Re: Computer specs for optimal performance

Anonymous · ‎02-22-2015

I am building a Fusion 360 workstation for use at a small company. Most designs will have 20-100 parts in them. Full 3-axis CAM will be used as well. Overall cost is not really a factor, just that theres noticable performance gain by spending more.

Graphics card: GeForce GTX 960. Overkill? Not enough? Will F360 benifit from a workstation card like the Quadro K2200?

Does F360 benifit more from more single clock speed (like SolidWorks), or more cores/threads (like Rhino)? Is an i7-4790K worth it? Would I be OK with an i3-4160?

Is 16GB of RAM enough? Does more help?

An SSD is a given, probably a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO.

Then finish it out with a mid range ASUS motherboard, a nice Corsair PSU, and a decent case.

If someones getting paid to design, they better not be slowed down by the computer.

JFKANSAS · ‎02-22-2015

Eh, I just use a 2 year old HP laptop that I sometimes hook to a 27" monitor.

Actually sometimes just use my work MacBook Pro.

A desktop power workstation is probably not a bad idea. I would spend more money on a 4k 30"+ monitor over some of the other specs. 16GB of ram should be fine. You aren't really storing stuff and opening stuff locally so the midrange SSD should be fine. I changed from a mid range SSD to an 850 Pro and didn't see much difference.

Really I don't think a lot have really put 360 to the test with "big big stuff". That is usually all done by the powerhouse software just because the designers capable of that big stuff just use the big software. This might change in time if the 360 platform keeps developing like it is. But right now it doesn't have the respect in the industry like Solidworks, Inventor, ProE, Rhino, Alibre etc. etc. have.

Anonymous · ‎02-23-2015

Thanks for the insite on the SSD! I am still very curious about computing power needed.

Currently SolidWorks is the main design tool. But everyone can get a seat of Fusion 360 for less than a seat of SolidWorks and HSM Works, so the game plan is to give F360 a fighting chance with a legit computer, and see if it can handle it.

It looks like I will stick with a consumer level graphics card and 16GB of ram (unless I find a deal on 32GB).

Really the only question is how much CPU can it take advantage of? and does it prefer pure speed, or more cores? In all likely hood, I will try it with something low end (like the previously mentioned i3-4160), and then steal an i7-4790K from one of the SW stations to do a comparison. Judging by the computers you're using it on, as well as the others mentioned on the forums, I don't think the value of the i3 will be beat.

JFKANSAS · ‎02-23-2015

You can also tweak the 3d settings quite a bit. Lowering Anti Alaising, and many other visual tweaks. Sure the models won't look as pretty.

One thing where a ton of CPU and a good 3d card will help is the Raytraced rendering. You don't want to be in this space all the time, but sometimes I want a near photo realistic picture of the model and I let it chew on the display for 10 minutes or so until it looks really good, then snap a picture of it.

If I am working on something with a bunch of parts I routinely turn components off that I am not currently focusing on. Not only does this help with display speed, it also helps the home position and rotation to be more centered on the part that you are actually working on. A lot less zooming and moving around this way.

burnandreturn · ‎02-23-2015

I noticed when I was generating a toolpath in CAM that it took quite a long time so I went into the task manager to see what resources were being used and how much CPU was used. I have a Intel 3770k over clocked to 4.2 GHz., 32GB ram. Fusion was only ustilizing four of the cores(with hyperthreading there are 8 available) and only at 18 to 20% CPU usage.

I would like to know how Fusion is designed to use the CPU or GPU for computational and/or rendering.

promm · ‎02-23-2015

Paul,

Computer specs are always a difficult question to answer because there are so may variables. For example a 20-100 part design by most CAD standards can be considered a relatively small design. However complex surfacing in a design can quickly make a low part count a large file size design. Is the user going to be creating renderings? Depending on if the customer desires to use our local render or cloud render the graphics card can make a big difference. How does the end user use the computer? Do they have multiple programs open at once that are memory intensive? Also consider how often the computer will be replaced. What might be screaming machine now can a dinosaur in a matter of years. My recommendation is to focus on what can be easily upgraded (ie memory) and what cannot (motherboard) and then get the best components that are hard to upgrade now.

Personally I am running an i7 with 16 gigs of memory and a Quadro graphics card.

Cheers,

Mike Prom

burnandreturn · ‎02-23-2015

Is there a setting for Cloud or local rendering?

Anonymous · ‎02-23-2015

Now we're starting to get some info!

Renderings would be a very occasional sort of thing. If and when a large rendering needs to be done, running overnight (or all weekend!) is certainly acceptable.

Some things could end up with rather complex surfaces- part of the reason for looking at F360 is its surfacing capabilities. The majority of the work will be consumer products, and the jigs/fixtures that go along with making them.

An average user will likely have several browser windows open, along with an email client and maybe a spreadsheet or some other office type software. We understand that trying to compile a video or run a simulation while modeling is just not realisitic.

Interesting bit about only using 4 threads. That looks like a vote for pure speed over cores.

Another interesting tid-bit: a CAM simulation maxed out my Quadro 4000 without pushing my CPU over 20% on any individual core

promm · ‎02-23-2015

burnandreturn,

When you are inside the render environment and enable ray tracing you are utilizing local rendering. In a browser, A360 utilizes the cloud to do renderings you can see by selecting the renderings tab on the left. From here you can customize the settings and download the images. In our next release you will be able to see could renderings as an option inside the Fusion 360 render environment.

Cheers,

Mike Prom

dunderhead · ‎02-23-2015

You're not right about "run a simulation while modeling is just not realisitic". It is perfectly doable on say a quad-core CPU: Fusion 360 is mostly not parallelized: it'll use only one CPU! The FEA can then exploit 3 CPUs.

I'm doing this often, but > 16 GB of RAM is needed. I just have an i5, the newest i7 even at 4GHz won't run anymore than at the very best 30% or so faster.

I hope Autodesk works on putting all 4, 8 or 16 horses to work in new versions of their CAD engine! AMD sells inexpensive 8-core CPUs and that would really make a difference if all 8 could be brought to bear when recomputing and lofting so forth.

What I'm considering is to update graphics, I'm addicted to the impressive rendering even when just modeling. And I suspect 1GB video RAM is limiting when running two monitors, but that I don't know that so I'm still saving my money!

O.Tan · ‎03-12-2015

I'm using the base nMP and with the specs, F360 slows down easily with small assemblies (the individual component shapes is mostly squares and rounds, nothing too complex and no surfacing, only big radius at most) so really hope that they'll improve it in the future. And I don't recommend using F360 with a 4K monitor at its current state cuz it'll likely affect the performance even more.