Max ram allocation ?

[Ketil]

Hello

I have alot of ram(1280mb) but when i try to set the database and toolpaht allocation higer than 490000(490mb) i get error.

Database = Reallocation error

Toolpath = Error allocating memory for toolpath functions.

Warning - toolpath allocation is to low.

Is this(490mb) the max ram Mastercam can handle??.

I work with very large moddels so the toolpath take often over 2houers , thats why i try with all that ram.

I have been reading the forum a year now, but this is my first post , the reason for this is that i dont write english so good. So pleas forgive me my language.

By the way i have been using Mastercam

12-13years?, started whith ver. 3.1 now i have mill 8.1.1 , soon V9 i hope?.

Ketil

Stabil Verktøyindustri A/S

NORWAY

[BernieT]

Welcome to to forum !! And don't worry about your English,it's close enough to understand and that's all that is important.

Personally, I don't think you need any more than 100 megs of ram allocated for database or toolpaths. Let's see what others have to say.

BerTau

[cadcam]

i use about 256 of ram.(allocated)

my self and never have any porblems.

[Christian Raebild]

The highest RAm allocation I have seen is database allocation 64000, toolpath allocation 256000. This setup works beautifully on a PC with 512 Mb RAM.

There are two things to remember when setting RAM allocations in Mastercam.

1. Mastercam uses more RAM than the allocation says, among other things, there is also a copy of the open file (part of it, at least) in RAM, in addition to the allocated RAM, so the total RAM allocation configured should be less than the total RAM of the PC.

2. Stability and speed is best if the 1000's of the database and toolpath allocations are in the 'binary series', i.e. they should be 4000, 8000, 16000, 32000, 64000, 128000, 256000, etc.

The toolpath allocation should normally be 2 or 4 times the database allocation, so my suggested settings (taking the above in account) for you would be database allocation 128000, toolpath allocation 256000, unless you can make 128000/512000 work (you did not say, whether you had tried making only one of the allocations higher than 490000).

Off this topic, on PC's with low amounts of RAM it should also be remembered, that Windows hogs some RAM for itself, too. Windows 9x hogs 16-20 Mb, Windows NT/2000/XP hogs 32-40 Mb.

[Ketil]

Hello

Yes Christian i has tried to set one low and one high (128mb and 512mb), don`t work .

The resond i tried all this ram , is that i have frends using UG. , they say the higer the ram is the bether (faster).

Thank`s enyway for the respond

[Wallace]

Hi Ketil,

My config for metric:

RAM = 256 MB

[allocations]

201. Maximum number of points per spline? 8000

202. Maximum number of patches per surface? 8000

203. Maximum number of entities for undelete? 250

205. Database allocation in Kbytes? 16000

206. Toolpath allocation in Kbytes? 128000

[tolerances]

300. System tolerance? 0.00005

301. Chaining tolerance? 0.00100

302. Minimum arc length? 0.10000

303. Curve minimum step size? 0.10000

304. Curve maximum step size? 100.00000

305. Curve chordal deviation? 0.00100

306. Maximum surface creation deviation? 0.00100

[nc settings]

925. Number of places after decimal for NCI files (3-7)? 5

Cut tolerance for Finish Surface = 0,003

Filter Tolerance = 0,006

I work with very large moddels.

The toolpath over 4 hours in Pentium III 750 Mhz, and not RAM problem...

Version 8.1.1 (5.1.2001)

[ 01-09-2002: Message edited by: Wallace ]

[gstephens]

quote:

---

The resond i tried all this ram , is that i have frends using UG. , they say the higer the ram is the bether (faster).

---

UG does not handle its own RAM allocation. It uses whatever Windows gives it. Mastercam actually reserves its own RAM that cannot be used by anything else. In general, you want to have about twice as much database allocation as the .mc8 file you are working on (without toolpaths and minus about 150k for the bitmap), and (as others have said in this thread) about twice that for the toolpath allocation (since it does not reallocate on its own).

[Zero]

O.K. I have a question. Will changing your tool path allocations make MC run faster (shorter toolpath generation times)or just get rid of problems like computer crashes?

[Christian Raebild]

If your toolpath or database allocation is too low, MC will use the HD instead, which slows down any program, and can cause crashes.

In addition, using the 'binary series' values I mentioned earlier in this thread will improve both speed and stability.

I have seen systems go from several crashes a day to completely stable by changing to those values. It is not only MC that is to blame for that, though, most of the blame should be sent to Microsoft.