PW and required memory

Hi folks

I'm trying to render a large assembly, to file, with both model and
contours, but get the message "SolidWorks is unable to obtain required
memory". I have tried a lot of different settings without success. If I look
at the task manager I'll hit the roof at about 1,5GB. I have 2GB ram and the
swap file set to min 2048-max 3070
In PW options I have maximum memory allocation set to 2500 (tried everything
all the way up from default 1000) Anybody knows if there is a certain limit
for what PW or SW can handle in this case, coz it doesn't seem to matter
which settings I use. Or could it be the physical size of the model, it's
43x57m and contains some round stuff, pipes and drums. I can manage to
render it without contours, but only if I open the file and start rendering
directly. If I do some changes first or render to screen to see what it
looks like it stops far earlier.
Tried it on two different computers with same result.
SW 2004 Sp1 on W2K Sp4, 2x2,8GHz Xeon, Quadro4 900XGL.....or
SW 2004 Sp1 on WXP Sp1, 1,7 GHz PentiumM Quadro FX 700 Go

Krister L

 

Krister,

Here are recent related memory subjects on PW2..

http://makeashorterlink.com/?W2DA21086
http://makeashorterlink.com/?S2EA31086
http://makeashorterlink.com/?H20B52086

...

 

Tnx Paul

I was out travelling for a couple of weeks and didn't have time to catch up
with all posts. That one I shouldn't have missed though. Have had a lot of
trouble with this issue.

Krister

 

The trick to the maximum memory allocation is that the number is a safety
net. You are telling SW the maximum it can use before releasing some
memory. It is not some magic value foropening MORE memory, because the
memory use is set by Windows, not SW (boy do I have an issue with their
sematics! I think any reasonable person would conclude, like you, that the
more, the better. The fact that the number can exceed 3GB, which windows
simply can not, only adds to the confusion)

What I do:
Open the part/assembly
Look at task manager-processes to see what Swx uses just to have the
part/assembly in memory.
Subtract that number from 1.6 GB, which seems to be the crash threshold -
unless you have the 3GB switch enabled, where the crash threshold jumps to
2.6GB
Multiply that result by .8 (want to have a 20% safety factor for the
intangibles)
Enter that into the maximum memory allocation.
If you watch task manager while rendering, you will see PWx use up memory
then release abot 200Meg when it hits the value you just set.

The other thing to do is to reduce the ray trace depth. I am finding that
just keeping it around 35 or 38 helps prevent crashing. It is in your
interest to use ray trace depth to limit memory use - if you run into the
max memory allocation, causing PWx to dump to get back below, the rendering
time slows down.

 

Tnx Ed....
I had a breif look at the thread from Oct20 (which I missed due to
travelling) this morning and I'll try this again as soon as I get 5 min
free. I already decreased ray tracing depth to 20 from start.

Tnx again

Krister