Openbuildings Connect Edition is slower than V8i for the same computer?

Hi, I'm comparing the Connect Edition version (10.10.00.199) and the V8i version (8.11.09.866) on the same computer. On the same computer and with the same model delivered.

With Connect Edition everything seems slower. My computer is not very current but it meets the requirements for Connect Edition except CPU does not have AVX instructions. RAM 24 gb Nvidia K4200 4gb graphics card and Windows 10.

Update view V8i 2 seconds CE 15 seconds (CE needs 650% more time) See attached image.
Wall place tool V8i 3 seconds CE 9 seconds (CE needs 200% more time)
Door place tool V8i 2 seconds CE 7 seconds (CE needs 250% more time)
etc.. everything is slower in CE

Has anyone verified that their computer is slower with CE than with V8i?

Can I do anything to improve CE speed (besides buying a new computer)?

Thank you

Antonio

  • Hi Andy, thanks for your comment. With OBD Connect Edition everything is slow. With Microstation Connect Edition it's faster.

    I hope they improve the speed. It is very necessary for your use.

    Greetings.

    Antonio

  • Hello Antonio,

    If there are more people having this issue, I think developers will react on this! Where could I put this issue to get some attention!

  •   , there is the "Ideas" portal: https://openbuildings.ideas.aha.io/

    Not sure how heavy this ways on the developers though ... For Microstation it is widely known but even then >100 votes for a single idea is very rare.

    I have also been told that logging SR's with many people and linking them to the same "Enhancement Request" (or recently called PBI) might help. But for this specific topic (slowness of OBD) support always reacts with:

    • Clear prefs;
    • Don't open the 'properties' window;
    • Don't open the 'Explorer' window.

    In my opinion, those are not solutions to the problem. Because both windows are an important part of my workflow...

  • Yes because when you are opening a file in MS, the datagroup properties are not getting loaded so the file open process will be much faster. 

    Yea, it would be good to compare loading times with OpenPlant, which uses EC Framework, Items which is the underlying tech that Mstn uses for storing nongraphic properties. I understand that OBD has to convert the DGS info to Items so that they can be displayed in Mstn's Properties Panel.

    There used to be a config var that BB_DG_ECSCHEMA_CACHE that forced OBD to cache the converted DGS info. Not sure if this is now permanently set. It did seem to help but its not clear if OBD also cached the info in the attached Refs, which would require write access to the Ref files some of which may be in use by others.

    If OpenPlant is indeed faster, this is another reason for Bentley to bite the bullet and replace DGS with Items. One huge problem is the lag when switching between models, not only at loading. This is a common and frequent requirement which is exacerbated by Mstn's Dynamic Views, CVE setup and the whole federated models way of working that differentiates Bentley from say R*vit that wants everything in one bucket.

    Hopefully, there are some transition plans behind the scenes, and the dev team are not sticking their heads in the sand, waiting to cash in their BSY shares and retire, making it someone else's problem Stuck out tongue winking eye The problem will only get worse as files get bigger and more tools, fixes are introduced.

    Looking at the announcements made at YII, 'Phase 2' will entail embedding the iTwin engine into Mstn. The idea is that the i-models will be written in the background in parallel with the regular dgn. Apparently, Keith Bentley is personally driving this forward and plans to have this working by end of this year, leaving iTwins to the new CTO.

    This should pave the way for DGS to continually write and store its info in a consolidated schema which will avoid the need for repeated conversions on loading, caching, synching etc... and speed things up.

  • What is THE best computer to let OBD generate the menus faster. Is it the memory, the processor i7, i9 or higher. Or the right combination would be the best configuration to speed up OBD.