Escalating RAM usage on small files making Vectorworks 2022 Unusable

[Jack2022]

A problem that only started this week. 

 

I am working on a small model (15mb). On opening the file Vectorworks is using 3GB RAM. about 30 mins later Vectorworks will be using 20GB+ and climbing. The model is super simple. Just one reference viewport and only a few objects so far. It results in hundreds of GB being used as Swap memory until it grinds to a halt.

 

This is crippling my system and seems to be a new phenomenon. Making copies of the file, changing name, purging, reloading references (only one simple DWG file) doesn't make a difference. 

 

M1 MacBook Pro 16GB - not the most powerful system but again - this has only just started happening having built models before. 

 

Please help! I'm building to a deadline!

[zoomer]

5 hours ago, Jack2022 said:

about 30 mins later Vectorworks will be using 20GB+ and climbing.

 

This is really strange.

In what situations does this happen ?

 

- Rendering SLVPs or calculating Sections ?

(Do you have SP4 ?)

- Just when Modeling and Navigating ?

 

[Jack2022]

Hi Zoomer,

 

This happens when I am modelling and appears to have no trigger. I have the latest SP. 

 

I can open the file leave it and a while later its using masses of GB so it doesn't appear to have a use trigger. Super lightweight file just the on design layer (early days for the model).

 

Might it be Vectorworks itself? A bug? 

[zoomer]

I do not see this here on my M1 Mini.

Maybe the file went corrupt or triggering a potential bug in VW ?

 

I would send it to VW Support.

[Mat Caird]

I had a similar problem on my M1 MBP 32GB. VW would work fine until I updated a particular viewport. Then all aspects of VW would become unusable until I restarted VW.

I found the problem to be some "climbing holds" I'd downloaded. They were 3d meshes, converted from sketchup I believe.

Funnily enough, in the model layers where they resided, everything worked normal. It was only after updating the viewport (section viewport, shaded rendering) where the bug occurred.

I solved this by deleting the climbing holds 😞 

I didn't bother submitting a bug report.

[Pat Stanford]

It would actually be good if you have a version of the file with the climbing holds to submit it as a bug. It will help the engineers to figure out what the limiting factor was and potentially work around it.

 

My guess is that those holds were just way too detailed and the higher resolution of the Sheet Layer just over taxed the memory available for rendering.

[zoomer]

12 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

My guess is that those holds were just way too detailed

 

As VW made much progress and is one of a few CAD System that unexpectedly

can really work OK even with ugly complicated Meshes, my feeling says that

there likely is any corruption in those Files (Meshes ?) or something that does

trigger a bug in VW.

 

Good idea to send the related files to VW support.

[Pat Stanford]

Could be.  Depends on what sketchup symbols were used.  The image shows about 50 "holds".  Based on some I found on Sketchup Warehouse they could run anywhere from 400 to 1200 polys in each mesh.  So up to around 60,000 polys to have to calculate. And very small compared to the rest of the scene.

 

 

[Jack2022]

Hello All,

 

I found the culprit. I had a couple of Autocad DWGs imported as references to use as a basis for the model. 

 

I deleted the references and it made everything work ok again. 

 

I do get a slow RAM creep but its much slower now. file opens with about 1.5GB use and only creeps to 5 then 7 GB after lots of work and zooming around and adding lots of symbols etc. 

 

also the model opens a lot quicker without the references. 

 

Thanks for the interest

 

Jack

[zoomer]

52 minutes ago, Jack2022 said:

DWGs imported as references to use as a basis for the model

 

Sometimes Hatches explode into separate lines and such,

which can be really expensive for View display and manipulations.

 

I usually import all DWGs into a VW container file, to examine and

cleaning up a bit before I reference them.

[Jack2022]

whenever I import a DWG it only comes in as a reference. is there a way to import as Vectorworks lines?

 

Rookie question I know

[MarcelP102]

@Jack2022Turn off Reference? 😉

 

[Jack2022]

Is this Vectorworks 2022? I only get these import options (unless it is found in advanced):

 

 

[Jack2022]

Don't answer that.

 

I was being thick. All clear now