Ridiculous load/save times
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While waiting over 5 minutes for SU to open a 4 MB file (beside an open 40 MB file), I decided to post a question or two:
Is this normal?
Am I alone, or do other people suffer these same delays for loads and saves? This includes component loads from the browser, which can be unusable at times. (I'm aware of the reported memory leak in the mac version)
Is there something I can do to reduce these waits? (I have already changed the default Autosave period)
Will adding more RAM make any difference? (currently 2 GB Mac Mini 2.4 GHz / GeForce 320M)
Would also be curious to know if anyone is working with an SSD on a relatively equivalent machine (e.g. 2.4 GHz MacBook Air), and if so if they find a big difference in load/save times?
I should note that once the files are loaded, SU performs quite well on the Mini.
If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.
Thanks,Doug
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5 minutes is WAY to long for that sort of thing. I COULD be a RAM issue - 2 gb is pretty low. One thing you might do is find out how much RAM your computer is using when you open up the file (not sure how to do that on a mac). If it's hitting 95%+ when you open it, then that could be why it's slowing down. In the meantime, you might want to make sure you're not running anything unnecessary in the background that's eating up your RAM.
-Brodie
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Is the file located on a network location?
4MB vs 40MB - file size doesn't say all too much about a SketchUp file. Textures often inflates the file size, so a 4MB file can easily have more geometry than a 40MB file.
Though 5min sounds odd. I don't think I've ever had to wait 5min, even for 2million faces+ model.Is it a model you can share? For inspection purposes or comparisons?
This load time trouble you have, it is with this one file only?
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Hi folks.
My longest wait was about 1.5 minutes for a 105 Megs file, both on a PC with 2 Gigs RAM and a Imac, also with 2 Gigs RAM.
What can make a load very long is the render after the data has been loaded in the computer. Remember that a model will load on the scene that was showing when you saved it.
Try saving the file using a scene with the model shown with as few frills as possible and with as few visible geometry as possible: no shadow, no profiles, no textures. etc.
And yes, a small file containing thousands of components, each with a lot of geometry, can slown down even a very fast computer.
Just ideas.
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Thanks for the replies.
Brodie - I did check the Activity Monitor (Mac equivalent of Task Manager) and on opening the file CPU usage hovers between 99.6 and 100.2% (not sure what that means!). The dynamic memory allocation seems to increment real and virtual memory blocks 1 for 1, with the total depending on file size. In the original case it was about 700 MB of each, real and virtual.
When I opened the 4 mb file on it's own after a system restart (to reset memory), it opened in about 20 seconds. When I opened it after the 40 mb file, it took about 3 minutes this time. I hadn't rebooted the system for a while (2-3 days) when the same file took 5 minutes to load, and if there is a memory leak, over time it could end up swapping more with virtual memory, no? (And/or create other problems with memory allocation.)
In both cases however (and apparently when any SU file loads), it brings the system to it's knees with 100% cpu and an 'application not responding' status. This doesn't seem normal to me, regardless of load times. However, it also suggests that more RAM could improve load times, if on load it's swapping back and forth between real and virtual memory. Correct me if I'm mistaken.
ThomThom - no, not a network file location: it's on my boot drive.
There is nothing special about the file - other than it contained a couple of dynamic components. It was two slightly modified SketchData DC cabinets (no applied textures), and as I said it loads in about 20-30 seconds when it's the only file.Jean - in this case I hadn't created any scenes, as the file was a working sketchpad to modify cabinet components before importing into the larger file.
Though I will try your trick for the larger file: create a bare bones 'opening scene' that I save and close on.Will experiment some more and see if I can isolate the issue.
Thanks again for the suggestions. -
I wouldn't worry about the CPU usage. If you only have 1 cpu core, which I think is probably the case on your machine, then it's not a problem that SU uses the whole thing to open a file. Presumably, if it only used 50% it might take twice as long to open.
I'm not totally sure I understand your verbage regarding the RAM but I think you're saying that each instance of it is using 700mb? I've got two instances open right now, one with a 1mb file and the other with a 100mb file. The 1mb file takes almost 200mb of RAM and the 100mb file is using almost 900mb.
So 700mb seems a bit high perhaps, but not unreasonable (at least for the larger file). That said, I'd definitely consider getting some more RAM. If SU is using that RAM, there's not much left over for your OS and such. So when it runs out of memory everything is going to slow down and become unresponsive.
That's not to say there might not also be some other issues with the particular file and such but getting some more RAM would most likely help with at least some of your issues (and I'd def go that route before going to a SSD).
-Brodie
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@unknownuser said:
I'm not totally sure I understand your verbage regarding the RAM but I think you're saying that each instance of it is using 700mb? I've got two instances open right now, one with a 1mb file and the other with a 100mb file. The 1mb file takes almost 200mb of RAM and the 100mb file is using almost 900mb.
On the Mac, there is only ever one instance of the app itself, with multiple windows (one for each open file). What I was referring to was actual RAM allocation (real) vs. virtual memory on the HD. I meant that when there is 700 MB of actual RAM used by SU there is another 700 MB of virtual memory allocated for it. (though in subsequent tests, it's not always 1 to 1 like I had thought)
In any case I concur that it seems likely more RAM will improve things. Have been planning to top it up it to 4 GB, but now thinking I may max it out at 8.
The reference numbers are helpful too.Thanks.
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This may go without saying, but just remember that if you're putting in 8gb, you'll want a 64-bit OS to use it all. I suspect Mac's have been onto that for some time now, but us pc users have to fret over that sort of thing
-Brodie
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