3ds Max only addressing up to 16gb of my 32gb RAM

[Rich O]

Was wondering why Max slowed down terribly after a certain point working on a large CAD file I imported; seems according to Windows task manager it's only using a maximum 16gb of my RAM...

 

would anyone have any ideas why this is? Windows detects my full 32gb

 

Edit: using Max 2015

Edited November 7, 2014 by Richard7666

[Chris MacDonald]

What version of windows do you have? (Home/Pro)

 

Is the problem when you're working in max, or at render time? What render engine are you using?

 

Is there any reason it should be using more than 16Gb of RAM?

 

When you select the CAD you've imported (I assume splines?) does it show up as "linked geometry", or "Editable Spline"?

[Rich O]

Win 7 Ultimate.

 

It's geometry; a 3d dwg from Revit, with a fair bit of other stuff in the scene also (though a lot of it is references).

 

The issue is simply when working in Max, not when rendering. The reason I assume it should be using more than 16 is because as soon as it hits 16 it slows to a crawl, instead of just using more RAM. I'm guessing instead of simply using more RAM, its using the pagefile?

[Chris MacDonald]

Ahhhh good old Revit.

 

"Don't you just import it and click render?"

 

I don't see why it should be limiting to 16Gb of RAM, perhaps someone else can clear that up?

 

I have issues with large Revit models, mostly when the geometry shows up as being "linked geometry" even if it isn't strictly "linked". When my Revit imports get unwieldy and start to chug I tend to collapse certain objects together which tends to speed things up quite significantly...

 

Things such as window frames (sometimes there are thousands of mullions/transoms) provided they share a common material otherwise you end up with massive multi-sub object materials. Max copes far better at displaying a single large object with hundreds of thousands of polygons than hundreds of thousands of individual/small objects.

[Stephen Thomas]

Are you using Vray? If so, then your dynamic memory limit could be affecting things. Try increasing it. If not then you could try disabling the paging file in windows and see whether or not 3ds max utilises more ram. Control panel > system > advanced system settings > advanced > performance settings > advanced > virtual memory > change > set "no paging file" for all drives listed and restart your pc.

 

Without paging file though, if an application runs out of memory it is likely to crash. Just something to consider, although with 32gb this is fairly unlikely.

[RyderSK]

Win 7 Ultimate.

 

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx

 

Ultimate version does no have limit in x64 version so this is likely culprit somewhere else.

Can you try disabling paging just to test.. ?

 

Do you have latest service pack ? Lot of 3dsMax releases had memory leaks.

[Rich O]

Thanks guys, will try disabling paging and see what happens.

 

As for memory leak, I used to play a game, CitiesXL, which is notorious for memory leaks. Once your city reached a certain size, after playing for half an hour things really lagged until you restarted the game...which is the exact same behaviour Max is exhibiting here. Interesting.