Finally Got the Dream System

[Razberryjones]

Hello,
Well, I finally got that dream system I'd posted about previously.

In short
x2 Quad Core Xeons X5365 3 GHZ CPU's
Nvidia Quadro FX 5600
x2 150 GB 10,000 RPM WK Raptor X NCQ 16 MB Chache Running Raid 0.....as well as a host of other goodies.

All told around 11.5k in the system and software.

I purchased this system in order to speed up rendering times/animations etc.

In my 1st little benchmark test I rendered a rather ornate glass bowl in the default environment. With caustic, shadowing, etc. The end result images were fairly identical.

The render time to file was a full 90 minutes faster than my previous system. A Dell Precision 490, running Duo Core Xeon proccessor.

As far as animations... A simple 10 second fully rendered rotation takes around 15-20 minutes to save to file, as opposed to "who cares, it ain't worth trying" on the previous system.

As far as modeling performance. I can actually use freeform, and deform surfacing features without pulling my hair out.

All in all, happy with the system, and although miles short of a render farm it's likely the best I'll ever see! Only problem is, now I want one at home.

Does anyone have any tips as to how to maximize the rendering performance times?
I have set the graphics card preference to Solidworks, and that's about it. Can the graphic card be utilize in any way to speed up the render times?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Craig

 

[Theophilus]

Sounds like you're still running SolidWorks/PhotoWorks. About the only thing I can think of is to try out Maxwell (with its limitations) and create a render farm by hooking up several other computers to farm out the renderings.

Otherwise, it looks like this system will help greatly.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[Razberryjones]

Hi there, yes, still running SW and photoworks. I'm a little leary about Maxwell based on some of what I've read.
I just recieved Photoshop CS3 Extended, which supports 3-D models, this may solve some of our problems in visualizing in "realistic" environments with perpective matching.

 

[pdybeck]

I would seriously consider bunkspeed software. Performance is supposed to be pretty amazing. There was even a SolidWorks webcast from these guys. You shold be able to view the webcast in the archives.

http://www.bunkspeed.com/hypershot/hypershot.html

Pete

 

[Redline8]

We just bought hypershot today. It's very quick and only takes a few minutes to set up and get a good render. I'm no rendering expert, but it suits our needs very well.

 

[pdybeck]

Redline8, could you give us a sample?

Pete

 

[Redline8]

I'm waiting for my download link to the software, and the only parts I've done of ours are not yet on the market. When we used the trial software I downloaded a car model from a user named Stefaan on the Hypershot forum and tried it out.

Please keep in mind that we don't specialize in doing renders (i.e., an expert will find many things wrong with the image I'm sure). We're a small company that designs in Solidworks and wanted a way to present to clients very quickly without having to prototype. I've seen incredible results from people on this forum using Photoworks and other programs, but we just didn't have the time to really get proficient at it.

This scene was created in less than five minutes. I assigned materials, played with a few settings and hit render.

 

[pdybeck]

Impressive.

 

[rockguy]

Yah, NICE. Bunkspeed is really cool. I don't believe it supports decals or custom materials yet but I'm sure those features are on the way.

Rob Rodriguez CSWP

http://www.axiscadsolutions.com

http://www.robrodriguez.com

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/rob_rodriguez/

Eastern Region SWUGN Representative

http://www.swugn.org

http://www.nvtswug.com

SW 2007 SP 2.0

 

[Razberryjones]

WOW! Thanks for the tip, I'd not even heard of it. As soon as it supports decals and custom textures, it looks as if it could become VERY popular. I'm going to see if I can try it out!

 

[Redline8]

One of the users on the hypershot forum figured out how to import decals, but I'd have to search it out.

 

[StefanHamminga]

I think I read about that, one user was using a split line feature to seperate a surface... Only usefull if you have a lot of time (actually that goes a bit against the reason to buy hypershot) or if the shape is really simple.

I must say, the software looks really promising! A very good option for engineering firms who like to produce decent quality renderings without weeks of tweaking to get things just right...

About photoworks, I noticed in SW2008, using the realview scenes, I can also do decent quality renderings quite a bit faster than SW2007 could, I'd say about 50% faster...



Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer
Searching Eng-Tips forums

 

[Razberryjones]

I haven't recieved SW 2008 yet, and plan on waiting a few months prior to loading. Can you tell me what you mean by the Real View scenes? Can one actually do some interactive rendering using background imagery?

 

[pdybeck]

Razberry,

Look at the animations of Realview in 2008 on this page here...

http://www.solidworks.com/pages/products/solutions/RealView.html

Pete

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Check out section 2 of files.solidworks.com/supportfiles/Whats_new/2008/English/whatsnew.pdf