Hardware options for working with large files

[Anonymous]

I am modeling a brick structure in 1:160 scale.   When modeling the bricks, one wall can have several thousand bricks and even though I have a modern computer with a great processor and graphics card, the calculations take a very long time to complete.  Once done, I can easily view it from many angles, but the problem starts when I create 5000 bricks using a pattern command and it makes creating the parts enormously time consuming because there is still some adjusting and modifications after the initial pattern (I try and do the bricks last, after creating the wall, doors, windows, etc).  Once I make a single wall, it's easy enough to turn into an STL file and send to the printer, it just takes forever to get there.

Are there any tricks or alternatives for working with large numbers of bodies/components? 

Are there online services available where I can use Fusion 360 on a much faster processor?  Talking to gamer friends, my processor is about as good as one can get and even over clocking and liquid cooling will only buy 10-20% more speed.

Any help would be appreciated.

Conrad

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

... one wall can have several thousand bricks ...  Once I make a single wall, it's easy enough to turn into an STL file and send to the printer,... 

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My first thought is why are you making individual bricks rather than as a monolithic wall?

You can add a pattern of grooves to the wall to appear to be assembled bricks.

At your printing scale - will the pattern even print?

If not, then I would simply use a cosmetic texture image.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for responding!

Yes, I absolutely can print and see individual bricks in this scale (1:160)!  Shapeways Frosted Ultra or Extreme Detail both work.  The bricks are 0.018" x 0.050" x 0.024" and show up fine.  I make the mortar lines oversize (0.006").  I have done several small test pieces and painted them without any issues.

I initially made grooves for doing walls that were clapboard or board and batten - in those applications grooves and battens work great.  But they don't work well for offset brick patterns - the horizontal grooves work great, but not the vertical ones.  I have to make patterns no matter what I do, and I can pattern bodies (bricks) but I don't think I can pattern a sketch for a groove that I due an extrude (cut).  The math may favor grooves, I can try that but I am not sure it will solve the problem - just trim it down by some %.

In any event, I still need hardware that can handle lots of bodies/components.

Conrad

[TheCADWhisperer]

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@Anonymous wrote:

...  ... - the horizontal grooves work great, but not the vertical ones. ...

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I don't understand this statement.

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@Anonymous wrote:

...but I don't think I can pattern a sketch for a groove ...

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 Pattern features, not sketch geometry.

[Phil.E]

@Anonymous

The two problems you are going to have are graphics (GPU) and CPU.

In order to avoid overloading the GPU you can try a few things such as turning off graphics effects, the control for that is in Graphics Diagnostic under the ?Help menu. While you are at it, can you copy the information and paste it here? It is important for the conversation.

There are a few ways to be kind to the CPU in your situation. 

1. Make things unselectable. The reason is the mouse pointer will interact with the CPU as you mouse over things. It's trying to know what you want to select at any moment. So you can right click on components and make them unselectable.

2. Xref components do not participate in Compute. So you could try using inserted xref components. There is a bit of overhead to manage this, so experiment with the workflow to determine what is best for you, and try the other suggestions first.

Attached is a document from Autodesk University 2015, regarding large model management. Some of the UI and workflow described may be slightly different today.

Good luck and thanks,

[jeff_strater]

Unless you plan to print individual bricks and assemble them yourself, I would avoid creating each brick as a separate body.  That will be slow.  The approach that @TheCADWhisperer suggests will give you much better performance - model the walls as a single solid then model grooves in the brick and pattern the grooves.  But, don't use sketch pattern for this, use a Feature Pattern instead, that will also improve performance.

If you must pattern the bricks, use components, not bodies.  If you have a brick component, and pattern it, each brick will share the same geometry, which will reduce the system demand a bit.

Jeff

[Anonymous]

Phil,

Thank you for the document on managing large files and assemblies, it was very helpful!

My GPU information:

[GPU Information]
GPU Device: NVIDIA Quadro M2000
GPU RAM: 4096 MB
GPU Driver API: DirectX 11.0
GPU Driver Version: W\S.ystem32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispiwu.inf_amd64_9ff5ab165faead52\nvd3dumx,C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\F:21.21.13.6909
GPU Driver Date: Unknown

[Graphics Effects Settings]
Anti Aliasing: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Object Shadow: Off
Ground Shadow: Off
Ground Reflection: Off
Selection Display Style: Simple
Transparency Effect: Better Performance

[Limit effects to optimize performance]
On

By "xref components", I think you are referring to creating a component outside the existing design and linking it in (as referenced in the document you provided)?  If so, then that may really work.  I could break up a large wall into segments that compute quickly, and then combine them in a separate file and add necessary features (doors/windows/trim).  Bricks are not always simple patterns, but they have repeating types of features that would work well with that concept.

Thanks again, I'll give this a try!

When I was a graduate student years ago, we could run particle-in-cell codes remotely on supercomputer mainframes.  Is there any plan to have Fusion 360 have the ability to work on much more powerful parallel processor that could handle large files?  I can do the vast majority of the work in other ways, but the final "bricking" is the issue.

Happy Holidays,

Conrad

[Phil.E]

@Anonymous

Thanks for the graphics info. Looks like you have the optimal settings. If you start having a hard time with rotating/panning the model, it would be an indication of GPU overload.

Yes, xref means "inserting" another design into the current design.

So you could just take Jeff's advice (thanks Jeff, great advice) you could have a brick be a component and make patterns/copies of the brick component. Or you could take the extra step to xref the brick component into the design and then copy/pattern it.

At some point the GPU is going to give up. So try to exclude any holes/edges that are not 100% critical. Or do as suggested and try patterning the cuts that make the brick patterns. I do think that is the best way to do this, instead of separate bricks. But you have your own reasons, which is fine. You could always try it both ways and see if the results speak for themselves.

Thanks!