Graphics card vs RAM
in my opinion, the more RAM will not increase so much, but the cost of RAM is not so high, so why not adding it too=)
Videocard could be bring a little bit more, but the K2000 is not so bad, do use the correct driver from Autodesk?
The mainproblem of the speed of Advance Steel is AutoCAD =).
The problem is, that AutoCAD is using one processor and so I made the experience, that the most speed increase could be done by using a processor with high gigahertz and a SSD disk.
Sebastian Eiche
Application Engineer @Mensch und Maschine acadGraph
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Hi,
You state you are using the "2D Wireframe" visual style. As far as I know this style does NOT use Graphics Card hardware acceleration. So upgrading your card is not likely to make any real difference at all to this.
If you check you should see there are two different Visual Styles called "2D Wireframe" and "Wireframe" the latter is the proper GPU accelerated version of Wireframe. If you compare these styles in the Visual Style Manager you will see they have totally different options and capabilities. It is worth comparing the performance of both.
Furthermore, it is my understanding that modern graphics cards are optimised for shading not edges. So a view with shading and no edges may perform better than a view with edges/ the "Shaded" style should be this but check the Visual Style manager as the default UK template has the edges turned on in both "Shaded" and "Shaded with Edges" rather defeating the point. I can definitely tell a difference on my PC.
Aleck Giles, Structures Consultant, Graitec
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Hi,
Further to my previous comment I have also noticed that in the default template in the UK build the Wireframe visual style has occluded edges turned off. This means the system has to do lots of slow hidden line calculations greatly reducing performance.
Try checking Occluded Edges Show = Yes and Color = ByEntity. That will match the 2D Wireframe appearance and give the best performance.
Aleck Giles, Structures Consultant, Graitec
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Sounds that I would like to play a little bit with this machine 😁
Sebastian Eiche
Application Engineer @Mensch und Maschine acadGraph
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Warning... If you do start detailing with one of these you will not be happy if you go to a new employer who does not provide you with one. My philosophy is very simple, you wouldn't take a Prius to the race track and expect to win would you? Get the fastest hardware your wallet will allow. I use the one on the right for processing point cloud data now so it doesn't slow down my new one while I'm modeling lol. I'm proud of these babies, they made us a lot of money in less time.
You should clean up the fans 😉
The boxx systems are working great, I heared a lot but never use one.
Sebastian Eiche
Application Engineer @Mensch und Maschine acadGraph
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The Kepler (K-series) is a little long in the tooth at this point, while you can try to keep tracking down updated drivers you'll see diminishing returns as more and more software moves to newer versions of DirectX. I'd highly recommend getting something more modern such as the P2000 or GTX 10_0 series at this point now that the GTX-20_0 series are starting to hit the market. More RAM might be useful but use a system monitor before doing so; if you aren't exceeding system RAM now there's not much point in getting excessive.
That being said... hardware isn't everything. You can throw $10k at a box (even a Boxx) and you won't get much of an improvement if you don't optimize how you handle the data. Keep files lean, mean, and clean, and optimized for AutoCAD (which has a few limitations on large single-file models, as previously noted). If you need a monster computer to work with them, and a client doesn't have that kind of hardware, they won't be able to do much with what you send them.
If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.
"I don't know" is the beginning of knowledge, not the end.
Hi,
If you set things up for best performance 2D Wireframe (no GPU acceleration) and Wireframe (with GPU) will look the same. WITH Occluded edges turned ON in Entity colour.
As you say, if you are set to 2D Wireframe the system will sometimes change to Wireframe during rotation. That is part of the problem. There is a delay while it passes the graphics / model data to the GPU and gets it back again and redraws the screen each time. Forget 2D Wireframe and stay in Wireframe when needed. As I understand it, removing hidden edges is an extra task after ALL edges are computed so it is a lot more work for the GPU rather than having less edges to compute.
The fastest display mode. and generally much easier to understand and work with, is Shaded so long as you have all edges turned OFF. (Shaded with Edges is to include edges [visible = On, Occluded = off] not this one). So if performance is an issue you should spend 90% of your time in this mode.
I don't really see any benefit of working in Wireframe mode with Occluded edges off. The only reason to be in wireframe instead of a shaded mode is to see through things. If you don't want to see through things then go shaded which is much easier. If you need hidden edges removed when rotating to see what you are doing then use shaded instead. Seeing through things can be useful when viewing a small area for a short time (clash check results or so you can see the back and front of a joint all at once perhaps) but really hard to follow much of the time. I know a few long time users are used to, and prefer, Wireframe mode but new users find shaded much easier.
For modern graphics cards Shading = Fast, Edges = Slow, Removing hidden edges = very slow. So set your display accordingly.
Aleck Giles, Structures Consultant, Graitec
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You have the goods to work up a very fast workstation. If you get an ASRock motherboard and liquid cooling you could gain an additional 1GHz in speed. Not to mention a really quiet machine.
Here's my specs... Same processor and GPU as you, except on boost 😛
I would be interested in attempting to reproduce this workstation for my personal use. I would also be willing to share the info along the way through the build. This could benefit all AS users who are in need of a hardware solution on a budget. A recipe for a blazing fast Advance Steel workstation is just what this community needs. I believe everyone should experience the same satisfaction, I know at least one other member here does 😄
