Faster Generation Times

[Lucky 7]

I am having a problem with long generation times.

We do complex 3D machining. (approximatley 1,500 sufaces.)

We use Mastercam Mill Version 9.0SP1

 

I have a Dell Precision 530 with an intel xeon 1.7 GHz processor, 1 GHz RAM.

I have Matrox G450 AGP graphics card

I just upgraded to 1 GHz of RAM from 512

 

My Question is What do I need to Set my allocations at in my config. file?

 

Is there any thing else I can do to speed up my generation times? (more ram? bigger processor? better graphic card?)

 

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Bullines]

For video intensive operations, I recommend swapping out the G450 for a video card that contains a dedicated GPU on the card. Matrox's Millenium series of cards are very stable but do not have a lot of "number crunching capabilities". Some video card recommendations can be found here.

[Charles Davis]

also search this forum for how to set up a RAM Drive with Mastercam. This can dramatically improve processing speed.

[Thad]

Lucky 7,

 

Keeping your mouse out of the grapics display window greatly speeds up many tasks. Just a suggestion...

 

Thad

[Greg Williams]

Lucky7,

 

I have a similar Pc Except with a Nvidia quadro4 750XGL (128 meg) card

It sounds as I do similar work to you.

I use the settings below

 

[allocations]

201. Maximum number of points per spline? 20000

202. Maximum number of patches per surface? 64000

203. Maximum number of entities for undelete? 500

205. Database allocation in Kbytes? 256000

206. Toolpath allocation in Kbytes? 256000

 

I have found that this is the maximaum ram that can be allocated to mastercam.

If it works any better please let me know,

Good luck

[Surface]

There were some good tips to reduce processing time in the "tech_tips" section of the forum.

I am running a 700 mhz processer. Changing a few of the settings sugested in that post has saved me hours

[Steel Surgeon]

Good call Tad I was going to mention that.

[gcode]

Upgrade to V9.1 SP2. I have found it

to be MUCH faster than V9.0 SP1

[Müřlıń®]

Lucky, I just tried Cimco's HSM c-hook and the compute times are totally awesum. You must have 9.1 to use it I think.

 

3-d surfaces are all that I do and I have found that most of it is in the CPU.

 

I just upgraded my board and chip from a 1.4 P4 to a 2.8 P4....

 

A vast improvement....can't wait till the 3.06HT chip goes down in price.

 

It went up 30 bucks in the last couple months.....go figure....

 

For roughing, set your tolerances a little looser. The closer your tolerances the longer it will take.

 

I dont use check surfaces either.....

 

 

Oh ya, did I mention the Cimco HSM C-Hook

 

I can't say enough good things about that little progy

 

 

Murlin teh getting Cimco HSM....

[Paul Decelles]

Gotta be honest Murlin, you don't really notice much of an improvement between a 2.8 Ghz and a 3.06 Ghz (well, overclocking the 3.06 to 3.4 does help a tad but the machine acts a little funny).

 

I would suggest a 2.8 Ghz P4 mounted on an Asus P4G8X motherboard (very good motherboard) with at least a gig and a half of (at least) PC 3200 DDR RAM (we've also tested the 3700 Dual Channel but did not note much difference in performance). The video card is also a big issue as others have mentioned (don't ask me why, it just is) there have been many many threads about video cards on here, do a search and you will see what I mean. We've been building the machines lately with Asus Geforce FX video cards (the ASUS V9560TD Geforce FX5600 256MB DDR AGP8X W/TV/DVI sells for like $180 bucks and runs Mastercam very well - check out www.atacom.com

 

[ 10-07-2003, 07:30 PM: Message edited by: Paul D. ]

[Müřlıń®]

Thanks Paul, I have a shuttle that has a cooling system on it. I was going to over clock the heck out of that Northwood.....hrmmm...you say it gets flaky when you over clock? Even with the little radiator that helps keep the CPU cool? What diffrence if any does the Hyperthreading chip make?

 

Questions, questions......heh

 

 

Hrmmmm........well I can see what all the hoopla is over video cards all of the sudden.

 

I think Ver 9.1 must be more video dependant with all the new stuff added to the verification.

 

As far as the actual number crunching of the code, I didn't think the video had an effect on that. Shows how much I know heh....

 

 

Anyways, I appreciate you sharing all this info with me, us, errr...well thanks.

 

One can never be too informed on the issues

 

 

Murlin

[Rick Damiani]

quote:

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also search this forum for how to set up a RAM Drive with Mastercam. This can dramatically improve processing speed.

---

Unless I am badly mistaken, upping the allocaitons would give you more bang for the buck than a RAM drive. Temp disk space is only gonna get used when MasterCAM overruns it's allocations.

[Rekd™]

quote:

---

Temp disk space is only gonna get used when MasterCAM overruns it's allocations.

---

+1

[kwolf]

i've been told to uncheck this option to get faster calc time.

ALT-O -> Toolpaths -> Surface Options -> Uncheck Display surface/plane intersections

HTH