[ORD 2021 R2] Is OpenRoads really this slow?

Hi Mary, are you using ProjectWise?

Hi Mary,

MaryB said:

or is ORD very slow compared to Inroads/Geopak?

I have not too much experience with InRoads, but yes, OpenRoads is often slower than InRoads. Similarly to MicroStation: Often CE is slower than V8i, on the other hand sometimes faster, and what is more important (at least for me ;-), is able to handle data and finish tasks, when V8i crashes or is extremely slow.

MaryB said:

it takes 5+ minutes to open the first design file.

It sounds like too much. It's not clear how you start ORD (in ProjectWise, opening a file directly without file selection in a middle of start...), but my ORD 2021 R2 offers to select file about 15 secs after start. And the file opening depends on the file complexity and workspace complexity (but still typically under a minute).

MaryB said:

Every DGNLIB from my client workspace has to load, and with all of the settings, there are a lot of DGNLIB files.

Yes, it makes sense in my opinion: ORD must load all settings to be able to work with DGN file.

To keep workspace as small and simple as possible is one from important requirements to keep any OpenX product "fast". To have hundreds of files (especially dgnlibs) with thousands of levels and other date, belonging to feature definition, when only a fraction is used, makes loading process slower than necessary.

MaryB said:

I am using a client workspace, so this isn't anything I set up myself. Are there any settings I should look into, or any way to speed it up?

When it's not your workspace, so I guess you cannot modify it, there is probably not too much what can be done. As Mark asked, you do not share all details (ProjectWise is used, how complex the files are, is workspace local or on server...), but you should ensure all files ORD uses (workspace) are local, so there is no delay when located and read.

MaryB said:

Windows 11, 32 Gb RAM, if that makes any difference.

My experience is that more than RAM (Bentley products are usually not able to effectively use all available memory, so anything above 16GB is probably fine), fast disk can help. Today it means NMVe SSD (and not old SATA or a mixture of M.2 form, but still SATA internally).

With regards,

  Jan

I am not using ProjectWise. I am working over a VPN, which is, admittedly, slower than hardwiring to the network at the office.
The files are not complex. I have this delay even when creating/opening new, empty files to begin working.

I always open ORD from the desktop icon. After so many years before workset branding, I may never trust that just double clicking from Explorer would open the proper workspace...I am old.

We do not store workspace files locally because the work of keeping every machine updated with the proper copies of every client workspace for everyone who uses ORD is simply impractical. It is also MUCH easier to administrate those workspaces, with associated worksets, etc. from a central location on a server than to try to keep track of everyone's computer. Our IT department are generalists, without much CAD or CAD Admin experience (as far as I can tell).

I think some of it is an overabundance of client resources, and the fact that they all need to be loaded every time. I understand why that is, but I wish there were a way that certain DGNLIB files could be loaded more on an "as needed" basis. I am not going to need my sheet creation DGNLIBs for weeks, yet there they are, all two dozen of them, every time I open OpenRoads. File switching is much faster than initial opening, for which I am grateful.

I had seen threads for years that ORD ran slower in general than V8i. I guess I didn't really think much of it.

We are currently working with Bentley on a complete revision to our Workspace and there are a number of things that can be done with DGNLIB's that apparently speed up load times, but it requires recreating a number of DGNLIB's. It's possible your client's workspace is still using the older methodology. All you can do is hope that they will update the workspace to incorporate these changes.

Considering that this is their very first, freshly released ORD workspace, my hopes are not high...It look as if they have done good work to get what they have, but it's taken this long to get here so I don't expect updates any time soon.