Revit 2009 – Big Projects?

[Matt Brennan]

Has anyone tried upgrading a huge project from 2008 to 2009 yet? We have one project which an 18 storey building in which the file is 338mb.

If so, how does it run? Have you notice any bugs? Any advice/input would be greatly appreciated. Unitl I know 2009 is a stable product (which it is looking to be through the forums) we will deploy it through our office.

A huge thanks again,

[Wes Macaulay]

I'm not even touching the upgrade issue on our major projects until the display performance of 2009 is brought up to snuff. It's awful. Bug wise, there are a few UI glitches that some people might not notice, and there are some other unfinished items from the rendering realm.

[aretap]

Yeah!! What is the deal with the display performance? Just upgraded a medium 90mb project and the 3d view is so slow with or with out Open GL on????

[Matt Brennan]

Thanks for the good response. As far as the open GL issues goes, I am still getting the “display error, window must close”. This is happening with an Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT with the latest drivers.

Any ideas when the factory will fix this?

Thanks again,

[Rustle]

Our biggest project is ~206MB and we get a out of memory error when we upgrade it. This is on a 64-bit machine w/8GB RAM. We started deleting things and got it down to 193.5MB and were able to finally upgrade it. I don't think Revit can use more than 4GB of RAM because we had plenty of room left when we got the error. This is a known issue with files ~200MB and the best thing Autodesk can do is upgrade it for you but they use the same equipemnt we have so I am doubtful it will work.

UPDATE: It has been a week since I uploaded my file to Autodesk and I have not heard from them.

[Andre Carvalho]

Our biggest project is ~206MB and we get a out of memory error when we upgrade it. This is on a 64-bit machine w/8GB RAM. We started deleting things and got it down to 193.5MB and were able to finally upgrade it. I don't think Revit can use more than 4GB of RAM because we had plenty of room left when we got the error. This is a known issue with files ~200MB and the best think Autodesk can do is upgrade it for you but they use the same equipemnt we have so I am doubtful it will work.

If you are using worksets, you can try opening the central file on 2008 and do a Save As with the option "Compact File" marked. Then try opening it on 2009.

Andre Carvalho

[ron.sanpedro]

Our biggest project is ~206MB and we get a out of memory error when we upgrade it. This is on a 64-bit machine w/8GB RAM. We started deleting things and got it down to 193.5MB and were able to finally upgrade it. I don't think Revit can use more than 4GB of RAM because we had plenty of room left when we got the error. This is a known issue with files ~200MB and the best think Autodesk can do is upgrade it for you but they use the same equipemnt we have so I am doubtful it will work.

Hey Russell, maybe they have an OS X port for Autodesk use only. They do the conversion on a 32G Mac Pro. ;)
Seriously, an 8G machine doesn't buy you much till you have a 64bit Revit to use on it. But a 4G 64bit setup will still be better than a 4G 32bit setup, at least from a memory management standpoint.

Best,
Gordon

[AP23]

These problems occur on projects as small as 50 MB. However, we had the same problems with the first release of Revit 2008. After two builds, the problem were resolved.

[Matt Brennan]

So any ideas when the factory will have a new build ready?

It almost feels that we go back 2 steps when a new release becomes available.

[truevis]

Did you try Select Worksets and turning some off?

In 2008, could you open the RVT with all worksets on?


Our biggest project is ~206MB and we get a out of memory error when we upgrade it. This is on a 64-bit machine w/8GB RAM. We started deleting things and got it down to 193.5MB and were able to finally upgrade it. I don't think Revit can use more than 4GB of RAM because we had plenty of room left when we got the error. This is a known issue with files ~200MB and the best think Autodesk can do is upgrade it for you but they use the same equipemnt we have so I am doubtful it will work.

[Wes Macaulay]

I don't think Revit can use more than 4GB of RAM because we had plenty of room left when we got the error. This is a known issue with files ~200MB and the best think Autodesk can do is upgrade it for you but they use the same equipemnt we have so I am doubtful it will work.
Revit cannot see more than 4Gb of RAM because it is only a 32bit app, and in practice seems to be only able see about 3.7Gb. Upgrading large files is always a difficult process because of this limitation...

[Scott D Davis]

and in practice seems to be only able see about 3.7Gb.

if it used 4 gb, Windows would come crashing to a halt. Windows needs a little just to run.

[Wes Macaulay]

:mrgreen:

Hehe -- should have made the disclaimer that you'd need to have at least 6Gb to allow Revit to have access to 4Gb, and of course you'd have to be on XP or Vista 64!

[twiceroadsfool]

Revit cannot see more than 4Gb of RAM because it is only a 32bit app, and in practice seems to be only able see about 3.7Gb. Upgrading large files is always a difficult process because of this limitation...

While that may be the case, try this:

Take a file that Revit will fail to upgrade, and run it side by side on 2 identical machines, one in a 64 bit environment, and one in a 32. Ive done this, and -while the 64 bit machine didnt run faster at ALL, it DID finish the File upgrade, while the 32 bit system did not.

If you watched the Task Managers duing this, the 64 bit system was using VM in the 6GB range, the 32 bit system obviously wasnt.

They ran exactly with eac other until the upgrade got up to about 97%, then the 32 bit system crashed. Repeatedly.

[Rustle]

I am wondering how much RAM people with 64-bit OS's have. It seems 6GB is a min. as Revit can use 4GB and then there is 2GB for the OS, email, browser, music, etc. I am having a difficult time convincing the decision-makers to go beyond 4GB but it is pretty clear to me that our 225MB file is getting too bit for just 4GB.

[Scott D Davis]

I've heard as high as 32 Gigs of RAM being used on a 64 bit machine.

[david.kingham]

We have standardized on 6gb for our users. I have 12gb in mine, I tried opening up 10 projects at once (all in separate sessions) the projects are between 70-200mb, even with all of these open I was only using 6.5gb.
4gb is probably ok for most but 6 is much more comfortable and ram is cheap anymore

[Andrew Dobson]

We have standardized on 6gb for our users. I have 12gb in mine, I tried opening up 10 projects at once (all in separate sessions) the projects are between 70-200mb, even with all of these open I was only using 6.5gb.
4gb is probably ok for most but 6 is much more comfortable and ram is cheap anymore

Are you using a 64-bit OS?

[david.kingham]

Yes XP64, you cannot go over 4gb with a 32 bit OS

[Rustle]

We keep getting "Not Enough Memory" errors on our 4GB 64-bit mechines working on this 225MB project. We have not upgraded the RAM beyond that because some times we still get that error on our 8GB mechine. This makes it seem that it is not actually a lack of memory that is the problem. I think that some time the error can be resolved with more RAM but some times it does not and that is why I have a hard time convincing our decison-makers to get more.

One error that cannot be resolved with more RAM is when you sketch a bunch of lines (hundreds) in one editing session (any sktech based element like floors or esspecially revision clouds) and then try to finnish the sketch. RAM use will creap up to just below 4GB and then you will get the "Not Enough Memory" error. You will not be able to save your sketch or your project in any way. You can only quit sketch and close the project without saving. Try it on your best mechine on a brand new file. It only takes a 30min. or so.

I think it is irational to believe that just because this condition cannot be solved with more that all occurances of this error cannot be solved with more RAM. We get the error opening big files and sometimes just activating a view on a sheet. But it is difficult to prove.

I think the main problem is a fear in our IT dept. that giving people more RAM just allows them to be sloppy and create larger files. I think are modelers are pretty savy and it will just allow them to model more and draft less. BIM's middle name is Information and the more I in a file the larger it is. That's the whole point of BIM, right?

[david.kingham]

I believe Revit is a limiting factor right now and it will only use up to 4g in one session (probably less, I'm not sure) I don't know if they have made this better in 09, I'm sure once the 64 bit version comes out all will be resolved but until then I think we're stuck.

I assume you pagefile is big enough? Usually when I get the out of memory error it is because the pagefile is set too small

[Rustle]

We have not found page file to be helpful. We always have it set to twice the physical but I have increased it to 16GB with no help. Of course that was in that one condition where nothing could be done to help.

[Matt Brennan]

So does anyone recommend upgrading their 200 meg project to Revit 2009 or still wait for the next build? I understand that working in 3d has drastically slowed down compared to the latest build of 2008.

[Rustle]

I don't think you have a choice. Autodesk has been working on my 225MB file for a week now and they just told me that:

"I had to submit it to our development team as I could not upgrade it either. I will let you know their findings/recommendations as quickly as possible."