Your system has run out of application memory

[mjm]

This just started… second time in an hour, after a restart. The file is not that large, 115 mB or so. Not that complex either.

I did just update to SP5.

155 GB open space on internal SSD

[zoomer]

Interesting,

125 GB memory is far too much. I think you found a memory leak.

I would send your File to support and file a support request.

 

Interesting, in my experience, on Windows, when an App needs more RAM

than available it gets slow and uses HDD/SSD to swap memory.

But on Mac, when any App exceeded physical memor,y it froze or crashed

the whole System (mainly C4D).

You managed to nearly use 10 times the RAM and just got a warning message ....

[JuanP]

@mjm Could you send me that file for testing? 

 

thanks

[mjm]

21 hours ago, zoomer said:

you managed to nearly use 10 times the RAM and just got a warning message ....

IKNOWright!?!?!

[mjm]

6 hours ago, JuanP said:

@mjm Could you send me that file for testing? 

 

thanks

Sent a few minutes ago, zipped into an archive file.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Art V]

Yes, this definitely looks like a memory leak as @zoomer already mentioned. I've had projects with very large files containing tons of objects and classes (and quite a few layers) and those would rarely, if at all, crash. Extremely slow refresh rates etc. did happen and were to be expected given the amount of data. This was on a Windows system.

 

However, with older versions I would run out of memory quite often when rendering and VW would either freeze or crash. Is the issue happening after initiating a render or just at a random moment?

[mjm]

22 hours ago, Art V said:

Yes, this definitely looks like a memory leak as @zoomer already mentioned. I've had projects with very large files containing tons of objects and classes (and quite a few layers) and those would rarely, if at all, crash. Extremely slow refresh rates etc. did happen and were to be expected given the amount of data. This was on a Windows system.

 

However, with older versions I would run out of memory quite often when rendering and VW would either freeze or crash. Is the issue happening after initiating a render or just at a random moment?

Hard to say for certain at this point, but I seem to recall render triggering it

[Guest Alex Sagatov]

@mjm Good Morning. @JuanP asked me to look into your file to see what I could find.

 

It appears that I am able to replicate this memory usage issue by simply going to a 3D view on the design layer and trying to render in OpenGL. After some further testing, it appears I may have a fix.

 

In your copy of the file, go to the design layer and into a 3D view (Wireframe). Go to View Menu > Rendering > OpenGL Options... and turn off "Use Shadows". Once that is turned off, switch over to an OpenGL Rendering. Once the rendering completes, you should be able to toggle back on Shadows in the OpenGL Options.

 

After toggling the shadows option as described, I am no longer getting a RAM spike that I was initially. Can you try doing the above steps and let me know if:

1) It at least temporarily fixes the problem?

2) If the issue reoccurs? If it does, can you confirm for me what you were doing when the RAM spike occurred again?

 

If this ends up being 1) Yes, 2) Can't get it to happen again, it would seem that there is something in the OpenGL shadow history / cache that is causing an issue. I will submit this through to our Engineering Team for further review once I get confirmation on the two above questions.

[Kevin C]

Just had the same problem again (not for the first time since upgrading to VW 2020) - This is just a simple 2D site development layout, no renderings or complex 3D model  - Really not good enough.

 

500GB SSD Hard drive  - There should be more than enough juice in my mac to cope with this.

 

 

 

[scho047]

Any solutions for this? I am getting this perhaps once or twice a day...... on various files and they are just 2d drawings and file sizes are all less then 40mb.... must be some bug. Can anyone advise on its fix? thanks! 

[JuanP]

I think this could be related to a memory leak that is fixed in Vectorworks 2020SP2. Release date 2nd or 3er week in November.

[A McDonell]

@JuanP I to am getting memory leak issues constantly in all files. Lots of crashes unless i check my "activity monitor" every 30 minutes, and restart VW when it reaches 40-50GB.  Screen shot below, is the status after open VW and performing 3 viewport updates- no model or line work changes... If there is a fix for this VW should release asap, not according to a predefined schedule. You are transferring to much time/money cost to your consumers business's.

... aaaannnddd super slow performance on hidden line renders. I mention it here because other threads regarding the lack of performance for hidden line renders seem to get no love or attention from VW experts. If Open GL can do it (crop hidden lines in real time) why does it take a view port 20 minute to render a hidden line (sans intersecting lines&surface hatches, 150 page dpi)

[drelARCH]

Strongly hope myself this is fixed with coming SP2. 

As @A McDonell stated above I have same issues.

Memory demand continuously rising and Hidden Line render update is really really slow (section viewports)

I've written about it earlier here:

 

 

[Kevin C]

Well we are now midway through the third week in November - Service Pack 2 ??????

 

What would be decent of VW is just to admit there is a problem - apologise for it, then devote resources to fixing it. Obviously the software industry does not admit its failures, but I think that VW ( and all other software providers) forget that in today's world of total reliance on computers, people's livelihoods depend on being able to use the software which they have purchased - we cannot just change to another provider and they know this.

 

There are different situations that users are reporting - this problem is across the board, which means that something is wrong at the core of the software.  Can you please fix it.

[jmk]

Same here: crazy memory behavior , vw hangs, and an empty void object info pallet.... BAD

[JuanP]

Just released, please click on Check for updates. This is for all English non-localized versions of Vectorworks. The complete list of fixes is linked on this article.

 

 

[Andrew Pollock]

Does this mean it"s now safe to upgrade to 2020 and Catalina?

[A McDonell]

@JuanP Thanks for posting this but I had look at your "complete list of fixes" it doesn't mention the memory leak issues relating to section viewports. Does this mean it hasn't been dealt with?

 

Cheers,

Andy

[iainlyon]

@JuanP SP2 install, problem still there - any advice

 

[Kevin C]

Unfortunately,  You have to forget everything that Vectorworks tells you to do.

 

Of all the tried and failed installs (and there has been many) , the only way I have now found that works is to completely remove Vectorworks, reboot the computer and then do a clean install of the SP2 full installation.

 

This means that you lose your customisation, but a small price to pay to stop the continual crashing of the software. You could keep a copy of the user settings and then over-write them, but it's easier to start from scratch (trust me).

 

Not sure about you, but over the Christmas shutdown this year, I will be stripping out all of the office computers and installing a fresh operating system (Catalina) - I haven't decided on which order to put the software back in - Any thoughts??

 

• Office 365
• SketchUp Pro
• Parallels (for NBS Builder and Elmhurst Energy Design software that doesn't work on the Mac)
• Vectorworks 2020

And that's just the main ones??

 

[JuanP]

@A McDonell You are correct, we thought the issue related to section viewports was addressed in SP2 but unfortunately wasn't. Seems like it has been challenging to replicate and find the source of this memory leak, however it looks like the next SP will address this issue and some other critical ones. 
We are moving into releasing more SP during our yearly cycle to move quickly, fixing these issues. Currently, we are testing 2020 SP2.1, and if everything goes well, we will release it next week. 

[Kevin C]

Quick update - we are still experiencing major memory leaks in the majority of files since the upgrade to 2020. None of the service packs have sorted the problems.  We have one project which we are desperately trying to move forward to full production drawings, but VW keeps crashing.

 

All Macs were completely stripped out over Christmas and reinstalled with clean OS and primary software, which with SP2.1 should have fixed the problem - It hasn't.

 

Can you please update when this problem is to get sorted.

 

[PeterF]

Just wanted to weigh in here also. I’ve been having this issue since I first moved from 2018 in January 2019. We really should have a fix by now and the fact that we’ve become used to this issue is unacceptable for professional grade software that commands professional grade pricing. 

[Kevin C]

Peter,

 

As businesses we take long and hard decisions about choosing the 'best' delivery method for our business model.  Vectorworks can be a great design tool and that is why I chose it for my company many years ago (2009), but there are so many bugs that actually prevent me from using the software from anything other than basic 2D work as working in 3D is nay on impossible - generation of hidden line elevations and sections should be instantaneous THEY ARE NOT RENDERING.  The big problem is that to change supplier, would cost (for me) between £15K and £20K once you take the cost of software and basic training, not counting the downtime - Vectorworks knows this and since we are on the hook, there is very little that can be done.

 

I'm not going to even start on the tools which do not work properly and are not fit for purpose - roofs / walls / doors / windows / spaces / worksheets - basically all of the tools that are needed to work within a full 3D / BIM environment.

Edited January 24, 2020 by Kevin C

[RafaelPernia]

Hi, any news or advice on the memory leaks? I still experience this and, I feel it's getting worse, needing to restart the program every 30 minutes or so.

 

So far I have:

-Always start the software on its own (not double clicking a VW doc) and only then, open docs

-Reduced the number of UNDO's to 20.

-Lowered all the viewport's quality

-Tried to reduce the number of Blocks-within-blocks

-Purge daily

 

Some observations

-The documents I use daily are 40-60mb / 10-12 design layers / 15-20 sheet layers and all experience this leak.

-Updating viewports sky rockets the RAM instantly.

-Leaving VW open for hours or overnight also creates a spike in RAM usage even if there's no viewport updating. (i've done tests)

 

Not super specs but I think this should be enough:

iMac Retina 5K, 2019 / 3.7Ghz 6-core i5 / 8gb 2666Mhz DDR4 RAM / Radeon Pro 580x 8GB / Catalina 10.15.3

 

Edited February 13, 2020 by RafaelPernia

[Bertf]

Issue is still present on windows 10 version 2020 SP2 Build 519614!

 

Any news on when we can expect an update?

 

 

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by Bertf