Rendering an animation - Ram

[Anonymous]

I am trying to render some animations of a plant layout to create a walk-through style video.
The assembly is about 350 parts in size.
I have been having issues with running out of RAM as each frame seems to take up more and more memory.
I have tried to reduce, as much as possible, the contributing factors such as parts, lights, backgrounds, aspect ratio etc. This has helped, but i end up with a poor video, and i might as well use the preview version as the video.

We are upgrading our computers in line with recommended specifications to aid with large assemblies, currently we have some assemblies with 4000 parts that slow us down a lot. These are hardly worth thinking about as a rendered image let alone a fly-through.

After looking at wiki help to come to a compromise of some kind i found this,

"Animations
Rendering successive frames is not faster or slower than rendering one frame at a time. For example, if it takes 5 minutes to render one frame, it takes about 12 hours to render a ten-second animation at 15 fps, because 150 frames X 5 minutes (per frame) = 750 minutes.

Assuming that the content of the rendered scene does not change, memory consumption should not climb as an animation is rendered, that is, if you can render one frame, render as many as you want for an animation without running out of memory. If that is not the case, there may be another issue, and a support issue should be logged with Autodesk."

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Product_Help/Autodesk_Inventor/Autodesk_Inventor_2011/107CollaborationandVis/1594Renderandanimatewit/1595Renderandanimateove

Is there somthing i am missing? or do i have 'another issue'?

[Anonymous]

I am trying to render some animations of a plant layout to create a walk-through style video.
The assembly is about 350 parts in size.
I have been having issues with running out of RAM as each frame seems to take up more and more memory.
I have tried to reduce, as much as possible, the contributing factors such as parts, lights, backgrounds, aspect ratio etc. This has helped, but i end up with a poor video, and i might as well use the preview version as the video.

We are upgrading our computers in line with recommended specifications to aid with large assemblies, currently we have some assemblies with 4000 parts that slow us down a lot. These are hardly worth thinking about as a rendered image let alone a fly-through.

After looking at wiki help to come to a compromise of some kind i found this,

"Animations
Rendering successive frames is not faster or slower than rendering one frame at a time. For example, if it takes 5 minutes to render one frame, it takes about 12 hours to render a ten-second animation at 15 fps, because 150 frames X 5 minutes (per frame) = 750 minutes.

Assuming that the content of the rendered scene does not change, memory consumption should not climb as an animation is rendered, that is, if you can render one frame, render as many as you want for an animation without running out of memory. If that is not the case, there may be another issue, and a support issue should be logged with Autodesk."

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Product_Help/Autodesk_Inventor/Autodesk_Inventor_2011/107CollaborationandVis/1594Renderandanimatewit/1595Renderandanimateove

Is there somthing i am missing? or do i have 'another issue'?

[Anonymous]

Need a lot more information on the computer hardware itself:

http://teknigroup.com/support/Inventor/Howto.html
--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert

Subscribe to the free "The Creative Inventor Magazine now available at:
http://teknigroup.com/CI-Subscribe-Login.asp

[Anonymous]

Need a lot more information on the computer hardware itself:

http://teknigroup.com/support/Inventor/Howto.html
--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert

Subscribe to the free "The Creative Inventor Magazine now available at:
http://teknigroup.com/CI-Subscribe-Login.asp

[Anonymous]

dell pws 390
intel core 2 cpu 6400 @ 2.13 GHtz
3.25 GB Ram (i have the 3gb switch enabled)

[Anonymous]

dell pws 390
intel core 2 cpu 6400 @ 2.13 GHtz
3.25 GB Ram (i have the 3gb switch enabled)

[Bill_Bogan2]

What version of Inventor are you running?

Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

[Bill_Bogan2]

What version of Inventor are you running?

Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

[Anonymous]

We have just upgraded to 2011

[Anonymous]

We have just upgraded to 2011

[Anonymous]

Inventor 2011
32-bit -3GB
build: 239, Release: 2011 RTM - Date 02/17/2010

xp pro version 2002 sp3
32bit

nvidia quadro fx 3500
driver version: 197.28
memory 56Mb

3.25GB RAM (4 actual)
4.987 GB virtual

etrust antivirus
Version: 7.1.192

[Anonymous]

Inventor 2011
32-bit -3GB
build: 239, Release: 2011 RTM - Date 02/17/2010

xp pro version 2002 sp3
32bit

nvidia quadro fx 3500
driver version: 197.28
memory 56Mb

3.25GB RAM (4 actual)
4.987 GB virtual

etrust antivirus
Version: 7.1.192

[Bill_Bogan2]

The graphics card looks like it's a few years old. Is it? Is that supposed to be 256 MB of RAM?
Nonetheless, it would seem that avg components at a count of 350 should not give you slow renders.

Are the components unusually large/small? Complex? Lots of textures?

Have you looked over the information in http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Product_Help/Autodesk_Inventor/Autodesk_Inventor_2011/107CollaborationandVis/1594Renderandanimatewit/1595Renderandanimateove

After landing on the page, scroll down. In the expandable sections below the initial text is a topic entitled:
What can affect the rendering time of an animation? Expand that to see if there are other things that might help assess the cause.

Ultimately, it may take doing a Pack & Go and sending the assembly & part files. Is that something you are willing to do? If so, let me know so we can work that out.

Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

Edited by: bill.bogan@autodesk.com on Apr 28, 2010 12:17 PM Edited by: bill.bogan@autodesk.com on Apr 28, 2010 12:19 PM

[Bill_Bogan2]

The graphics card looks like it's a few years old. Is it? Is that supposed to be 256 MB of RAM?
Nonetheless, it would seem that avg components at a count of 350 should not give you slow renders.

Are the components unusually large/small? Complex? Lots of textures?

Have you looked over the information in http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Product_Help/Autodesk_Inventor/Autodesk_Inventor_2011/107CollaborationandVis/1594Renderandanimatewit/1595Renderandanimateove

After landing on the page, scroll down. In the expandable sections below the initial text is a topic entitled:
What can affect the rendering time of an animation? Expand that to see if there are other things that might help assess the cause.

Ultimately, it may take doing a Pack & Go and sending the assembly & part files. Is that something you are willing to do? If so, let me know so we can work that out.

Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

Edited by: bill.bogan@autodesk.com on Apr 28, 2010 12:17 PM Edited by: bill.bogan@autodesk.com on Apr 28, 2010 12:19 PM

[Anonymous]

Thanks Bill,

Yes, it was supposed to be 256.

I'm not to worried about the render time however. More the problem that on an animation i can only render a few images before inventor crashes out after filling up the memory from green to red.

I have seen the wiki page, yes, and read that if i can render one image i can render a whole animation, no problem. but as i have said, that is not possible.

I have tried to reduce any factors i can think of, as i only have 4GB of ram anyway. I have changed the lighting etc. I'm using derived parts as much as i can. It just seems that an animation chews up the ram. Should that happen?

Attached is an example of a render i have done of the plant layout in question. with minimal light source etc. it is max antialasing and max ratio i can do. it did not take long to render, 5mins or so.

Thanks for your help.

David

[Anonymous]

Thanks Bill,

Yes, it was supposed to be 256.

I'm not to worried about the render time however. More the problem that on an animation i can only render a few images before inventor crashes out after filling up the memory from green to red.

I have seen the wiki page, yes, and read that if i can render one image i can render a whole animation, no problem. but as i have said, that is not possible.

I have tried to reduce any factors i can think of, as i only have 4GB of ram anyway. I have changed the lighting etc. I'm using derived parts as much as i can. It just seems that an animation chews up the ram. Should that happen?

Attached is an example of a render i have done of the plant layout in question. with minimal light source etc. it is max antialasing and max ratio i can do. it did not take long to render, 5mins or so.

Thanks for your help.

David

[Bill_Bogan2]

David, can you successfully render the animation as single frames using the image sequence output option?
You would have to use MovieMaker or the like to reassemble the images into a movie.

Inventor Studio, being an add-in, does have limitations. Chewing up memory seems to be one of them. I am uncertain whether anything done with enhanced visualization has had an impact on Studio.

Do me a favor, in the output, use Preview: No Render and see what the results looks like. Can you get all the way through with that setting? How does it look?

I'll look into this some more and see if there is anything else I can advise.

Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

[Bill_Bogan2]

David, can you successfully render the animation as single frames using the image sequence output option?
You would have to use MovieMaker or the like to reassemble the images into a movie.

Inventor Studio, being an add-in, does have limitations. Chewing up memory seems to be one of them. I am uncertain whether anything done with enhanced visualization has had an impact on Studio.

Do me a favor, in the output, use Preview: No Render and see what the results looks like. Can you get all the way through with that setting? How does it look?

I'll look into this some more and see if there is anything else I can advise.

Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

[Anonymous]

Bill,

I have tried the frame option, and the same thing happens. the benefit with it being i know how many frames i've done. and where to start again from when inventor finally crashes.

Haven't got time to try the other assembly but attached is a file i did a while ago of a different layout as a test.
It seemed to work fine. a bit jumpy in places though.

I guess the stock answer is to get a better system.

Dave

[Anonymous]

Bill,

I have tried the frame option, and the same thing happens. the benefit with it being i know how many frames i've done. and where to start again from when inventor finally crashes.

Haven't got time to try the other assembly but attached is a file i did a while ago of a different layout as a test.
It seemed to work fine. a bit jumpy in places though.

I guess the stock answer is to get a better system.

Dave

[Bill_Bogan2]

Dave,

I'm getting a notion on this. Good start on the vid, btw.
I'm assuming this is full scale, is that correct?
If so, then we're dealing with units ranging in size from many feet down to components such as nuts and bolts - would that be accurate?

I'll ask around.

Thanks,

-Bill

[Bill_Bogan2]

Dave,

I'm getting a notion on this. Good start on the vid, btw.
I'm assuming this is full scale, is that correct?
If so, then we're dealing with units ranging in size from many feet down to components such as nuts and bolts - would that be accurate?

I'll ask around.

Thanks,

-Bill

[Bill_Bogan2]

Hi Dave, the following suggestion came back to me:

You could create a Shrinkwrap of the entire Warehouse assembly (using the surface composite option, and geometry removal visibility set to “0%”). This would create a very lightweight (read small memory footprint) part yet retain full graphic fidelity of the external surfaces.

This is assuming you have Inventor 2010 or 2011.

If you decide to do this, let me know how it turns out. Thanks,

Bill
Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

[Bill_Bogan2]

Hi Dave, the following suggestion came back to me:

You could create a Shrinkwrap of the entire Warehouse assembly (using the surface composite option, and geometry removal visibility set to “0%”). This would create a very lightweight (read small memory footprint) part yet retain full graphic fidelity of the external surfaces.

This is assuming you have Inventor 2010 or 2011.

If you decide to do this, let me know how it turns out. Thanks,

Bill
Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

[Bill_Bogan2]

Hi Dave, the following suggestion came back to me:

You could create a Shrinkwrap of the entire Warehouse assembly (using the surface composite option, and geometry removal visibility set to “0%”). This would create a very lightweight (read small memory footprint) part yet retain full graphic fidelity of the external surfaces.

This is assuming you have Inventor 2010 or 2011.

If you decide to do this, let me know how it turns out. Thanks,

Bill
Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

[Bill_Bogan2]

Hi Dave, the following suggestion came back to me:

You could create a Shrinkwrap of the entire Warehouse assembly (using the surface composite option, and geometry removal visibility set to “0%”). This would create a very lightweight (read small memory footprint) part yet retain full graphic fidelity of the external surfaces.

This is assuming you have Inventor 2010 or 2011.

If you decide to do this, let me know how it turns out. Thanks,

Bill
Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

[Anonymous]

Hello Bill,

I've managed to use the Photo option and movie maker to link the pictures together. This did take a long time however and about 10+ gos at rendering. Starting from the place inventor crashed and finished at.

There is a drawback to this as you can only scale the picture frame rate in movie maker down to 1/8 s. the result is a jumpy video.

If i want a smooth video i have to guess how long i can render without inventor crashing, set the video for that length of time, then shut inventor down and start up again. then link those videos together. if i get it wrong, inventor will shut down and i loose all that rendering time. my boss considers that a waste of time.

The problem i have with shrink wrap is it seems to cut out geometry even when i tell it not to. i think this is due to the large difference in size from the largest part to the smallest part. That's only a guess though.

David

[Anonymous]

Hello Bill,

I've managed to use the Photo option and movie maker to link the pictures together. This did take a long time however and about 10+ gos at rendering. Starting from the place inventor crashed and finished at.

There is a drawback to this as you can only scale the picture frame rate in movie maker down to 1/8 s. the result is a jumpy video.

If i want a smooth video i have to guess how long i can render without inventor crashing, set the video for that length of time, then shut inventor down and start up again. then link those videos together. if i get it wrong, inventor will shut down and i loose all that rendering time. my boss considers that a waste of time.

The problem i have with shrink wrap is it seems to cut out geometry even when i tell it not to. i think this is due to the large difference in size from the largest part to the smallest part. That's only a guess though.

David

[Anonymous]

I took a look at the video you posted. The glitchy motion and the large block glyphs are from too low a bitrate. You encoded the video at 1024x768 but used only a 256 video bitrate. Way too little. That bitrate is good for about 1/4 the resolution you choose.

The bitrate is determined by a combination of resolution and scene motion. But nonetheless, you should use a bitrate of at least 1000Kbps upto 1500Kbps(1500 is inventor studio max). This is selected when you choose render in the Inventor Studio render window. Choose "custom" in the "network bandwidth" groupbox and enter your bitrate manually.

The bitrate will have no effect on your memory issues that you are currently experiencing so use larger bitrates.

Reversly, you can stay with the 256Kbps but then you need to choose a resolution (Image size) of about 320x240.

If you do either of these suggestions, your video will turn out smooth and clear. That, ofcourse, is if Inventor doesn't crash before render is complete 😉

side note: Rendering to uncompressed avi then using different encoder is also good option. This gives you total control of video quality... but it still doesn't solve Inventor crashing during render ;-( .....but it does prove that it is the render engine in inventor studio and not the Windows Media encoder (wmv-compiler) causing the mem usage and resulting crash. This is why settings for the WMVideo, like bitrate in render window, does not affect the mem caused crash.

Calaco

[Anonymous]

I took a look at the video you posted. The glitchy motion and the large block glyphs are from too low a bitrate. You encoded the video at 1024x768 but used only a 256 video bitrate. Way too little. That bitrate is good for about 1/4 the resolution you choose.

The bitrate is determined by a combination of resolution and scene motion. But nonetheless, you should use a bitrate of at least 1000Kbps upto 1500Kbps(1500 is inventor studio max). This is selected when you choose render in the Inventor Studio render window. Choose "custom" in the "network bandwidth" groupbox and enter your bitrate manually.

The bitrate will have no effect on your memory issues that you are currently experiencing so use larger bitrates.

Reversly, you can stay with the 256Kbps but then you need to choose a resolution (Image size) of about 320x240.

If you do either of these suggestions, your video will turn out smooth and clear. That, ofcourse, is if Inventor doesn't crash before render is complete 😉

side note: Rendering to uncompressed avi then using different encoder is also good option. This gives you total control of video quality... but it still doesn't solve Inventor crashing during render ;-( .....but it does prove that it is the render engine in inventor studio and not the Windows Media encoder (wmv-compiler) causing the mem usage and resulting crash. This is why settings for the WMVideo, like bitrate in render window, does not affect the mem caused crash.

Calaco

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I couldn't bite my lip:

I am guessing video compression is not your fortay. I too do plant walk thru vids. Best thing to do is:
1 - Use Inventor Studio to render uncomressed avi.
2 - Use moviemaker to add title, transitions and audio.
3 - The use moviemaker to make final video in wmv format.

Why?... well: rendering in wmv is a lossy compression format. Moviemaker also uses the same lossy format. To use moviemaker to edit and re-encode your Inventor wmv movie is about the same as using a cassete tape recorder to duplicate another casette tape. The orginal wmv (which doesn't contain all the data) is re-rendered (encoded) in a data losing technique in moviemaker called "lossy compression". Therefore the image quality is significantly reduced with each pass through moviemaker or any lossy encoder.

But an uncompressed avi has 100% of the data, so this should be used as the original in moviemaker. An uncompressed avi is the equivelant of an image sequence of bitmap images, but tidely bundled in a single file. Also movie maker has far more "quality" and "size" options compared to Inventor Studio (for wmv format). Plus you need to add titles, transitions, effects, audio, and credits anyhow. Once you create your final wmv video in moviemaker, just delete the large avi file to save space.

Advanced option: Additionaly, you can install any codec (compression/decompression engine for videos) on your computer and select it from within InventorStudio as an option in the "browse/save" window. But for the type of work you are trying to do, keep it simple with moviemaker and uncompressed avi's from Inventor studio.

Just thought this info could help.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I couldn't bite my lip:

I am guessing video compression is not your fortay. I too do plant walk thru vids. Best thing to do is:
1 - Use Inventor Studio to render uncomressed avi.
2 - Use moviemaker to add title, transitions and audio.
3 - The use moviemaker to make final video in wmv format.

Why?... well: rendering in wmv is a lossy compression format. Moviemaker also uses the same lossy format. To use moviemaker to edit and re-encode your Inventor wmv movie is about the same as using a cassete tape recorder to duplicate another casette tape. The orginal wmv (which doesn't contain all the data) is re-rendered (encoded) in a data losing technique in moviemaker called "lossy compression". Therefore the image quality is significantly reduced with each pass through moviemaker or any lossy encoder.

But an uncompressed avi has 100% of the data, so this should be used as the original in moviemaker. An uncompressed avi is the equivelant of an image sequence of bitmap images, but tidely bundled in a single file. Also movie maker has far more "quality" and "size" options compared to Inventor Studio (for wmv format). Plus you need to add titles, transitions, effects, audio, and credits anyhow. Once you create your final wmv video in moviemaker, just delete the large avi file to save space.

Advanced option: Additionaly, you can install any codec (compression/decompression engine for videos) on your computer and select it from within InventorStudio as an option in the "browse/save" window. But for the type of work you are trying to do, keep it simple with moviemaker and uncompressed avi's from Inventor studio.

Just thought this info could help.

[Bill_Bogan2]

There is a note about WMV bit rate in Inventor Help.
http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Product_Help/Autodesk_Inventor/Autodesk_Inventor_2011/107Collaborationa...

Look in the Reference Topics, in the Output section, under Output file there is a note that a bit rate of 700 or higher is recommended.

The explanation is only a note, is brief, and doesn't stand out - that could be improved. Duly noted.

Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

[Bill_Bogan2]

There is a note about WMV bit rate in Inventor Help.
http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Product_Help/Autodesk_Inventor/Autodesk_Inventor_2011/107Collaborationa...

Look in the Reference Topics, in the Output section, under Output file there is a note that a bit rate of 700 or higher is recommended.

The explanation is only a note, is brief, and doesn't stand out - that could be improved. Duly noted.

Bill Bogan | SME/Technical Writer | MFG LX | Autodesk, Inc.

[Anonymous]

what download can u use to make intros for my school? like mcallen high etc??

[Anonymous]

what download can u use to make intros for my school? like mcallen high etc??