Question:

I have a very large surface that processes very slowly.  Is there anything I can do to improve processing speed?

Answer:

The following solutions may improve processing speeds in InRoads/MicroStation:

• If the mapping for the project is very dense you might have some latitude to thin the model.  If using InRoads 8.7+, there is an Application Add-In called Thin Random Points. It will appear under Surface > Utilities. This command is much faster than the normal thinning routine and it was developed for Lidar data. The Help has an explanation of the methodology used.
  
  
• Go to Surface > Surface Properties and see how many deleted points are in the model.  You may need to run the Surface > Utilities > Compress Surface command to remove these deleted feature points to reduce the size of the DTM.
  
  
• Copy portions of the large surface into separate DTM surfaces using the Copy Portion of Surface command.  This will allow you to work in a designated area for a project that may be confined to a small area within a larger surveyed / laser scanned surface, greatly reducing the amount of information that is required to be opened in InRoads to perform your design tasks.
  
  
• Another possibility is to increase the virtual memory on the machine.  Use your Task Manager and set the column view to include/show the Virtual Memory Size.  If the physical memory used exceeds the virtual memory size, there are processes in Windows which can be performed to increase the virtual memory.  The following workflow is provide by MicroSoft:
  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-virtual-memory-size#1TC=windows-7

• Please review the following wiki for additional suggestions on improving processing speeds: http://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/w/microstation__wiki/2360.microstation-memory-management