Learn about the influence of system hardware, operating system, and network on large assembly performance.
The information on this page is intended to help with performance and/or capacity. There is no single solution that helps in all situations. Use the solutions that help in your design environment.
Hardware and system recommendations
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Computer Properties
Right-click My Computer
click Properties, then view the basic information of the system, and you can click Device Manager to find more information there, eg. Click Display adapters to query the graphics cards and drivers information.
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DirectX Diagnostics Tool
Query from system's DirectX Diagnostic Tool, which can be launched from Windows Start, typing dxdiag in the Search box, and then pressing ENTER, system information and graphics cards information can be browsed from System and Display tabs of the tool.
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DirectX Inventor Diagnostics
Launch Inventor, open a document, then go to Tools
Application Options Hardware. Click Diagnostics and Ok button, then you can paste the Inventor Diagnostics information to a text or word file, and watch these system and graphics information there.
General
Actual requirements vary depending on complexity of part geometry and number of occurrences.
Motherboards
To simplify searching for updates drivers/BIOS/Chipset Utilities, choose a motherboard that uses a chipset made by the same manufacturer. When selecting a CPU, consider the onboard memory cache. The amount and type of onboard cache can significantly affect performance.
Use a motherboard that uses a chipset of Intel or AMD. The chipset utilities of some other manufacturers can possibly present stability problems due to their implementation of the AGP interface. In this situation, you can uninstall them and rely on the generic windows drivers, which can adversely affect performance. Open a dialogue with the manufacturer to resolve this situation.
Even new machines rarely have the latest available BIOS from the manufacturer website. Download and update it.
Graphic cards
It is recommended that you use a DirectX11 graphics card with at least 4GB of video RAM.
If you are using laptop with a mobile graphics card, you can get the graphics drivers from the laptop vendor drivers download center.
RAM
The more RAM you have installed in your machine, the better. Check the motherboard spec to see the maximum amount of RAM that can be installed. Use the fastest RAM available.
We recommend at least 24 GB RAM for a large assembly with more than 1000 unique parts; if the number of unique parts is about 7000, the recommended RAM is 64 GB. Actual requirements vary depending on complexity of part geometry and number of occurrences.
Choose RAM that transfers data at the same frequency as the processor. For example, PC1066 RAM delivers data at 2,132 MB/sec which is the same as Intel 850E. Pairs deliver 4.2Gbytes/sec. A P4 CPU @ 533 MHz also works at 4.2GBytes/sec.
Use the Windows Task Manager to obtain detailed information on how your system RAM is being used.
Hard disk drive configuration
Hard drive read/write times affect the time required to open or save an assembly. Solid-state drives can significantly improve performance for large assemblies by reducing the time required to open or save an assembly. If you have enough budget, use an SSD drive. If budget isn't available, refer to the recommended hardware information.
Organizing HDDs:
For the purposes of this section, we can state that information stored on a computer hard disk can fall into one of the following four categories. Each category has a different requirement:
- OS = Operating System
- Application = Inventor application
- Data = Inventor data files (ipt, iam, idw files, and the Workspace)
- Temp = Pagefile, undo and temp files
In the most basic scenario, these items are on one or two partitions of the one physical disk in the system. In an ideal situation, they are on multiple volumes, where Temp is striped and Data is striped with fault tolerance.
- Data Access
Files located in OS and Applications are accessed frequently (when a program is started the files are loaded once into memory). Files located in Data and Temp are read and written often while you work with Inventor. So, the greatest benefit comes from increasing the read and write access speed to Data and Temp by using faster hard drives.
- Fragmentation
This is closely linked to Data Access. As files are heavily used, they fragment faster.
Separating the OS and applications is cosmetic, and does not result in much difference in performance.
Putting the Temp files on a separate partition ensures that they do not cause fragmentation of other files. To eliminate fragmentation easily, delete all files in the system Temp folder after closing all applications. Set the minimum page file size to the same value as the maximum page file size to increase performance when paging to disk. The page file does not fragment or cause fragmentation of other files. Also, as the page file is already set to the maximum size, no time is wasted expanding it. Create the page file first on the empty partition. Then it does not fragment, and there is no need to delete and recreate it.
Inventor uses segment loading when accessing files, which means that only the required parts of the file are loaded in memory. The rest remains on the hard drive. Therefore, when more segments from the file are required, it is beneficial if they can be read as fast as possible.
Follow these suggestions to improve performance:
- Ensure the OS\Applications & Data\Temp reside on different physical disks, at the least different partitions.
- Consider that the biggest performance gain is obtained in improving the speed with which Data and Temp are accessed. If you have multiple disks available, you can use software RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks), striped volumes, to increase the performance. (Combine two disks into a striped volume and put your Data files on it.) Do the same for Temp. To attain even better performance and fault tolerance, consider the use of a hardware RAID solution. Raid 0 provides the greatest performance returns, but also carries the greatest risk because there are is no data redundancy for handling disk failures. Review the RAID level solutions and decide which is right for your data.
- For Temp, fault tolerance is not necessary. Hardware striping optimizes I/O speeds.
- Apart from implementing a good backup solution, fault tolerance is recommended for Data.
- Ensure that the Application, Data, or Temp files are not encrypted or compressed, which requires extra processor time.
- Ensure that the hard disk controller is not the bottleneck. For example, with IDE, it is faster to put one disk drive per channel as primary. Therefore, do not put both of them on the same channel as primary and secondary, especially when you use software striping.
- If more than one hard disk is available, verify that Data is on a partition of one disk, and Temp is on a partition of another other disk.
- Verify that enough space is available on all partitions. Remember to take the Inventor Undo file into consideration.
- Do not place multiple page files on different partitions on the same physical disk drive, as this yields no benefit.
CPU and Multicore
Inventor's compute pipeline is sequential, therefore faster CPU speed is more desirable. However, each step in the pipeline can still leverage multiple cores and you can gain benefit in workflows involving graphics interaction, modeling operations, and drawing updates. For details see Support for multi-core processors.
The use of hyper-threading is not generally recommended for Inventor as it only helps in very specific workflows, such as Studio rendering; it will likely degrade performance in most other workflows as it creates contention for CPU compute resources.
Hardware conflicts
Use msinfo32 to see if there are any conflicts. In the System Information dialog box, go to Hardware Resources > Conflicts/Sharing.
Make a note of any devices that are conflicting, and update the drivers. (Especially anything that is conflicting with the graphic card or network card.) Windows dynamically assigns IRQs, so updating drivers does not resolve these conflicts. However, it can help to manage conflicts better.
Update drivers for other devices
- Hard Disk Drive
- Hard Disk Controllers
- CD-ROM|DVD Player/CD-R/RW drives
- Monitors
- Network Card
- Sound Card
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- 3D mouse (Space Mouse, Space Navigator, Space Pilot, and so on)
- Any other peripheral device connected to the machine (printer, camera, digitizer, and so on)
Physical memory fragmentation
Working with any memory intensive application, the memory in your machine fragments in a similar way to a hard disk. RAM fragmentation causes the OS to take longer and longer to fulfill I/O requests, slowing the whole system. The most common resolution to this problem is to restart the machine as it starts to negatively affect performance. One alternative is the use of a RAM defragmentation utility that runs in Windows and automatically frees up RAM when fragmentation reaches alarm levels.
Pagefile
Always create the page file on a freshly formatted empty partition, ensuring that fragmentation is minimized.
Set both the minimum and maximum values for the page file size to the same value. The same value ensures that the whole amount of disk space is allocated in one go, minimizing fragmentation of the disk. It also guarantees memory allocation is not slowed down by resizing virtual memory.
Set the page file size equal to 1X to 1.5X actual RAM.
If the amount of virtual memory becomes disproportionate (5:1) compared to the amount of physical memory, performance suffers. The machine is perpetually reading and writing to disk.
Do not place multiple pagefiles on different partitions on the same physical disk drive. Preferably, place them on a different partition or physical disk than the system (OS) files, For example, one page file on d:\.)
Avoid having a page file on the same drive as the system files, such as the OS.
Avoid putting a page file on a fault-tolerant drive, such as a mirrored volume or a RAID-5 volume. Page files do not need fault-tolerance, and some fault-tolerant systems suffer from slow data writes because they write data to multiple locations.
Defragment the hard drive
Keeping your drive defragged results in an improvement in the open time of Inventor documents, especially large assemblies. When you copy or save large files to a fragmented drive, the files are fragmented and the open time degrades. The slower your disk, the more fragmentation affects performance. This factor is important when you migrate datasets to a new version of Inventor, or download datasets from the Vault or a network location to your machine for editing.
You can defragment using the tool installed with Windows, or you can use a commercial tool. The free tool is located under Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. You can improve the Inventor startup time by defragmenting the Inventor program modules installed on your hard disk. To defragment your Inventor program files only, use the following procedure:
- Download the Contig tool from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428. Place the contig.exe program in a folder, such as C:\Windows or some other folder included in your PATH environment variable.
- Start a command-line window - Start, Run, type CMD, press OK.
- Change folders to the folder containing the Inventor program modules. For example: cd C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor <version>\Bin
- If you want to know whether the Inventor files are fragmented, run "Contig /a *.*"
- If Contig reports that your files are averaging more than 1.5 fragments per file, defragment them. To defragment the files in the current folder and all subfolders, type: "Contig /s *.*"
- Reboot.
If you still see slow startup times after defragmenting your drive, there can be a problem with your disk or input device configuration. For drive issues, work with your local IT department to benchmark your drive and determine if there is a configuration or driver problem. If you use a specialized input device made for CAD products, you can uninstall it and use a normal mouse to see if the divide is causing a problem. Installing a newer driver for your input device sometimes solves the problem.
Disk cleanup
Disk Cleanup is a one-stop tool for removing unwanted and unnecessary files. It is useful to clear the Recycle bin, Temp files, old compressed files, and so on. Defragment the hard drive after running Disk Cleanup for maximum benefit. Access Disk Cleanup from Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup.
Regularly empty the temp folder and Recycle Bin. Go to Start>Control Panel>System>Advanced Tab>Environment Variables to find where the TEMP file is located.
Ensure that the OS, Inventor Application files, or, Inventor work files are NOT on a compressed or encrypted drive.
Operating System and Services
Windows themes and performance
Inventor supports Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. Windows themes and visual effects mays use system resources with little productivity benefit. Consider keeping them to a minimum.
AntiVirus software
Minimize interference with Inventor by your AV software by reducing the security. Some antivirus software can disable Real-time file protection. We recommend that you configure it to scan only executables, and not every file that is opened.
Services
To free memory, turn off services that are not in use. Stopping unused services saves memory and improves system performance. However, make sure that you understand the consequences of stopping a service before you do so.
Services running on your machine that you rarely or never use, waste system resources. Manage services in the Windows Services dialog box. Click a service to display a description. Double click a service to display the Properties dialog box. On the Dependencies tab, see dependent and required services. If a service is not needed, change the startup type to Manual. Keep a note of any changes you make so that you can revert to the previous settings if necessary.
Background applications
Minimize the number of applications running in the background and in the Windows task bar.
Network Environment
Use a document management system such as Autodesk Vault Basic to copy the data to your local hard disk. Accessing data from your local hard drive gives you the fastest possible access during open, save, close, and updates.
- Increase stability and reduce unnecessary network bandwidth from other areas of the organization.
- Allow the engineering team to run at a full duplex 1-Gb speed without impacting other areas of the organization.
Switches
Lock all Engineering ports on switches to 1-Gb full duplex, and disallow auto-switching.
This action ensures that there is no interruption in the data flow across the LAN segment while large amounts of Inventor data are being used. When you use Inventor in a shared environment, this setting is vital to achieve a predictable and stable network.
Network cards
Lock all network cards to 1-Gb full duplex, and do not allow auto-detecting.
This action ensures that there is no interruption in the data flow across the LAN segment while large amounts of Inventor data are being used. When you use Inventor in a shared environment, this setting is vital to achieve a predictable and stable network.
Data server
- Faster CPU
- Increased memory
- Multiple network cards
Hops
Ensure that there are no more than two hops between the workstation and the Inventor file server.
A simple method to check hops is to use the DOS command tracert from the client machine to the server. The tracert command lists the number of hops.
LAN segment
Ensure that the Inventor file server is on the same segmented LAN segment as the Inventor users.
Monitor network usage
Measure the network usage on both the Workstation clients and the Inventor file servers. Keep overall network usage at 40% or less on the server. If server network usage exceeds 40%, performance suffers, and the likelihood of data loss increases. Either upgrade the network, or restrict the number of users accessing the server.
If all users utilize the server at the same time, we recommend that you upgrade CPUs and memory for the server, and possibly multiple network cards and LAN segments.
Inventor uses segmented loading of files, which can cause issues when you work on files over the network. For example, you open an assembly file, and Inventor begins loading the b-reps (boundary representations) of each file, and you start editing some part files. The network then fails and you try to save, but cannot because the complete file did not transfer locally. It is then necessary to revert to an older version of the file. Therefore, we recommend that you work on local drives.