MicroStation SELECTseries 3 Benchmark (Beta)

MicroStation SELECTseries 3 Benchmark (beta) (updated 9-20-2013)

The MicroStation Benchmark is mdl application designed to gauge how well MicroStation V8i SELECTseries 3 and later will perform on your computer. Several tests are run to evaluate not only graphics performance but also Disk I/O and CPU performance. All results are shown in seconds and are a measure of the total time to complete a given task.

NOTE: We recommend that you do not use your computer for other activities until all of the tests are complete the entire test will like take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to complete. You may want to wait and run the test over lunch or overnight. Also having many background processing task running could affect your result, especially if the other applications are consuming a considerable amount of memory.

  1. Download the new benchmark ftp://ftp.bentley.com/visualization/msbench3.zip this will change once posted to website.
  2. Extract the folder to your hard drive
  3. Open the file Start.dgn located in the msbench3 folder
  4. From the Utilities menu drop down choose MDL Application
  5. Click the Browse button and navigate to the \\msbench3\Supporting files folder and pick benchmark.ma

 

  1. With Benchmark selected in the MDL dialog, click on the Key-ins button to open the Key-ins dialog to see the Key-ins associated with the Benchmark program.

Options are analyze, category and test. Choosing analyze will run all test and allow you to generate a report upon completion. The report cannot optionally be uploaded to Bentley at this time and added to a database such that other users can view your results and share theirs with the user community. An example report is shown below.

Select Test by Category

Choosing category will open an additional Select Test by Category dialog.

From here you can simply select the category or multi-select categories that you want to run and the click on the Run Test button.

  • ·         Disk I/O measures the time to load each design file and this test will give you some idea of how your hard drive performs.
  • ·         MicroStation CPU runs edges preview on several 3D designs and does not use all the cores in a multicore system. This means the CPU’s with higher clock speeds or higher turbo speeds should perform better than lower clocked CPUs.
  • ·         3D runs graphics performance test in several 3D models using different display styles.
  • ·         2D runs graphics performance test on 2D design files.
  • ·         Luxology Render executes an image save multiple commands to render four different models this test is a good measure of multi-core and multi-threaded systems. Systems with multiple processors and more cores with hyper threading enabled will perform better than machines with fewer processors and less cores.

When the tests are complete you can then Generate a local report or submit one to Bentley.

Select Test

Choosing tests will open the Select Test.

From here you can simply select the design file(s) or multi-select test(s) that you want to run and then click on the Run Test button. With the exception of save image multiple the first name in brackets is the design file or model used for the test followed by the name or type of test performed.

  • ·         Load Time is used to measure disk I/O.
  • ·         Edges CPU test MicroStation’s limited multithreaded CPU performance.
  • ·         Wireframe, Illustration, Hidden Line , Filled Hidden Line, Smooth, Smooth with Shadows, Monochrome,

                         Monochrome with Shadows,Thematic Height and Thematic Slope are all display styles used to test graphics performance.

  • ·         Save Image Multiple is used to test Luxology Rendering performance.

Once the test are complete you will need to generate a local report, the option to upload is not currently enabled. Feel free to share your results with the community using this thread.

Regards,

Jerry Flynn