommended) and DirectX® 9 support

Read this for more info: http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/showcase/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/System...

Autodesk-Showcase.html#section3

Also you have the Graphics Quadro FX 3450, 2Gb memory which is not Certified so I am not sure of the result it will give you. 

For the list of certified NVIDIA graphic cards :

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?siteID=123112&id=18844534&results=1&stype=graphic&produ...

Hope this helps

Marion

[joerituijn]

Wow, thanks for all the replies! Don't even know where to start. Let's start with saying that I just purchased a new workstation that'll arrive in a week. That is a bit more powerful than what I have now (E5-2667 processor, 8 Gb RDIMM mem, NVidia Quadro 4000 with 2 Gb memory).

I will post back with an update to see if that performs any better.

Thanks for all the replies!

Joeri

[llamas91]

I dont wanna high jack the persons question. But i tend to use ray tracing ALOT since its relatively simple, and i get somewhat accurate renders.
You mention that upgrading from 4Gb to 8Gb of RAM would help with ray tracing.

Does having large amounts of RAM help ray tracing render much faster?

[Christian_Garimberti]

Fast Cpu make fast renderings (clock X number of cores). (in raytracing..... in hardware mode only 1 cpu works...)

Fast cpu needs fast ram...

And the amount of ram depend on the complexity of the model.

So, if your system does not have enaouh ram to work the rendering is slow.

Bye

[llamas91]

I have a Quad core i7 3770 with hyper threading, as well as 12Gb of ram. Im not sure what the speed of the RAM is, but when i ray trace render, all the cores on teh CPU are at 100%. However i do have about 2-3Gb of RAM available. 
I assume this means that my models arent incredibly complex, so the 12Gbs i have is more than enough. 

Correct?

[Christian_Garimberti]

If you have some free Ram so the ram for you is enough.

Bye