All,
Please find attached a zip file containing a self executing zip that contains a utility for automating the benchmarking process. The zip package also includes two journal files and related Revit files. Once journal is one that I created "towers benchmark", the other is Phil Reed's 2009 benchmark utility. I have taken the liberty of making some slight modifications to Phil's code to make gathering results a little easier. The utility can be used with any journal file. Both included journal files write multiple results to a single results file, it also appends the start of a new set of results with a description of the journal being run. There is a text file called "SystemDescription.txt" open and edit this to describe the particular system you are testing. The zip unzips to "c:\My Temp\Revit Benchmarking" where you will find the exe, Phil's readme, the system description file, the journal files and a blank Revit template. There are two subfolders, one contains all the Revit files and another is where the results file is written. The tower benchmark file was created strictly with Autodesk content and a massing family I created. GuyR seems to think that it doesn't test a machine's overall performance as well as Phil's, I trust GuyR...
We used the utility in house to test 16+ demo machines from Lenovo and HP. We were using the default BH image on the machines. If people share results, it would be good to try to identify if it is a clean OS, or if it is your company's OS with all sorts of peripheral stuff. We also created journal files using real project files, and not just test files. We are working on a spreadsheet to process the results, once it is done, I will release a copy and our results. If you want to learn more pop by my blog dorevit.blogspot.com
Other then that, I can't think of much, the utility is self-explanatory, number of loops, and identify the folder where the journal you want to run is located. I hope people find this helpful, thanks to my Beta testers, they gave me positive feedback.
Cheers,
-R