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

Reply to
Lee Bazalgette - Factory
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You can set the amount of memory PW is allowewd to use in the PW options dialog.

Lee Bazalgette - Factory wrote:

805,360

particular

Reply to
Rock Guy

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.

big snip

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"

Reply to
Jerry Steiger

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

Reply to
Krister L

805,360

particular

Reply to
Navy Diver

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