MC9 Sloowww

[JoeM.]

We've been using MC9 for a while with no problems. All of a sudden it starts running slow when you try to perform functions. For instance, when selecting lines for chaining. You click the line and it acts as if you missed it. IF you wait 3-5 seconds it will show as selected, like it is hesitating. If your not careful and select it twice you create more problems. Not sure if this is a WIN XP problem or what. I see this discussed here but no one has offered a concrete solution. Video car is NVIDIA, 3GHz process with 1Gig of ram. Nothing else running. Thought it might be a network problem so we unplugged the network and ran the computer as a standalone. Still the same problem. Any thoughts would be appriciated.

[Thad]

Does it happen on all files or just some?

 

You could reboot, delete duplicate entities, or maybe running RAMsaver will help.

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

Thad

[Bruce Gibson]

have you had the computer for a while?

have you ever run defrag? checked for viruses?

[Guest]

It's the gremlins that CNC placed in the code to make sure everyone has to migrate to X so they can take over the world and hold it for ransom.

 

 

All for the sum of, one million dollars

 

 

 

On a serious note Ramsaver sounds like a good idea.

 

You also could be starting to have hardware problems but there are other things you can try before you get there.

[JoeM.]

Not to ramble on with all the details, but we had an older computer, installed MCX, and then noticed the problem. Completely cleared the computer and then loaded back MC9 but the problem was still there. Computer was about 3 years old so we replaced it. Still does it on the new computer. Some days it runs okay, other days its real bad. Seems to be worse with imported IGES files from AutoCAD but does hesitate starting from scratch in MC. We started with a fresh computer, with NVIDIA card, and it still hesitates. Are there any conflicts with windows and updated drivers? How do you run RAMsaver?

 

I think you mean $100 billion dollars...

[P_Scott]

SGCAM06,

 

What is the exact model and onboard RAM of the video card? Not all nVidia cards are recommended for use with Mastercam. What is the path directory for the Mcam V9 installation? What are the exact specs for the rest of the system and has all software been updated recently? Is there a virus scanning software installed on the system and was it "active" during installation of Mcam V9? Any time new software is installed on a system, the virus scan software should be temporarily disabled so some of the software's executable files aren't mistaken for viruses. Usually there would be other error messages when the software is running to indicate that the installation may have been corrupted. Check the Mcam V9 System Configuration for the RAM allocation settings. The recommended amount of RAM Mcam is allowed to use, on average, should be about half of the total RAM that is on the system (512 Mb according to your previous post). Have you contacted your reseller and asked them to help you troubleshoot the system? Just trying to figure out what's going on. This type of thing is like the proverbial "needle in a haystack" issue. It could be anything. We'll try to narrow it down for you but it would be better if you spoke with your reseller and see if they have any suggestions. HTH

 

BTW, welcome to the forum.

[Steve Zirtzman]

SGCAM06,

Keep rambling, the more details the better with a problem like this.

[Bruce Gibson]

sg: file, next menu, ram saver.

after you imported that iges file, do screen stats. how many entites are there? 10's of thousands?

[JoeM.]

Okay, the Video Card is an NVIDIA FX 540. There was only 296MB allocated to MC so I bumped it up. However, there are several different setting. Can anyone elaborate on the ideal settings for each? There is a setting for Points per spline, patches per surface, entities for undelete, Database allocation, & toolpath allocation.

 

The high limit on points per spline is 32767, which is what I have it set at. The others are vertually limitless. After I made the changes I told the operator to try it for a few days to see if he notices any change. As far as antivirus, we are running Symantec Corporate, version 10.

 

Thanks

[nofalloff]

Sgcam06:

We had the same problem V9sp2. Every thing was lagging, especially the back plot and verify. Tried defragging, upping memory allocations etc. the only way I was able to solve the problem was to reinstall MC.

[Troy Gossett Indepak Inc.]

I have found that since MCAM (not X) allocates memory when you start it, if you simply save and close, then re-open MCAM it usually frees the memory and runs faster. I notice this works with large surface files and I try to remember to do this before regening. Oh I have 2Gig of RAM so it isn't an amount problem it is a memory dump prob.

 

Oh are you on a network? Are they backing it up when this happens?

 

Good Luck

Troy

[Bruce Gibson]

the most important 2, are database and toolpath.

the other ones will prompt you to increase them if you open a file with a need for them to increase. everyone will want different settings for different reasons, but since you indicated above that you have 512 meg of ram, this is what i would suggest you try: database= 120000, and toolpath 60000. after you change these, save the default config file. try opening the files you are having trouble with. the 120000 allows you to open a file in mastercam that is about 120 meg in size. 60000 allows 60 meg of ram for toolpath calculations. i think this is explained in the help file or the manual. if your harddrive is getting full, and you are calculating a toolpath that needs more temp space than what you have available, the process will stop and hang, or error out. (probably not your problem)

[Dan_AKA_ROY]

I'm also plagued by this hesitation in MC9. I think we eliminated video card conflicts, memory allocations in MC, video driver update conflicts, uninstalling-reinstalling MCX, etc. I've tried all the suggestions mentioned here. Though, I'm weary of uninstalling MC9 since I have so many critical work files. I don't want to take a chance losing files. Or should I try uninstalling MC9? What happens to the MC9 files then?

 

It affects my work computer. After installing MCX, MC9 began hesitating immediately thereafter. As if a function needs 5 seconds to activate. Extremely annoying, but I have had to live with it [minus a few hairs]. After uninstalling X, MC9 still hesitates.

 

Very discouraging.

[Dan_AKA_ROY]

It hesitates sporatically, not constantly. It happens mostly right after dynamically rotating or zooming in or out of a part AND THEN selecting a new function. But not always, sometimes it will hesitate for whatever reason.

 

- When selecting chains for a coons surface operation - this can really screw me up sometimes as the hesitations intensify. I may have to make 2 or 3 attempts to get it right [and, trust me, normally I can do coons surfacing in my sleep]

 

- So its not only annoying, but it affects my work. Things take longer to do than before I installed MCX and everything was normal with MC9. But, I get by. I have no other choice. My reseller and MC QC were informed of the problem - but they say its a hardware problem and not an MC problem. I don't buy it - it started IMMEDIATELY after I installed X.

[JoeM.]

Okay, I have 1GB of RAM. I increased the memory allcoation last Friday so that MasterCAM was using about 533MB. Before is only used about 300MB. Seems to be working so far this week. Not sure why it used to work along time ago, then it didn't, and now with the ram allocation it works fine. Hey, hopefully the problem is solved. Now that we have MC9 running okay we are going to work with it for a few weeks to confirm. After we will be migrating to MCX. Thanks to everyone for all there help and I look forward to your posts regarding MCX.

 

Thanks,

Joe

[Tom L]

Since installing X, I've also experieced

the same lagging problems with V9 as Joe and

Dan stated above.

X would crash often.

 

Check out the response from gcode

http://www.emastercam.com/ubb/ultimatebb.p...ic;f=1;t=020639

 

I changed the settings to "best performance"

V9 no longer lags, and I have yet

to crash X.

 

HTH