Large model freezes KS5

[HaroldL]

I recently down loaded a model from the Open Computing Project website to see how it would render up. This is a huge file in KS5 with over 200 million triangles.
After loading (approx 20 minutes) I started to group some of the parts. I can select parts by RMB clik and select all parts with the same material and add them to a new group. If I RMB the top level design to insert a new group KS will freeze up. My system resource monitor shows a decline in Available RAM - down to 2 or less Gb

I am running a Windows 10 HP Envy 17 with an i7 4710HQ CPU running at 2.5 GHz, and 12 GB of ram

I've been in touch with Support on this with no real solution found yet. So I thought I'd give a shout-out here to see if anyone else could grap the model and see how it works for them. Just so you know, this is a fairly large mode. It is in STEP format with a Y-up orientation.

I do have a couple of questions about KS tho:
Turning off parts in the model tree does not reduce the triangle count. So does that mean the display state only is controlled by the On-Off toggle and the part/assembly stays in memory?

Does KeyShot use the Windows Page File? I would think that would be a nice place to "borrow" some storage space for large models.

Bruno in Support used a 32 core Xeon with 12 GB of memory and had no apparent freezing or lockup up. Although he did state that one of the parts did take a bit longer to load.

If anyone cares to check this model out and post back your results I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

[joseph]

Hi Harold,

I imported the step file to IRONCAD2015 which took a minute or so to open and it transferred to KS5 without a hitch in less than 20 seconds. the .bip file created is about 228 MB. I think it varies on the step translator host. Running Windows10 Home FX8310 at 3.8 Ghz with 16 GB ram. Hope this helps and regards

[HaroldL]

Joseph,
I see that your triangle count, 3.3 million, is quite a bit lower than mine at over 200 million. That has to be due to the import process you used.

What results would you get if you imported the model directly into Keyshot?

Try adding a new group to the top level model, selecting the parts with all the lances and holes to see how it performs. That's where I see a serious performance drop-off, even with Performance Mode selected.

[joseph]

Hi Harold,

My KeyShot 5 version can't read step files directly as it is a version for IRONCAD. However I will check the my import settings to produce all the triangles on my end. Will get back to you on this. regards

[joseph]

I was only able to raise the triangle count by 7.480 million by setting the model smoothness to 100 from my initial settings of 48. I will see if setting it to 200 will increase the triangles further.

[soren]

Try to reduce the tesselation setting (to e.g. 0.02) when importing to KeyShot. STEP files contain NURBS data so they are tesselated during import which can take a long time. If you have KeyShot Pro you can also import and render the NURBS data directly (it is somewhat slower though, but will never suffer from tesselation artefacts).

Søren

[joseph]

Maybe we need to know the final outcome of the rendering. I hope you don't mind will it be printed on A4 or A3 as increasing the resolution size will better than increasing facet or smoothen on a lower image resolution size of 740 x 645. The model is large enough as an 80 setting will produce the detail.

[joseph]

IRONCAD switched to large assembly for this.

[richardfunnell]

Hi Harold,

The slowdown you may experience when selecting a large group may be due to the object outline. The issue comes from having to draw outlines for many parts that are overlapping, it simply takes time.

You can disable them under Edit > Preferences > Interface > (uncheck) Selection Outlines. There is also the option to automatically disable the outlines after a certain number of triangles.
Turning the outlines off should help the temporary freeze when RMB clicking (or simply selecting) large groups.

Hope this helps!

[HaroldL]

Hey Guys,
Thanks for all your input on this. Joseph, I followed your example and imported the model into my CAD program, Geomagic (Alibre), then saved out a .BIP file. The resulting bip opened in KS without any problems, with a reduced triangle count. A Major issue is that it lost the ability to apply material to some individual parts of sub-assemblies, one of which is the 3-prong plug on the top of the cabinet. I could "paint" the parts in Geomagic that I wanted to be the same material but some (the 3-prong plug) show up as a single part.

I also imported the STEP with the tessellation turned down to .2 (Thanks, Soren). Although it took quite a while to import, the triangle count dropped significantly to just over 18.7 million. The benefit is that I can apply materials to the individual parts of the sub-assemblies, like the 3-prong plug. I have material linking turned on too, that saves a lot of time applying materials. (Compare the two images I attached).

I also turned off the Selection Outlines which also helps a great deal as I am now able to add sub-groups to the top level model without it freezing up, I have the Disable outlines set to Auto (Thanks, Richard). The auto-number must be higher than what I had in the model.

Joseph, to your question about printing; I won't be printing the image, I'm just using the model as practice. I'm running KS5.3 HD but plan to upgrade to Pro when 6 is released.

Harold