AutoCAD crashes doing 3D work

[Grumpy]

Hello,

I have been using 2D AutoCAD for 23 year now, but only since v2007 have I done much 3D drawing.

I am working with v2010, sp1 on a Dell Precision 690 workstation, 3.0 Ghz, 2.0 Gb Ram, ATI FireGL 7200 card with 256 Mb ram.

When working with 3D solid drawing with the visual style set to realistic, I can only work on the drawings for so long before AutoCAD crashes. Sometimes I will get the Report an Issure box and sometimes AutoCAD will just crash and disappear without warning. The file size of the files range from 1 Mb to 60 Mb. Does anyone have any ideas?

David

[jaberwok]

First off I'd go for 4Gb of ram.

[richardronan]

In short ACAD doesn not manage memory well.

The only reliable solution to have a stable system is to follow the system requirements re: Graphic card religiously.

At Minimum 4 gig RAM. (More than that in an XP system is unlikely to help),

Change the Options->System->Performance Settings->Manual Tune to 'Direct3D'
The performance settings is SUPER important because the default setting of 'Autodesk' is a software solution that is frankly sloooooow, memory intensive, and unstable.

To answer the question as to why ... No one knows why AutoDesk can't release a stable, memory friendly, consistent, easily backward/forward compatible, completely documented, product. A lot like the video game industry so one shouldn't complain too much.

-R

[Grumpy]

In short AC AD dozen not manage memory well.

The only reliable solution to have a stable system is to follow the system requirements re: Graphic card religiously.

At Minimum 4 gig RAM. (More than that in an PX system is unlikely to help),

Change the Options->System->Performance Settings->Manual Tune to 'Direct3D'
The performance settings is SUPER important because the default setting of 'Autodesk' is a software solution that is frankly sloooooow, memory intensive, and unstable.

To answer the question as to why ... No one knows why AutoDesk can't release a stable, memory friendly, consistent, easily backward/forward compatible, completely documented, product. A lot like the video game industry so one shouldn't complain too much.
-R

Thanks for the info. I changed my Manual Tune settings to Direct3D, but I haven't done any 3D work since then. I do have our IT person looking into getting me another 2 gig of RAM. Yesterday, I had 6 or 7 simple 2D drawings open, all of them under 300 KB. I had worked on them for a few hours, doing a lot of copyclipping from one drawing to another and then when I went to print them, I ran out of resources and had to shut down AutoCAD and reboot my computer.
-D

[dzatto]

If you are going to do a lot of 3D stuff, i would go to a 64 bit platform and get 4-8G ram.

also, like Richard said, make sure you are using a certified graphic card and driver. You can check it here.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/hc?siteID=123112&id=6711853&linkID=9240618

[dgorsman]

A few things to note when doing 3D:

- try to do most of your work in 2D wireframe or 3D wireframe, not realistic; faster regens, less intensive; use realistic or conceptual for verification
- freeze layers that are not required
- detach XREFs that are not being used, unload those you are not actively needing
- freeze layers for items that you don't need to see
- if you are using a third-party add-on, check for other isolation options
- make sure your video card drivers are up to date

[david_peterson]

Are you running Vista or XP?
XP would use about 1/4 of your memory at Start up; about .5 gigs. Vista will eat up about 2+gigs which leaves you with basically nothing on a 2 gigs system.