Constantly receiving "not enough memory to render"

[Anonymous]

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)

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Thomas Holm]

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.

[Palawat]

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.

[Ben Odonnell]

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.

[Anonymous]

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?

[Erika Epstein]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.