Circular Stair symbol overwhelms graphics card

[JHEarcht]

VW2010 SP4 on Windows XP 3.5GB mem

nVIDIA Quadro FX3000 graphics card 256MB

In a simple 2D drawing I want to show an elevation of a circular stair. I choose one of the Circular Stairs - Imp from the symbol Library. While making changes to settings, the screen flickers and redraws are slow. I remove all textures, and Rendering is set on Wireframe.

I place the 2D/3D symbol on the drawing in Top View. Then switch to Front View, and select the symbol. Then Modify / Convert to polygons. This procedure produces a 2D elevation. But the stair object continues to destabilize the video card (motherboard memory never goes above 50%).

Even with the stair visibility turned off, it still corrupts the whole drawing. Every little change takes 12 forevers to recalculate and redraw. Eventually, VW locks up or crashes abruptly, and without warning. After a lockup, I see two instances of VW in Task Manager---what does that mean?

I tried two different circular stair symbols, and got the same results. I have used this procedure before with straight stairs, but this is the first time with circular.

Am I alone in my misery, or has anyone else had problems with circular stair symbols? Is there another way to get a 2D elevation of a spiral stair, other than manually drawing the spiraling curves?

Edited August 5, 2010 by JHEarcht

[Ray Libby]

Go to Nvidia's website, download and install the latest drivers.

[JHEarcht]

I have the latest driver, dated 2007

I have searched all the knowledgebases on nVIDIA and VW.

The problem is not with the graphics card.

The problem is with VW.

The symbol seems to have corrupted the file in some way that overloads the graphics card.

Edited August 5, 2010 by JHEarcht

[Ray Libby]

I'm not trying to bash your system, but now that I look at your specs it's not that surprising. Could you post a file here that shows this behavior?

[JHEarcht]

Ray, I appreciate your response. But you are still focusing on my hardware, instead of the VW stair symbol. No symbol no problem. And I have had similar symbol-related problems in earlier versions of VW.

My system has a few years on it, but it exceeds all minimum requirements for VW2010. And it has a graphics card specifically recommended by NNA. Other than the modified symbol in question, it's a simple 300mb drawing.

However, I did notice that VW2010 requires a "high bandwidth interface" between CPU and display. My system has an 800mhz bus clock, is that enough? What did you have in mind when you "bashed" my system.

PS---The drawing is now finished, for the moment, after spending much more time waiting to get control of the system back than actually drawing. What I'm looking for now is a theoretical, under the hood, understanding of how a symbol can corrupt a drawing, and destabilize the video card, and crash the system, and show two instances of VW in the Task Manager. With that knowledge I may be better able to work around the problem. Is that too much to ask?

[Ray Libby]

Good to hear you're making progress.

It's hard not to focus on the hardware. It's entirely possible you just don't have enough horsepower for that complicated of a PIO. A good way to troubleshoot would be for me to try your file and see if I have any problems.

What would I recommend? A new computer!(picture one of them smiley faces here)

[bcd]

I found unplugging the external monitor can help in helping the system when it's under stress.

[islandmon]

I place the 2D/3D symbol on the drawing in Top View. Then switch to Front View, and select the symbol. Then Modify / Convert to polygons. This procedure produces a 2D elevation

Try:

1) symbol>duplicate>rename>edit>ungroup...then procedure.

or

2) symbol>edit>select all>copy>exit symbol>paste>ungroup...then procedure.

[JHEarcht]

I just saved a copy of the problematic drawing file (300MB), and I got an <> warning. But my memory monitor says I still have 72% (15GB) memory free. With VW running (10MB), the total memory usage is 22%

Could VW be having problems accessing the memory???

If so, what can I do about it?

Would it help to set the Windows 3GB switch to allocate more memory to VW? Has anyone tried this before?

[JHEarcht]

The spooky stair saga continues.

I copied the corrupted file under a new name. Then I selected and deleted all the visible stair objects, including the symbol in the Resource Browser. After a purge, I did a custom selection for all objects in the Stair class. The dialog indicated that 300,000 objects were found after the deletion. But when I click OK to select those invisible objects, VW stops responding, but eventually returns to normal---yet nothing is selected.

The file works much better without the corrupted stairs, but it is still haunted by their ghosts. Any suggestions to get a clean file with everything except the stairs?

PS---When VW hangs, and stops responding, the memory usage doesn't go above 40%, but the CPU usage is off the scale. So I assume the file is making an impossible request of the processor.

[michaelk]

Rather than selecting by class and deleting, what happens if you delete the class and choose delete objects in the dialogue box?

[JHEarcht]

Thanks Michael

That did the trick. I now have a ghost-free drawing.

But now I'll have to draw the circular stair elevation manually, because each of the three symbols have the same problem. Even in a blank 8x11 page, they cause quivering, lockups, and crashing.

Letting the plug-in object do all the "hard work" seemed like a good idea a few days ago.

[JHEarcht]

Thanks, Imon

But the symbols start causing CPU/video problems as soon as I insert them in a blank document, so I eventually have to punt and start all over. But that's enough hair-pulling for this week.

[michaelk]

I don't have a lot of experience w/ the circular stair.

On my rapidly aging laptop there is a little lag when pressing the "settings" button. But other than that, it seems pretty snappy.