Use of multi-core technology

[markus.poltrock]

This is certainly not a new idea, but one that should be implemented urgently.

Currently ACAD and Advance Steel use only one core. The performance increase that can be achieved by increasing the power of a core is small.
Common computers have been equipped with multi core technology for a long time. The software does not use these possibilities.
The functional enhancement of the software makes no sense if I don't remove such a bottleneck.
Working on multi kernel technology should be at the top of the task list. After that there is time for new ideas.

[ChristianBlei]

Hi,

that is an idea so old that nobody dares to post it....... 😉

[markhubrich]

LOL even my newest Raspberry Pi is multi core. It wouldn't hurt to use the powerful capability of the GPU for some intense processes neither. 😁

[Anonymous]

Could not agree more!! We just bought a i7-9700KF driven computer and it is only using 1 core making it not much more powerful than our last PC. This is the only think bottle necking my workflow at the moment.

[AleckGiles]

As I understand it, one of the difficulties in making most thing multi-threaded is that most tasks don't lend themselves to being split up - they are linear tasks. It takes longer to split the task up, manage multiple threads and then put the pieces back together. I don't think any CAD systems are multi-threaded for the majority of their tasks.

However, certain tasks do lend themselves to multi-threading. Rendering is a common example where different portions of the final image are rendered in each thread.

In Advance Steel there is one obvious task that lends itself to multi-threading like this and that is Drawing Creation / Drawing Processes. Instead of producing drawings sequentially in one thread, this should be multi-threaded. One thread controls the process of sending parts to other threads to detail. In a typical 4 or 8 core processor that means 3 or 7 drawings being created simultaneously. Thereby the total process time is divided by 3 or 7 with no additional power required on the user's PC.

Rewriting all of AutoCAD / Advance Steel to be multi-threaded is likely prohibitively difficult and expensive. Jus making the Drawing Processes multi-threaded should be quite achievable.

[markus.poltrock]

Thanks Alek for the detailed discussion of the topic multi-core technology.
I had also recently learned that CAD systems generally use only one thread. I suspect general difficulties with the topic. Now I know a little more.
Besides the multi-threaded approach to the drawings, the way the parts are dimensioned on the drawings is also an important issue. Here, in times of AI, more should be possible, i.e. better dimensioning results.