what a memory hog!!

Ok, so I was trying to learn some rendering stuff in Photoworks, SW2005
SP0.1, since I just got this new Workstation - an absolute monster from CAD2
(3.6Ghz, 2GB RAM, 128ATI Fire 5100).

However, after a number of changes to the scene, materials, lights etc I
started getting a message saying that SW couldn't get enough memory. NO WAY,
I thought, I've got LOADS. So I check the Task Manager and find the aside
from the Physical memory, SW is happily using over 1.5GB of Virtual. Blimey.
So I exit and up my virtual memory across two HDD.

Then I thought I'd do a test to see how the memory climbs for each step, and
this is how it went (kinda boring I know):

Process Physical Mem Virtual Mem
Open SW 127, 232 116, 540
New Part 155,196 191,408
Sketch square 164,196 194,408
Extrude Cube 169,120 198,540
Fillet Faces 173,588 199,160
Hole thro' face 176,588 201,000
Fillet hole 176,248 200,964
Save 191,376 212,920
Photo Works (PW)
PW Apply Scene 193,836 262,248
PW Render area 199,376 267,684
PW mod scene 200,108 314,384
PWrender area 209,684 317,968
save 203,228 317,224
PW mod material 203,628 363,588
PW Render area 206,912 366,848
PW mod scene 206,508 412,30
PW render last 208,364 414,188
PW Mod scene 212,820 510,608
PW render 216,396 514,128
PW mod options
caustic, reflections 215,456 588,908
Mod lights 221,148 615,424
PW render 225,256 619,472
No caustic
global illumination 225,088 619,304
render 225,224 619,440
mod scene 225,360 665,560
render
mod scene 228,772 714,820
render 232,312 718,408
change matl 233,200 765,596
render 235,400 767,688
Increase quality 252,624 774,876
render 244,276 822,472
close file 19,332 805,360
Open same file again 43,884 856,812

Notice how even though I closed the file, it didn;t seem to free up the
virtual memory , and would have kept climbing I'm sure had i gone back to
modifying the photoworks settings. Is this normal? I had to shut SW
completely to free up the virtual memory. Scene modifcations in particular
seem to ramp up the virtual memory use like crazy.

Oh well, I'll just have to remember to shut down frequently to keep things
to a sensable size.

Lee

 

You can set the amount of memory PW is allowewd to use in the PW
options dialog.

 

I think you are misinterpreting the Task Manager. I believe that when it
says you are using 1.5 GB of virtual memory that it includes your physical
memory as well. So, depending on how much physical memory it had left in
reserve, you probably still weren't swapping. I would be amazed if you
actually got up to 2 GB of physical and an additional 1.5 GB of virtual. SW
usually craps out on us before we ever get up to 1.7 GB, except on the
machine that has the 3 GB switch.

I don't use PW much, and I haven't tested how SW handles memory for a while,
but SW usually behaved the way you've shown in the past. Memory usage
continued to climb as you opened and closed files until you finally had to
shut SW down. That's why applications that do batch operations typically
open and shut down SW for each file.

Other people have shown that the Task Manager doesn't do a good job of
monitoring the memory usage (see the thread "SolidWorks free up memory
tip"), so maybe the problem is something else, but we definitely have more
problems with SW when the memory usage as shown in the task manager gets
above 1 GB.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

Enable memory management in the PW option then set the Maximum memory
allocation to something like 300-400Mb. If You're using for exampl 900mb
before start rendering, PW will use that 300-400, then dump it and start all
over at 900 and so on.

Krister L

 

you must turn on the /3BG switch in order to access your additional
memory
you can search the string for /3GB