UG NX 7.5.2.5 Bugs, any solutions? 1

[mag00n]

Alright, we have updated all workstations from 7.5.0.0 to 7.5.2.5. Since this forum seems to be the most convenient way to solve issues without having to sit on the phone with support techs, I am going to post some bugs that we have found in hopes that someone else has had and found a solution for them.

First, the workstations OS's;

(3) winXP pro SP3 x86
(2) winXP pro SP3 x64
(2) win7 ultimate x64
*All updated to UG NX 7.5.2.5

Bugs found thus far:

In NX Drafting:

*When updating a single view regardless of assembly size UG will hang with "work in progress". I have walked away from the computer for lunch and returned to the same window with no change after 1hr. Updating the view of that same job on another workstation, or after restarting UG on same computer it will complete the same task in under 30 seconds. This bug only happens randomly (roughly 50% of the time)

*Another drafting bug when updating views. When attempting to update views of multiple sheets at the same time (*NOTE: This is possible in NX6.0.5.3) an error message pops up. I have uploaded a screenshot of the error to make explanation simpler. After the third consecutive error UG crashes without reference to the crash in the syslog file.

In NX Modeling:

*When working with an entire assembly, when attempting to invert shown & hidden (Ctrl+Shift+B) UG will hang anywhere from 30seconds to 5 minutes. Size of assembly and size of parts hidden do not matter as I have reproduced the bug using a blank template with a solid block with dimensions 3"x3"x3". I created a copy and made it hidden, then attempted to invert shown and hidden. It took right around 2 minutes to complete.

*These bugs are on both the x86 and x64 versions.

Also, I was under the impression that beginning with UG NX7, Multi Processor or Multi Core CPUs support would be standard? I have yet to see "ugraf.exe" utilize more than 50% of one core on any of our machines!

Is there a new environmental variable that is needed to enable it in NX7.5.2.5?
It used to be UGII_SMP_ENABLE=1.

Its extremely frustrating to be sitting at a machine with 8 cores and never seeing UG use more than half of one of them.

Anyone have some advice or ideas?

 

[looslib]

There are only a couple of areas where NX is multi-threaded.
One is boolean solid model functions which are in the Parasolid kernel. Another is in photo rendering.

One correctin, XP Pro x64 is only at SP2, there is no SP3 for the x64 version.

One thing that people forget is that multi-core chips don't have the same performance as multi-chip systems. A dual-core only operates at about 75% for each core, while each core of a quad-core is only 60%. So in terms of CPU power, a dual-core is 1.5 and and quad-core is 2.4! There is overhead in the cores that reduces their full potential.

I believe that SMP requires secondary CPUs, not cores of a CPU chip. There is a difference.




"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[mag00n]

I understand the difference between multi-core and multi-chip scenarios. Every workstation we have has dual chips, some have 2 dual core processors and the others have dual quad core processors.

That being said, on my dual quad core machine there should be two cores being utilized by UG during Parasolid modeling at the very least, correct?

Also, does the previous environmental variable need to be in place to enable multi-cpu use?

 

[JohnRBaker]

Please call GTAC with this problem!

This forum is great for 'How-To' issues and questions about possible workflows and alternative approaches for NX tasks, but it's not intended as a substitute for the GTAC IR/PR process, which we are charging you for and which you should be using when looking for help with specific software problems or bugs in the code.

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.

 

[mag00n]

The GTAC should create a HELP forum then! This is an easy way to get little bits of help while working. Its quick and the people here usually have run into similar issues that have simple solutions.

Calling Support kills a minimum of an hr and 90% of the time it takes longer then that.
Don't get me wrong personal support is awesome when I have an issue that is stopping me from work, but for small inconveniences it is not cost efficient.

 

[looslib]

There is also the NX BBS system which is monitored by some development people.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[mag00n]

New Postlooslib (Mechanical)
20 Dec 10 13:42
There is also the NX BBS system which is monitored by some development people.


***Thank you! This is the resource I have been looking for... Board Admin- You can drop this thread.

 

[JohnRBaker]

GTAC has a 'Symptom/Solution Information' query tool which covers many of these issues and which provides information about many PR's and their fixes:

http://support.ugs.com/general/solution_center.shtml

Many of our customer regularly starts here before actually calling a tech rep as many times their issue(s) are ones that someone else has already called-in and have been resolved and the information is made available here as part of the normal resolution process.

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.

 

[wacio]

I’m in full agreement with mag00n. I can encode video on my i7 processor and all eight cores are at 99% utilization. It’s pathetic how inefficiently UG is using computer power. Excuse that only few operations are using smp is lame.

NX3 + TC9

 

[cowski]

I'm in full agreement with mag00n. I can encode video on my i7 processor and all eight cores are at 99% utilization. It's pathetic how inefficiently UG is using computer power. Excuse that only few operations are using smp is lame.

There is an inherent difference between encoding video and working in CAD. In a video there are thousands of frames that need to be 'converted', whether you do these forward or backward or 8 at a time makes no real difference. However, the CAD program is waiting around for user input probably 85+% of the time. And the commands themselves are highly serial, it is difficult or impossible to split up most of the work to multiple processors; you simply need all the input in the same place to operate on it and get the desired result.

That said there are improvements to be made, I see no reason why multiple drafting views could not be updated simultaneously (and in later versions they may be, I don't know). But to complain that an extrude or sweep operation doesn't fully utilize multiple cores/chips is just a misunderstanding of the problem and/or process.