Powermill 2017 Slow

[Anonymous]

Has any one else had problem with PM2017 calculating slow then 2016. I calculate a few programs in 2016 then recalculated in 2017 and on a program that took 3min 30sec in 2017 it only took 2min 25sec in 2016. This was a corner finish program. Never tried any big program to see if the time compounded. 

I asked Autodesk and they said they seen the same thing in their test.

Mike,

[Yogesh.Mohite]

Hi @Anonymous,

Welcome to Autodesk Community.

We have not received any complaint specific related to slow toolpath calculation time compare to older version (2016). Toolpath calculation time also depends on what configuration PC/Laptop you are using. If you supply project from 2016 version we will investigate this at our end and if problem is there we will check this with development team.

Thank You

[Anonymous]

Hi Yogesh

Already sent project to support along with computer specs. To make sure we are good on that end. They seen same thing as I did.

Thanks Mike

[Anonymous]

Hi.

I was running Power Mill Robot Pro 2016 until the new licensing system came into effect and it was time to renew my Maintenance contract.

we upgraded to Powermill Premium 2017 with Robot Plugins same as before.

both versions we working on my high end Laptop as they should. one day recently I was viewing an old project in 2016 to get some info from it and the program came up with an unexpected error and needed to be shut down. so I shut it down.

now with both 2016 and 2017 versions its as if I have no RAM installed. any click of the mouse it says not responding and 5 seconds later it does what I wanted. zooming in and out with the mouse wheel same.

I have uninstalled both versions and reinstalled the software but still this issue remains.

my Rhino and all other programs work fine so its not an issue with the computer.

has anyone else came across this before?

even to launch the programs they start ok but then say not responding for up to 5 to 10 seconds before going through the load sequence.

but yet when you simulate a tool path with the robot graphics it all works as it used to with full animation of the robot.

help

[Anonymous]

WE HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM

Please do something !!!

[rafael.sansao]

I have informed about this for some time!
Did not Autodesk give any importance!

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/powermill-forum/benchmark-powermill-2016-x-2017/m-p/6849629/highlight...

[paolo.bastianelli]

Hi all,

Have you tested/benchmarked PowerMill 2018? Unfortunately I can't contact the development team with an issue that's relative to the 2017 version as we're not releasing 2017 patches anymore.

Thanks,
Paolo

[Anonymous]

I finally worked out what the issue was.
My computer downloaded an update for the Nvidia video driver that clearly PowerMill didn't like.
Just deleted the updated driver and all was back to normal. Its done it twice to me again but same result once I deleted the updated driver file. Returns PowerMill back to normal simulation speeds.
cheers

[rafael.sansao]

Powermill 2018 is more slower

[jjohnybgood]

Hi Rafael,

Are you still having issues with slow calculation times in PowerMill 2018?

I have tested PowerMill 2018 and found it to be around 3 times slower at calculating than in PowerMill 2016 so will be staying with PM2016 until resolved.

[robert.goss2D4S8]

Hi Rafael,

Would you be willing to share your benchmark with us in development? So we (I) can have a look into what is causing the particular slowdowns you are seeing?

We are aware of some issue and internally are working to improve performance but real customer data and benchmarks are always really helpful to help guide optimizations.

[iamcdn79]

@robert.goss2D4S8 I believe he is using this benchmark macro that I created a few years ago

I have added 2 additional benchmarks from @rafael.sansao original macro where the tool using a rest area clearance toolpath is collision tested against the 'stock' and 'model' as requested from @thiago.fagionato

[robert.goss2D4S8]

Thank you @iamcdn79 I will try to make sure we look into this.

[Anonymous]

Hey Guys,

I have observed one thing, may be this can help to some extent.

I have created a constant z tool path at 3 holes, using block boundary option so that I don't have to remove extra passes after calculation. It took almost 2min to generate.

Then I have created same tool path using Rectangle Block and keeping the boundary of those 3 holes, and it generated in 10seconds.

So I think Block is playing an important role here for the tool path calculation, so as a conclusion I believe if we keep our block to be as simple as possible, then there will be a more chance of saving calculation time.

Please check and reply.....

[NanchenO]

@Anonymous,

You're absolutely right ! Keep your blocks as simple and as small as possible ! I told that to our programmers and they were able to drastically reduce the calculations'times.

Olivier