topic Re: Ramdrive in Installation & update

Ramdrive

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 19:44:46 GMT

Using a ramdrive to improve hard disk performance on temporary and cache file operations by Graphisoft.

Note: No help available if the data hits the fan. Why? Because your .pln file will be corrupted beyond repair.

Hard Disks v. Ram:
AC uses the hard drive to store temp files for many operations, this usually slows down performance.
Imagine if you could use your super fast RAM, instead of the physical hard drive.
Well, you can, the solution is to install a special type of driver called a ramdrive.

1) I use Dataram's Ramdisk. Please do you own homework on this selection.
2) Installation creates a virtual drive in ram memory (mine is G: ).
3) Back up your Work Environment, then Go to >Work Environment, >Company Standards, > Special Folders
4) Change the folder locations for Temporary and Cache, to a dedicated folder on the ramdrive. That's it.
5) Now your section rebuilds, 3D window orbit, etc. will speed up.
6) Turn sun shadow on in 3D and orbit it as-fast-as-you-can. Impressed?

Warnings:
A) Do not use a ram disk without your IT dept approval.
B) If you are on a desktop, you must have an uninterrupted power supply.
C) If your laptop battery is dead or slightly shy, replace it.
D) Read the manual that comes with the ramdisk software. I warned you!
E) Never use a ramdrive on a server, BIM or otherwise.
F) Graphisoft expects 2-3Gb space for these temp files.

Snap

Re: Ramdrive

Anonymous — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 00:20:08 GMT

snapcrackle wrote:
..........

Note: No help available if the data hits the fan. Why? Because your .pln file will be corrupted beyond repair.......
Snap

Or (although not free);
For a cool $100 you could have a bit more stability and speed with a small SSD drive. Bestbuy has a 40gig here:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp;jsessionid=2518BDBD6EAECAC0ABEBB112332713BB.bbolsp-app04-56?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=-6283508591527338898&id=pcat17071&type=page&st=SSD+DRIVES&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960

Re: Ramdrive

ci-JoshOs — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 05:28:38 GMT

Does this actually give any quantifiable performance boost in ArchiCAD?

I've done a bit of analysis on my machine and the only time the HDD is the bottleneck is when saving a file, and even then it's only for a few seconds.

Doesn't seem like the tradeoff of losing a bunch of RAM would be worth it. Unless you have massive piles of RAM, in which case, you could've just spent the money on an SSD instead and improved your entire system's performance at boot time and program loading.

Re: Ramdrive

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:05:16 GMT

No quantifiable #'s , experience.

Does your software allow you to time the rebuild of a section, elevation and any view dependent on the 3D OpenGL or Internal Engine? Those are the operations this I/O fix helps.

Snap