9 replies to this topic

[Fred Dickson]

As I am planning on upgrading my system, I think there are a few givens:  1.  As much RAM as possible. 2.  SSD hard drive with lots of storage.  3.  Highest end video card possible that will handle at least 3 monitors,.  But now to the CPU.  Below is an excerpt from an online source (https://www.cgdirect...ng/#tierBuilds):

"The most interesting thing you’ll come across when looking for a Computer or Workstation for 3D Modeling and Rendering is that 3D Modeling and (CPU) Rendering are two very different workloads. Each of them uses the Hardware of your Computer in very different ways!    CPU Rendering uses all cores of your CPU, 100% of the time while rendering.  This means if you’re using your Workstation just for 3D Rendering Images and Animations, or encoding Videos for that matter, you would be looking for a Computer with a CPU, that has as many cores as possible. Even if these cores are clocked relatively low.  This is because the render engine assigns a so-called “bucket” to each core in your CPU. Each individual core will render its bucket and then get a new bucket once it’s finished rendering the previous one.

Contrary to rendering, 3D modeling is an active working process. You sit in front of your computer and interact with one of the many 3D Softwares of your choice. Actively using Software utilizes the Hardware it is running on in entirely different ways. Your computer has to go through some heavy calculations to process all this, but the key here is that these calculations are mainly done on just a single CPU Core. Why? Because the Scene is built according to a certain hierarchy. A CPU has to work its way through this hierarchy step by step. It can’t skip or off-load certain steps to other cores, because most of the steps depend on each other!  It means, quite frankly, that having lots of CPU-Cores will do nothing towards speeding up your modeling and does not usually make your Viewport faster. Long explanation short: For Modeling and actively working in your 3D Scene,  you would need to get a CPU that has the highest Clock Speed possible. It doesn’t matter if it only has a few Cores, as most of these Cores won’t be used for modeling. "

So the question is which one is Softplan?  Thanks. 

[Joseph Smith]

Raytraced will use your CPU, the faster and more cores the better.  The other 3d modes use the GPU,  RTX card for sure.

 

SP recommendations:  https://softplan.com...oftplan-require

 

I'm not an expert but think each of these buckets are one of your cores at work, assuming the faster they process or spin around the faster your CPU would be.

 

Attached Files

•  Capture.PNG   403.94KB   3 downloads

[John Pepper]

SoftPlan is both a modeler and a renderer.   

 

The modeling is the process of drawing a house.  The rendering is the process of presenting the house in the form of a 3d image.

Software (CPU) Rendering does take advantage of multiple cores simultaneously as the analysis you posted suggests.   The hardware rendering engines (DX11 and DX12) take advantage of the parallel processing within the graphics cards themselves to render the image.

 

Unlike what the analysis suggests, SoftPlan does have many algorithms in the modeling process that take advantage of multiple cores.  For example things that are kept in sync as you draw all rely on multiple threads and therefore benefit from multiple CPU cores.   As you draw the 3d model is constantly updated,   SoftList reports are updated,  Plansets are updated to display your changes.   All these items and many more leverage multiple threads and thus multiple CPU cores.  

Multiple CPU cores also give you better performance on your system as a whole because the operating system and other software are performing a lot of operations at the same time SoftPlan is running.  Having multiple CPU cores means that more of the software running on your system can execute simultaneously without as much competition for a few cores. 

[Fred Dickson]

...

[Keith Almond]

It appears you're getting rid of a system much more powerful than mine ... if only I had some money ... I dream of building a "money no object:" kick-ass PC ... Alas. it's never going to happen. I'm just going to stick to my AMD FX6300 and RADEON RX560 2G. It's been working very well for a few (quite a few) years now.

[Michael Roman]

I have been using a new machine since March of this year.  The old PC was a quad core Intel I7 with 16GB of RAM, an RTX 2070 video card, SSD for OS and programs and standard HDD for data.  The new PC is from Maingear and has an AMD Ryzen 9 5700X with 12 cores (24 threads), 64GB of RAM, RTX 3070 video card, an M2 SSD for the OS, another M2 SSD for programs and 2 HDD for data and backup.  The speed and stability of the system are night and day.  Modeling and rendering within Softplan are very quick and smooth.  Rendering in V-Ray for Sketchup is super fast now.  It was the best $3000 I have spent for work.

[Fred Dickson]

Darn Keith!  You make me feel sad - sort of.... For as much info you have shared, helped you have given and time you have spent helping others with SoftPlan issues maybe we should do a Keith New Computer Fund!  And I would be the first to jump in but I need to save up for my newer and faster machine.....Sorry man but you know.....Kidding aside your point is well taken and appreciated.  It is nice to know though what other users have upgraded to and how it has made a difference.  It's a very expensive game to play and there just isn't much help/info to go by.   

 

Ps.  You could do some advance SoftPlan training online courses and make a zillion dollars!  You really could and I would be the first to ........ 

 

Two Take-aways from the above post:

 

1.  Maybe SoftPlan should have a specific posting place regarding hardware so we can all share our experiences, etc.....What Michael posted was very helpful to me.

2.  Maybe SoftPlan should have some serious advance classes.  Just one example is how to use angled beams to slope roofs.  There are a million such things.    

 

 

[Keith Almond]

That's my personal PC ... My office laptop is more powerful.

 

What do people do with their old PC's. I get the idea that people are trashing better computers than i own!

[Fred Dickson]

I actually upgraded my machine piece by piece and added the monitors one by one.  Once upon a time, a long, long time ago this was a very affordable way to go. And not hard to do.  Now a graphics card cost more then a new machine. Before all of that, my machine got hit by lightening.  Before all that, there was just binary.  But I think you are right, A lot of folks trash (or trade up) to new machines leaving some pretty powerful stuff behind.  Once we get the new Softplan section going, we'll be able to share this and get Mr. Keith a great deal on an awesome, once used machine.  

[Keith Almond]

Just in case anyone needs to upgrade an OLD computer, My AMD FX6300 and RADEON RX560 2G run Softplan just fine.

 

Although I can almost guarantee it won't run Windows 11.