Program Not responding

[john-jr]

Hi all
I am sure that I am not the first to post this.
I have seen many a blog on the internet with exactly the same issue, buy no solutions.
When I render a scene the view changes from realistic to current. on completion of the render which is quite quick considering the complexity of the lighting and shadows, I can not save the rendered file, every time I try to click on the file command to to choose save the computer gives me a message PROGRAMME NOT RESPONDING
If I try to change the view to wire frame on the view tab, I get the same message, If I click any where on the screen I get the same message.
I have used this programme for approximately six months with out any issue with renders, although I have always had issues with not responding when I have a created a model of a complicated custom orb roof ( I assumed it was simply the calculations tying up the computer although the CPU meter rarely said more than 30 percent.(I have 16gb Ram I7 quad core)
Is there any solution to this probelm as it is very time consuming to close the programme every time and try to recover the drawing.
I am trying to send the render to a client who is waiting patiently, but will not wait forever.
Thanks in advance to any one who can help.

[john-jr]

Is there any other software that can do the same as Auto cad Architecture and create models, renders and elevations.
Even though I have spent a fortune on Auto CAD over the years I am ready to try some thing that is more stable.
I have just completed a fourteen hour day to do what should be done in eight. I have restarted auto cad 12 times due to the programme locking up and not responding and carried out the same changes at least 10 of those times as the file recovery system did not recover the last saved file.
I understand that many may think that this is a rant but I am at my wits end with the programme.

[neje]

I render a lot in ACA and love it except the bugs that Adesk is allowing to creep in is quite depressing. No new features? -ok. New bugs and not fixing the old ones - unforgivable. I don't know that there is another BIM program with as much power and possibility. Perhaps Revit but I will leave Adesk when I leave ACA. ArchiCAD is very good but I'm not sure it renders as well as ACA. It seems they mostly use Artlantis.
Which version are you using?
For rendering, RPREF will allow you to use more memory (as I suspect this is your problem). )down bottom of option). Std is 1048 but you can set it higher depending on your ram. If you are using 32bit windows you are severely limited to how much memory any one application can access. Possibly around 2gb at most. 32bit can only access 4gb for everything. You can google 3gb switch for windows but I found it unstable. I'm now on 64bit and it's way better. I suspect your file size is bigger than before crashes. You are just pushing it too far. I generally use the medium setting and render to screen. Using crop I select what I want to render and then use SAVEIMG to capture it away to jpg. This is down and dirty but gets a quick job done reasonably well. The file size is around 800kb and is not enough for publication but is ok for printing on the cover of a set of drawings or display on the web.
You can also restart ACA and even restart your pc just before rendering as this will clear RAM and get rid of unneeded UNDO info etc from memory.
I probably push ACA as much as anyone I've seen and it can do a reasonable job but past that you can link with the relevant copy of MAX to complete your renders. It's too far extra step for my level of rendering.
Let me know how it goes.