[2009] Multiple Cores (PENDING)

Mt firm is currently being crippled by the fact that Revit is extremely, extremely slow going into what is essentially final DDs on a rather large project.

We have tried everything from the performance paper, as well as every trick and workaround in the book to boost performance. While the results have improved a little from these improvements, they are but a mere chip off of the issues we are having, and it is only getting worse.

After much research and observation I have noticed that my computer is constantly peaked at ~50% in task manager during most operations in Revit. Since I have a dual core machine, I am guessing that this is due to the fact that only one core is being utilized.

Upon further review, I did a CPU time analysis of both cores separately. What transpired kind of surprised me. Cores 0 and 1 both did not have any peak processing time, HOWEVER both processors would always add up to 100% of ONE processors time. This means you would always be using half your computing power, but one processors would never be maxed out.
I am assuming this is because Windows deals with processor allocation and not Revit, but that doesn't make much sense to me since Revit is only limited to the processing power of one core. I would love to have a discussion to see how this works if anyone is interested in talking to me about it.

Either way though, Revit needs to be able to utilize multiple cores, period. Performance is one of the major limiting factors in Revit right now and if 4 cores could be utilized, I am sure that will greatly, GREATLY help the program.

Matt,

We have used Revit arch to place components cuz it does not calculate. That might help the elec team and diffuser placement (if you have a copy). Also Vista helps....I got 8 gigs today. We are running 32 bit right now but will soon be moving to 64.
HTH

Got a quad core machine... all 4 cores seem the be getting used by Revit.

We have a project at the moment that I can't even start because of the performance issues.

Our structural guys are struggling with performance on their model, and then the electrical model has to have the structural, any architectural we decide to model up, the mechanical, plumbing, and fire all linked in.

So before we even start our model is heaps bigger than the structural and they're complaining about performance.

Not looking forward to this project. It's rather high profile too, and I can't imagine any way to document in Revit without wanting to shoot myself in the process.

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Originally Posted by schrodingerscat

Got a quad core machine... all 4 cores seem the be getting used by Revit.

We have a project at the moment that I can't even start because of the performance issues.

Our structural guys are struggling with performance on their model, and then the electrical model has to have the structural, any architectural we decide to model up, the mechanical, plumbing, and fire all linked in.

So before we even start our model is heaps bigger than the structural and they're complaining about performance.

Not looking forward to this project. It's rather high profile too, and I can't imagine any way to document in Revit without wanting to shoot myself in the process.

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Did you mean by quad core is still not up to good speed?

are you using a Dell?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by schrodingerscat

Got a quad core machine... all 4 cores seem the be getting used by Revit.

We have a project at the moment that I can't even start because of the performance issues.

Our structural guys are struggling with performance on their model, and then the electrical model has to have the structural, any architectural we decide to model up, the mechanical, plumbing, and fire all linked in.

So before we even start our model is heaps bigger than the structural and they're complaining about performance.

Not looking forward to this project. It's rather high profile too, and I can't imagine any way to document in Revit without wanting to shoot myself in the process.

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Here is an inquiry as to my theory above:

In task manager, what percentage of the processor time is being utilized when you save to central?

I am almost positive that Revit does not use more than one core (according to that performance paper a while back), and if your machine is using ~25% of its processor time when saving or what not, that would be in line with me on a dual core machine.

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Matt,

We have used Revit arch to place components cuz it does not calculate. That might help the elec team and diffuser placement (if you have a copy). Also Vista helps....I got 8 gigs today. We are running 32 bit right now but will soon be moving to 64.
HTH

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We really need a way to turn computations off when we don't need it. Electrically I am not having much of a problem because we put mechanical ductwork and piping on a separate workset(s), which I can subsequently turn off. Its the mechanical folk who are hating life right now, and subsequently yelling at me to make it faster.

I've noticed similar behavior to what Matt is describing. I have a quad core machine, and when using Revit MEP with more than one view open, core 2 maxes out, while the other 3 are flat. My total CPU usage tops out at 25%. This is with ALL other apps closed. The only comfort from having 4 cores is that Revit doesn't seem to be affected when I have other non-CAD and non-BIM programs open at the same time.

Getting there....