topic Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a in Visualization

Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render"

Anonymous — Thu, 11 May 2023 10:23:43 GMT

I have been experimenting with the lightworks rendering engine all day. I was able to get many renderings complete with many lamp objects on. I was using the sunobject, skyobject and many window lamps and general light sources. The renderings were completing at 400x650 resolution.
After changing a few settings I can not get one rendering done, even at the smallest size.

This is after i turned off the sky and sun object. I am using the built in sun and ambient light. I took off most lamps, with the exception of down lilghting occuring through the fixtures only.

I turned off reflection checkbox in the lightworks settings.

My lightsources are the sun, ambient and lamps. Turned the sun and ambient on after the sun and sky object were causing a serious delay in rendering. I am at the point where i am taking tiny pieces of the model with the marquee to view in 3d and try to render and im still being told i don't have enough memory. ??

I don't understand what is going on. I know there are many more variables in this dilemma. I am ready to provide any additional information for anyone who is willing to help.

Is the problem possibly the 3d video card setup or a problem within archicad itself.

Archicad 11
Windows XP
NVidia G-Force Go 7900 Gs
Dell Intel Core 2 (2.16 Ghz)

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:42:14 GMT

well after hours of trial and error I have sort of managed to fix the problem. The filesize of my project is 11Mbs first off. After installing a driver for my graphics card. The result was a little better after combining the driver update with the exclusion of about 100 objects.

With no lamps, just sun and ambient light the renderings go very fast.
Adding the sun and sky object and 3 window lights with the same objects hidden, i get the error message.

It really seems to be a combination of the light sources with objects.
I guess as a render exteriors just turn off all interior objects?

And as i render interiors turn off all objects and lamps anywhere else besides that camera view?

I just seems very odd that this happens on this computer after i customized it to suit my rendering needs.

Lastly, do curved shapes also have an effect on rendering time?

I have s-curved roofs and 4 curved curtain walls, could this be a big problem?

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Anonymous — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 06:06:01 GMT

I have also now ready that windows xp only allows up to 2GB of processing speed even if you have more.

Any suggestions? Will vista maybe fix the problem?

I have ended up creating layers for each area for furniture and a set of layers for each area for lamps. So now if i want to render one room i just turn on the furniture and lamps. Now i am gettin the same error message but the rendering finishes. It looks clean and smooth but the lighting doesn't appear to be showing up.

Should i post some renderings or can i send someone my pln file and maybe a check can be made to whether it is the file, or the setup of the file, etc.?

Thanks in advance

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 19:31:14 GMT

flexmastak wrote:
It really seems to be a combination of the light sources with objects.

Multiple light sources can dramatically increase the complexity of the model for rendering - especially if high accuracy shadows are selected. I don't know the metrics but each light source can multiply the polygons generated (shadows) and the complexity of the calculations for each polygon (ray-tracing, etc.). This can lead to an exponential increase in memory requirements and render times.

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Thomas Holm — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 21:52:23 GMT

flexmastak wrote:
I guess as a render exteriors just turn off all interior objects?
And as i render interiors turn off all objects and lamps anywhere else besides that camera view?

Good idea, An easy way to turn off all thing outside the room that you're rendering when doing an interior is to use the 3D (fat) marquee in the floor plan and View selected/marquee in 3D.

Lastly, do curved shapes also have an effect on rendering time??

Yes, they generate a lot of polygons.

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Palawat — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:38:19 GMT

Apart from LW objects, high res. images that used for texturing can eat up your resources too.

Turn "Light Shadow Casting" in Light Settings to "off" except the only one or two light that you want it (or them) to cast shadow.

Hope this help.

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Ben Odonnell — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:22:19 GMT

You could always try the "Get model data during rendering process"

Here is the text about it, taken out of the help documentation,

Get model data during rendering process: Check this box to allow two processes to proceed simultaneously when you execute a PhotoRendering: ArchiCAD will analyze model data at the same time that it generates rendering effects for the model. As a result, the rendered model might take longer to appear in full on screen, but the process will require less memory.

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:30:36 GMT

the tips below will help to reduce the memory requirements and increase render speed.

However, I often get the 'not enough memory to render' error after completing many rendering with the same settings in a row.

I have assumed there is just some sort of memory leak and fix the problem by closing and reopening the file, often with a full system restart as well.

I have a version of Photoshop 7 that seems to devour memory, and won't give it all back when shut down. But the interesting thing is i can complete several renderings in ArchiCAD, with Photoshop running, before getting the 'not enough memory' error. This is what has made me assume ArchiCAD is not releasing memory after each rendering is complete, saved, and window closed.

Is there some sort of cache that's filling up with render results even after the window is closed on them?

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Erika Epstein — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 01:24:52 GMT

Ian,
The behavior you describe has been around as long as I have used AC. I was advised to reboot periodically when doing rendering as each one runs slower than the last.

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:20:33 GMT

Your right, this problem has been around forever.
After reading many posts it has become apparent. Well everyone thanks for the replies. I am able to get the renderings complete, even at large sizes. The error still pops up, but when i click ok the rendering completes. Very odd. But i cant complain, i got everything done that i needed to. Now i just have to click an ok box while doing so.

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:15:16 GMT

I have further interesting details on 'not enough memory to render' error:

First off, before each render, I've tried a complete system restart, stop every unneeded process (av included!), running only one session of ArchiCAD and nothing else....

I had completed some nice renderings a few months ago, saved the views, 3d settings, etc. These were the views I used to be able to photorender maybe 3 or 4 in a row before getting 'not enough memory' errors, even with MS Office stuff, Photoshop, and other ArchiCAD running.

Today, I cannot even get through ONE, with fresh restart, no other programs running, etc. What gives?

Maybe it's the fact I've been layering on more and more detail to the model, maybe its the fact that I've added some gigantic image files for textures... maybe its some sort of conspiracy?!?

But, the point of the post is this: after considering turning off furniture, or fixtures, or awesome trim details, I decided to look at what my Lightworks engine photorender would look like with all textures turned off. So, turn off textures in '3d Window Settings', off they go in live 3d window, launch Photorender, and voila.. full textured photoimage with no out of memory error.

The textures defined by lightworks settings for each material still give all my textures in the finish rendering, while the 3d window textures, which must be hogging all the resources, aren't even generated. I can run multiple different renderings in a row like this, no memory errors.

so.. try just turning off textures in 3d window if you're using Lightworks - I'm not sure if it affects the other engines

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Palawat — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:35:28 GMT

Very good tip, Ian.

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Anonymous — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 15:18:08 GMT

I just bought the fastest computer I've ever owned, Apple 8-Core 3GHz Intel with 16GB of Ram. I still get the "not enough memory to render" error. I have found that if there is any imported 2D data from non-ArchiCAD sources. i.e. an imported AutoCAD dwg drawing, I get the error. If I delete the import, no error.

Re: Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render&a

Dwight — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 19:58:32 GMT

This conversation threatens to turn into six blind men of Indostan describing an elephant.

http://hinduism.about.com/od/hinduismforkids/a/blindmen.htm

Let me be number six - the one holding the tail, since it is the most dangerous one if you've ever seen an elephant defecate. I feel the "out of memory" failure is erroneous - but does signal a common rendering problem.

Please join in with your own necromancy about this issue.

Some comments:

• Users often misuse the saved Archicad file size as indicated on disk to predict the project's rendering challenge. This is the fault of GDL efficiencies. For instance: an Archicad model containing one million identical bookcases is a tiny file until it is assembled in 3D where every polygon of the model must be visually established. You can never know the size of your model or its rendering challenge from the saved file size.

• While it is conceivable that in machines with minimal RAM, that a 3D file could be assembled to be so large that there might not be enough memory, Archicad's swap-to-disk routine can fill a hard drive with data related to the rendering process - the temporary file. You would hear this happening and it would take some time before the system ran out of disk space.

• Keeping some sort of process monitor open can teach you about how ell your compute manages its resources. For instance, My Mac G5 2x2 from four years ago, having 3.5 Gb of RAM NEVER accesses more than 1.8 Gb even when rendering complex scenes, and I have done many complex renderings with overlapping refracting elements and numerous light sources.

• Imaging textures in OpenGL DOES take more resources, so turning them off saves the computer some effort. If you want even faster renderings, minimize the 3D assembly time by using wireframe instead when starting a rendering. You might also consider reducing some of the other OpenGL qualities when doing a shaded view just for the sake of speed in mere 3D imaging. On the other hand, the OpenGL rendering aspect - distinct from processing the 3D model assembly aspect handled internally - should be handled by the graphics routines and RAM on your video card, leaving the foundation resources alone.

• My experience is that "out of memory" failures don't happen because of lacking computer resources, but rather, from corrupted elements. You work away happily and think all is well until you make an impossible slab or place a object with bad parameters. The computer then "has a snit" resolving a mobius strip-like slab opening and "VOOM" all the resources are consumed and you are "out of memory."

In earlier versions of Archicad, the dialog didn't offer to rationalize slab errors like it does now, and ignoring that warning when assembling the model is perilous for 3D. OpenGL has error tolerance that LightWorks doesn't, so a successful 3D view doesn't guarantee a rendering.

• Things can go wrong in files. This might seem like Geek Necromancy Voodoo [GNV], but sometimes I have fixed problems by copying the file to another volume under the belief that it will "rationalize" itself. I wear a black, pointy hat and repeatedly chant "No one is going to call ME an early adopter" while waiting for the copy to finish.

• Sometimes a corrupted situation is resolved by copying the entire 3D model into a new, blank file. While you might try this as an experiment, it is hardly a solution in complex projects with published layout views.

• Memory "leaks" do exist. I hear they are collecting in a big vat on a hill in Boston where you can smell molasses on hot summer days. If restarting your computer can solve the problem of getting a fresh start, that is great, but it is not my experience [limited to Macs.]

• Imported data CAN interfere with rendering since AutoCAD files can contain 3D data that is impossible to render - it looks irrational to the LightWorks engine.

• Always turn on the rendering report. It can help identify where the file went bad.