OS options and NX performance ....

[3dr]

I'm looking to get a new workstation and this is heavily on my mind. I don't see much posted here on the topic...

Win 7 64...
Linux..
Mac...

I've always neen Win Pro but its so targeted by online bugs and with registry corruption issues... they tend to get weaker over time.


Anyone have experience to offer me?

TIA Dave

 

[3dr]

Ok... and that load is a progressive thing within your assy right?

Partial loads take place at the initial open... then finish as you work with the parts.

 

[JohnRBaker]

You can always display the model using the 'Exact' option, but it will require more memory and display changes will take longer to update.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[MickyV007]

@John : If you had enough processor/ram/HD/graphic card - power which settings would you apply to have NX getting the most out of your hardware configuration?
Thanks.

Best regards,

Michäël.

NX4+TC9 / NX6+TC8Unified / NX7.5 native

 

[JohnRBaker]

Like virtually ALL of the settings in NX, our recommendation is to leave them in their out-of-the-box settings until it's been demonstrated that you can't use the software as it is. And one of the best examples is the Lightweight Representation mode. While it may be true that the appearance of the edges of your model, when in the Modeling module, may appear to be less 'precise' than you're used to, that will NOT be a factor when it comes to your ability to perform any modeling task while working in the context of an Assembly, which is the only time that Lightweight Representations are in play anyway. This is NOT Like in the past when if you had opted for using the Lightweight Reference Set you had to manually return to the Model Reference Set whenever you needed to perform operations like creating/editing Assembly Constraints, interpart modeling, creating a Drawing of the Assembly, etc. Now with NX 7.5, IF the operation that you're attempting can NOT use the faceted model the system will AUTOMATICALLY load whatever additional data is needed, even if the appearance of the Components don't change, so that the operation can be completed.

So again, our position is, until you encounter something which you can NOT do as the system came out-of-the-box, there is NO real reason to change any of those settings. Granted, you may have to adjust your expectations with respect to the something like the precise, or in this case, the less than precise appearance of Components in an Assembly, but when you consider the improvement in performance and throughput, it will be something which should become a non-issue in a very short period of time.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[3dr]

Ok... Win 7 pro 64 bit install complete.

Still very early but I can't say it feels all that solid. In fact it feels a little flakey. Don't think I would want to use it.

Looking for performance tweeks now... video, drivers etc...

Dell Precision 670
Xeon 3.6 ghz X 2
Quadro FX 3400
4 gig ram
500 gig SATA HD

If anyones done it on an older station like this and has some wisdom... feel free to share.

TIA
Dave

 

[3dr]

Performance issues rectified. Quadro FX 3400 not stable or supported in Win 7 x 64.
Installed shelved (but supported) FX1700 and it fixed all the sytem instability.

Thanks to all for the input!

Dave

 

[3dr]

For John,
The LW reps do take some getting used to but the performance gains appear to be worth it.

I've got to sometimes draft my work... do I need to change the load ops for that ir will LW be ok???

Dave

 

[JohnRBaker]

If your models were created in NX 7.5 or the parts have been updated using the 'refile' utility, then when you create your master model Drawing the system will automatically adjust the representation of the model as needed for the Drawing (you need to do nothing and there will be NOT impact on the original Assembly file either). Granted, the Drawing requires that the system replace the lightweight with an exact model, but you don't have to take any action yourself.

Long term, we're working on being able to better draft lightweight models which will improve the performance of Drafting as well as reduce the memory required when creating Drawings of large complex Assemblies.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[NXMold]

We have a pile of Dell 670's here that were over $5,000 new circa 2007.... they are JUNK. The problem is with the hard drive controllers, throughput around 40MBps or after some tweaking, 55MBps. Any old computer with the same 7200rpm drive gets 70-75MBps (or with a SSD 150-200MBps). The motherboard SATA controller is better than the software based RAID controller, if your rebuilding with windows 7 make the switch (move the sata cables over, reconfigure in BIOS). I tried an add-on adaptec controller but had driver conflicts with our backup software.

Those Dell machines are DOGS compared to almost anything else and I never could help them out much. Windows 7-64 seems to improve them slightly, though we no longer use NX on them. For $2200 I replaced each with custom white-box Corei7 machines that benchmark 33% faster.

NX is VERY hard drive intensive. You can download ATTO (freeware) to benchmark hard drives, but be careful because the more important metrics are the first few lines showing very small reads and writes, rather than the larger files that expose the maximum performance.

If you have a gigabit network and a decent fileserver, try working from the network since it may be faster than your local disk! Gigabit networks can top out around 120MBps if the server is capable (a big if).

NX 7.5.0.32 MoldWizard

 

[NXMold]

I misspoke, the 670's are older machines and were fairly decent in thier day. The next generation were 690 and T7400 which are nearly identical, these are the silver case workstations with the horrendous drive controllers.

NX 7.5.0.32 MoldWizard

 

[3dr]

@ NX mold... good thing I didnt get one of those models... and I was looking at them. I'm on the Main board SATA controller and this thing runs pretty well now. It was upgraded at some point before I got it and seems to be a really well config'd system.

I'll be doing the SSD drive soon. Looknig forward to what kind of difference it may make.

Thanks for all the info!

Dave

 

[3dr]

For John,

I've arrived at deseigning in assembly context and found issues that hurt me with the lightweight.

1. Can't select control points or faces to place the coordinate system on.
2. Can't lay down basic curves in the assembly due to no control point access.

I could maybe adjust some of my design methods with the basic curves but not being able to place the work coordinate system at will in the assembly is a killer.

Looks like I may need to go back to exact models but I'll be able to use LW to my advantage in some circumstances.

Looking forward to more enhancments cause the performance gains are significant.

Dave

 

[JohnRBaker]

Note that I'm running NX 7.5.2.5 (not yet released, but it will be soon) and my load options are set to use Lightweight Representations and Partial Loading.

1. Can't select control points or faces to place the coordinate system on.

I have no problems selecting Points (Control-, Mid-, End-, Arc Center-, Quadrant-, etc.) or Faces (Planar) when Orienting the WCS. Or slecting points when specifying the Origin of the WCS. Check that the Snap Point options are enabled for the types of point that you're attempting to select as well as making sure that the Selection Scope option on the Selection Bar is set 'Entire Assembly'.

2. Can't lay down basic curves in the assembly due to no control point access.

If you use the curve options on the newer 'Lines and Arcs Toolbar', everything works as expected. However, the old 'Basic Curves' function is all but obsolete and officially we consider them as having been replaced by the newer 'Lines and Arcs'. I suggest that learn to use the new tools as there are NO plans to make any changes to the 'Basic Curves' dialog and/or functionality.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.