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xgrid rendering


David Holcomb

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I just read this in "What's New Brochure" for VW11:

"Support for Multiprocessors R

Support for multithreading means that raytraced renderings on dual-processor machines will be up to 40% faster." However, I think that means it only applies to a single machine.

I would also like to see VW meshed with Xgrid. The Macrumors site is currently livid with cluster rendering comments: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=71499

When looking at VW as a modeling package and comparing it to FormZ or Maya, adding an Xgrid module to VW could easily topple its competition.

Apple seems to find this a hot feature; VW should too.

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I have a few "legacy" Macs sitting around doing mostly nothing except occaisional word processing, spreadsheets, etc. They are - according to Apple's Xgrid site - compatible with Xgrid. Since I live in Apple's back yard in Silicon Valley San Jose and know some Apple people I was going to try and see if Xgrid would take the "dual processor threading" and speed things up VW.

The understanding of what I have read - if VW's multiprocessor support works with or if it can be made to directly supported Xgrid I could be doing a lot of faster rendering zooms than with my dual 800 by itself. At no additional hardware and software costs.

Also - Xgrid support would make working with VW -A,L,M,S, and whatever - a scalable heavy duty solution for major projects. One could envision a small, nimble creative firm with a couple of primary workstations backed by a Mac OSXServer rack running circles around 50 to 1500 person A/E firms. (We already do now but that is another story.) {;<)

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I notice there is an extra thread on this one.

I don't know that Nemetschek would want to add something to Vectorworks for Mac that they can't add to Vectorworks for Windows. Unless it's VERY easy to code. And it's my (limited) understanding that coding for Xgrid won't be difficult.

I asked Abvent if they have Xgrid support in the pipeline and their answer was "It's not in the pipe and not a priority." If this remains the case, and if improvements to Renderworks in VW 12 are as good as they are said to be, then this could be a chance for Nemetschek to get a jump on Artlantis and turn many offices to Renderworks.

In the office I work in we have a dozen or Dual G5s Power Macs packed with RAM on a Gigabit network. If the reality equals half the hype about Xgrid then I can only imagine the sort of thing we could achieve if Renderworks took advantage of it.

Come on Nemetschek, you know you want to. Katie, how about bringing this up at your next meeting with R&D and getting their feedback on the reality of this wish?

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