System Requirements

[Mr Greg]

I just got Revit Structure about a month ago. I am editing the framing in a 8 floor building. My computer is running slow. I move a beam, change a size, adjust a slab opening, all these actions take alot of time. If i draw a new beam it take my computer at least 1min to process it. I am running a Pentium 4 3.0ghz with 3gb of ram. I have also used the 3gb switch which dosent seem to help out at all. The owner of the company would like to get me a new machine. Any reccomendations? We were thinking dual core processor with the 3gb of ram. Can someone shed some light for me?

[Scott Hammond]

Hello,

Your system seems to be more than adequate.
What is the framing like (are you using steel beams, joists, etc.).
Also, do you have any linked files (Revit Building) in your file.

Thanks,
Scott

[swatts]

What really made a difference for us, in terms of speed, was to create a central file from the file on our network and then work from a local copy of the central file.

We had put off this way of working thinking that, since we weren't using worksharing at that time, we didn't need to create a central file. But even if you never workshare, the increased speed is really worth it.

~Sarah

[david_peterson]

Two words - Dual Core.

I was running a 3 gb switch on a 3.4Ghz P4 and it was very slow, even with small file (30MB) and running a central file set-up. IT bought a new system to test for Revit. Only had 2 GB of Ram, but it was much faster that the current Ram we were using. It was also running a Dual Core processor. This system was at least 3-4 times faster when making changes.

[Jos Arpink]

Hello,
Your system seems to be more than adequate.


Scott, can you give us any word on support for dual cores in the next release of Revit? Thanks.

[david_peterson]

All I can say is that the dual core system we got was well worth the $200 difference in price.

[Jos Arpink]

Thanks Dave.

I ran a test on a large-ish (86Mb) Revit model on 3 machines in our office, detaching it from the central file to minimize the influence of the network on the result.

I asked Revit to crunch through all the level datums and change the head from one that displayed the elevation to one that didn't.

My "old" P4 3.2GHz machine with 2 Gb Ram took almost 6.5 minutes.
My new Core 2 Duo with 3Gb Ram took 2.5 minutes

One of the engineers has dual Xeon 3 GHz processors (not dual core) with 3 Gb Ram, and the test there took just under 2.5 minutes.

(edit): I get a little confused about the whole dual core support issue. It obviously makes a huge difference irrespective of whether Revit supports mutliple processors. I've heard that the next version might...

[Mr Greg]

Thanks for all your suggestions. After I posted this thread I went looking around the Forum and found a whole huge thread breaking down all the components for a new computer. I think its in the FAQ's

I also had a chance to speak with someone an architectural company referred me to. His suggestion to combat my slow speed was to make sure all the worksets that i wasn't using should be turned off. That doubled my speed. Also, I added more worksets so i didn't have too many elements on one workset. I don't know if this helped with the speed.