Big project file stability

[GeordieJames]

Hello Tomas, Igors and team

I've managed to get myself into a position of having a 310 MB project file.

This is a little temperamental on my Intel Dual Core, in which I have an NVidia GeForce 7300 GT (standard in the machine) and 9 GB of Ram.

The file quits out unexpectedly now and again and I think its to do with display memory.

It is a big architectural scene so I have my camera window set to phong so I can 'see' properly but when I open up the top view for example it will crash.

Are there any settings in the preferences that I can adjust to improve the reliability of this or is it more a case of getting a better graphics card ?

Thank you

James

[Ian]

Hi James,

If you look in your Activity Viewer (utilities folder), you will probably see that Animator is running at close to 2gb of ram. When Animator goes over this limit, you will not get a warning, it will just crash.

I only ever had one project that did this kind of thing, and I got around it by binning anything that wasn't absolutely essential, and where possible, splitting the project up into separate files (internal/external for example).

Hope that helps,

Ian

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Geordie,

You can setup all views in Software mode, Display “none” and then Show Extents in the ISO views (Top, Front, Side), In your Camera View you choose Display Outlines.

You will have a faster feedback...

Thanksss

Tom

[GeordieJames]

Thanks guys,

Checking activity monitor it just crashed out whilst saying it was using 1.24 GB of real memory, virtual memory was up near 4 GB - any relationship between the two, I've not understood virtual memory since you could switch it on/off back in system 9 (I think)

Will EIAS9 be able to use more RAM - is that a possibility ? It would be a lot of work for me to split the file up into sensible pieces. For example its all exterior at the moment, no interiors so that simple split I can't do. The only other way for me to reduce size is to use proxy models in the distance but I can't get my head round that for the time being (what I mean is I haven't the time to build or simplify all the models then work out a system for swapping them in and out)

I need to investigate the file in greater detail, at some point it jumped from 150 meg to over 300 meg - I suspect I have added in a massively overcomplicated model somewhere OR something perhaps got corrupted along the way making it jump.

I shall persevere (British stiff upper lip)

Cheers

James

[GeordieJames]

of course having a fac file in there that had its hierarchy and 4260 individual bricks didn't help :rolleyes: Its just knocked 80meg off the EI file size !!!

the danger of using other people's models without scrutiny !