Hey all, I need some serious help.
I am new to the Bentley infrastructure and having some major problems.
I have models supplied by our process engineers and our structural engineers. I have been shown how to create a project and reference these models.
I navigate with most of the references turned off.
Navigating the model takes an inordinate amount of time.
I get 20-40 crash/error report popups per day?
Where to I start to gain my sanity back?
Well it comes and goes. Honestly.
Usually I find the culprits that cause the crash or things just get fixed as I work.
Refs off should help but I would say that my models are quite large and that is probably more of the issue.
Try little tricks like running as an administrator. Make sure things are broken down into chunks of data. don't break them down just to break them down but there are logical ways that need to be broken down like. Stairs, first floor, 2nd floor, roof, exterior walls, etc.
If you find a file that repeatedly crashes then copy it and start deleting things until you find the culprit. Or create a blank ad add stuff until it crashes. Last project I had it was quick made trusses that the structural stuff wont make.
When I made solids, clipped stuff and merged into one it started having problems in pdf and dwg creation
So I remade the truss differently and everything is now better.
remember that you are using someone else's file and they may not be made as well as yours.
Ustn since 1988SS4 - i7-3.45Ghz-16 Gb-250/1Tb/1Tb-Win8.1-64bEric D. MilbergerArchitect + Master Planner + BIMSenior Master Planner NASA - Marshall Space Flight CenterThe Milberger Architectural Group, llc
Thanks for the tips Eric,
I have some fairly large files 1.2GB in total. I also have (what I thought) plenty of system resource.
32GB RAM6GB Graphics CardNew i7 Hexcore processor....
I will try running as admin to see if that has an impact.
I am unable to trim bits out of half of the files I'm recieving as they are i.dgn and locked down... I get a pop up often, something about 'Large Level Dictionaries', and have compressed to no avail. I assume that the i.dgn won't allow the removal of unused levels...
anywho.... Back to the grindstone...
The paging file shoudl not be on the SSD as the Read/Write will wear that device out more quickly. I moved mine and gave it a very high number. If it needs it it will use it - if it doesn't it won't
Hey Eric.
My problem is that all my files are reference files. I am not modelling in AECOsim, it is a vehicle for comparing model geometry with our bentley based consultants.
I don't have a large page file as I have 32GB of RAM and don't often use more than 12-15of those... I'm a firm believer in 50% hardware redundancy.
I have found a few potential culprits, all are .i.dgn files. I still need to reference these files for conflict testing, how do I go about fixing un-editable .i.dgn files so they don't make things crash?
The Page File is still used and if it controls it;s own size it will cause a crash. Please create your own as you should see some result even if you dont change the size. MS alwasy uses some page file regardless of RAM
Hi Tim,
As Eric mentioned, try setting the Min and Max virtual memory settings to the same value so that it is not resized in real-time by the OS. This is an old "safety tip" from the WinXP days (and before), but it still could be helpful. It's at least worth a try!
If there's a specific set of files and series of operations that typically results in a crash, try opening Task Manager and track memory usage - if it's hitting the 3.5GB +/- ceiling it could be a lack of memory. If you find that specific I-models are still crashing for you and your memory usage is not that high, then I would open a Service Request with support since additional troubleshooting and possibly a defect may be needed. For reference, the source of the I-models is typically where you want to start; i.e., if they're published from ABD then that's the team to begin the investigation.
Hey Steve,
Way ahead of you there... I've had a static page file for a decade or so ;-) Win 7 with 32GB RAM set up a 320GB page file by default.... Not sure what it thinks I'm going to be running.... In this case (32GB base RAM) I have an 8GB page file (not the 2 x base recommended with XP)
Tasks that consistently cause crashes;
If I have a dollar for every crash, I would still have lunch and several coffees bought for me daily!
I have been keeping an eye on RAM usage and 3.2GB is common, and I think it may be spikes causing the crashing...
I have a 50 Gb Page file and that helped and it was on my HD as when on my SSD I saw no performance difference but many more crashes.
I get most of my crashes in plotting and dwg creation. And it is disk usage as you will see that get to almost 100% consistantly and then a freeze almost as if it was still working but so slowly it would never finish. Like untangling fishing line.
I would own a very nice CAR.
@Eric,
That is bizarre that you would be experiencing more crashes on an SSD than HDD. I will try moving my page file.
Requiring 50GB to print is, um, well pretty crazy IMO...
I think the SSD is to fast for the process of what is going on and like the fishing like it gets in a knot
OK, thanks Tim. If you're often sitting in that 3.2GB range then yes, a spike at that point certainly could be a factor.
Just from a pure testing perspective... have you signed up for the MicroStation x64 Early Access Preview? I'm just wondering how those same operations would fare in the native 64bit version. Granted, the building data will not be loaded so it's not quite a fair comparison, but if you're curious you could also try ABD's MicroStation mode first as a bridge of sorts between the two.
You know, we were having all sorts of speed issues and crashes. We couldn’t figure out what it was. Network speed? Memory? We were going crazy. The fellow who started the project went about referencing files like the old days. He referenced files to other files when he needed them. He set the nesting level so he got what he wanted. It was a real mess. I suspected that circular references were a part of the problem. Think about it. If there were 20 references files that through nesting were attached on the average of 3 times, then statistics tell us the combinations would be 1140 nested references! So we started there.
So I had another individual go through and create a single master file, not only for architectural, but also for each discipline. There are often multiple models per discipline for as many as eight to ten disciplines. The references in each of the master files was set to no nesting. All of the references to each of our reference files were deleted and the master files were attached. My hunch proved much more on line than I though. Files opened more quickly by a factor of ten and the crashes stopped. We didn’t have to do any other “fixes.”
Not only did this master file philosophy make thing much, much faster, it also made things better organized. Now if HVAC creates an additional model, then we only need to attach it to the single HVAC master to have it referenced to all of the other files.
Actually we could have attached the discipline files to the architectural master and set the nesting level to one and accomplished the same thing. This makes things even more organized. When you create a new file, all you need to do is attach the architectural master and you have all of the project models at your service. This could also be done in a “modeling” seed file, but we haven’t done that yet.
For those who don’t know, you can use the Level Display dialog, drill down through the nesting to the reference you want to turn on/off and left click and check/uncheck Display in the pop-up.
Answer Verified By: Tim West