Hi Everyone
I am having trouble exporting a large and fairly complex mining plant model from OpenBuildingss CE to LumenRT 13. It is an update of a previous project , so I have done it before (2 years ago). I still have the original LumenRT file. The plan was to export the model again, thereby updating the geometry whilst maintaining the environment I had built in LumenRT, and then create an updated fly-through video.
I have spent several days watching it fail and I have tried all the tricks I can think of the get it to work. I have moved the model to the global origin (there are some elements outside the SWA). Previously I merged most of the references into the project model, I forget why I thought that would work. Apparently it did, but I have to do it over again as the geometry has changed and most of the references will not merge - I end up with about half the elements in the project model as duplicates of what is in the reference. The export goes very slowly, I can see it processing the reference files one by one. The new LumenRT file is not being created at all. Eventually it just crashes and shuts down OBD. It is only using about 15-30% of the machines resources - I have 64GB RAM so its not that.
As usual there is a deadline involved and its not very far away - some suggestions would be much appreciated!
-W
I had a large DGN file with many reference files which gave me heartburn. It forced me to evaluate my methodology. Some elements were simply being omitted on their way to LumenRT, but it wasn't the same features each time, so I determined it was memory related. After thinning the DTM and other methods to simplify the file I had success, but the file still was a little clunky in LumenRT.
Initially I had placed the trees in Microstation using the supplied cell library for LumenRT, but decided they might be a source of problems. I bit the bullet, removed all the trees from the DGN file and replaced them using the tools in LumenRT. This proved successful. Now I avoid adding trees to the DGN file altogether and add them using LumenRT exclusively. Small projects covering a small area with a relatively small number of trees are usually fine, however.
In addition, I used the Troubleshooting 101 method by merging the reference file content into the main file one at a time to try and isolate the issue. I would regenerate the LumenRT file after merging a single reference file, and then look at the success. This way I could keep an eye out for where the trouble may lie.
Any construction elements, text, dimensions or other unnecessary elements were deleted to further simplify the file. Make certain there are no needless duplicates, too. Also, as you mentioned, make certain the global origin is set correctly to 0,0,0.and move your features, if necessary, to the vicinity of 0,0,0.
Do you have any raster reference files attached that you're not using? They are not needed and could be slowing down your LumenRT file generation. That is another benefit to merging content into one DGN file, because it will stop propagating any hooks to raster reference files which are not turned on but which are attached to the reference file. Those raster reference files can be quite large and sometimes use file format unfriendly to LumenRT.
If your DGN is using reference files which are on a networked drive my suggestion would be to copy that content locally and re-reference them to avoid any latency issues with the network. It would eliminate another source of potential problems.
Further to your case, it's possible you have a piece of geometry which is not translating well. Does your model have tons of piping? That could be as source of trouble. Lots of NURBS can be a memory hog. I have had luck changing perfectly round surfaces to a more simplified version by using a hexagonal profile instead of a perfect circle, and running them down simplified alignments (geometry). I think they translate better.
Not sure if any of this is helpful, but don't give up.
Hi Thomas
Thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately I have tried most of them to no avail. I suspect there is some suspicious (imported) geometry somewhere. The frustrating this is that I have exported this successfully in the past (not without issues I might add). This is an updated model which I am trying to re-export into the original LumenRT environment.
It crashes over and over again. I did manage to export it last week - it took 4 days to export and the resulting file is un-usable.
I have 64GB of RAM, a 4GB graphics card and plenty of processing power - the machine is running at about 20-30% (RAM and CPU) during the export so I don't think its a hardware issue.
Wendy,
Hopefully you had success processing your project by now. The other thing I do when I have a project with long processing times is to disconnect from the network. A software or system update, kicked off by a remote IT administrator on a Friday at midnight, has clobbered my stuff more than a few times; until I got wise. I unplug from the network to minimize this problem. Anyway, just sending along another tip. -T