ToolPathing

[kubotaman]

Okay this may not be the correct site to ask my question but here goes. I obviously have a Shopbot and I also have Aspire. I am getting my new computer running but when I watch a toolpath in Aspire it takes forever to finish a very simple small toolpath. I have Aspire set for fastest model re-generation and a large step over on the tool. I have viewed all the variables I can think of but I am still growing old viewing the toolpath. Where have I set something wrong? Im getting old!!!

[Gary Campbell]

Daryl...
You dont say what OS and how much ram you have. This may make a great difference in generation speed.

[kubotaman]

Gary you may be correct. I am using Windows but this computer is a used one that I bought just for the Shopbot. It seems slower on Aspire than what my older computer acted like.

[kubotaman]

Just looked at the specs of this computer and I should hve mentioned I am using XP but to my disappointment this computer only has 1 Gig ram. I think I may have found my problem. My older computer had 4 Gig of ram.

[Gary Campbell]

Daryl...
I agree, to me 4gig is the minumum. Also make sure that your video card is a good one and has the latest drivers installed from the mfgr's website.

[kubotaman]

I will do as you say. This older computer works fine on the web but really is poor with Aspire. I was going to use my other computer for the web but I may switch my mind and reverse what I was going to do. I wanted a computer just for the Bot but will use my other one instead.

[cabnet636]

this weekend i went to windos 7, 8 gig ram, 1 tbyte I5 processor.

at this point i am wondering why i thought we were going fast all these years, now the computer is waiting on the web server to catch up

[steelhead]

Daryl,

I just checked Aspire system requirements and it says 1gb of ram for windows xp is minimum. Here is the link. I don't see anything on the video driver

http://www.vectric.com/WebSite/Vectric/search.htm?cx=017000426619768585755:js7akfww-3g&cof=FORID:10;NB:1&ie=UTF-8&q=system+requirements+&sa=Search

Question: Did you completely reformat the hard drive on the machine. (good idea if you haven't)

Bellow is a few more tricks that should help out.

First create a restore point.

Start/All programs/ Accessories/ System Tools/ System Restore. You can put your computer back if something goes haywire on you.

Then check the following:

How much video memory do you have? I don't need to know, but you should.

Depending on your video card and the options it allows, this may or may not help.
Try the following:
1) right click on windows desktop.
2) click on properties.
3) click the settings tab
4) click the advanced button
5) there should be a tab for your video driver up top. click it.
6.) open the control driver for your video driver
7) see if there is image settings you can adjust. (usually performance and quality) play with these to suite your needs.
8) also see if there is a configuration option that allows GPU acceleration. enable it if not enabled.


The next thing to try:

1) click start button
2) right click on my computer
3) click properties
4) click advanced
5) click settings under performance
6) Under Visual Effects Tab, make sure "Adjust for best performance" is selected (this will cause your desk top and icons to revert to "the classic windows look" your computer will speed up a good bit.
7) Click the Apply button
8) Select the advanced tab
9) under processor scheduling section --- Adjust for best performance of: select Programs.
10) Under Memory usage section --- Adjust for best performance of: select system cache
10.25) click Apply
10.5) a box will pop up asking you to restart windows, tell it "not now"
11) under the Virtual Memory section click the change button
12) make sure drive C: is highlighted
13) Under paging file size, see what it says you have for space available.
14) select Custom size:

Initial size (MB) enter about 1/4 to 1/3 of the space available (no less than 10000, no more than 20000.
Maximum size (MB) enter a little more than 1/2 of the space available, but no more than 40000 MB (this should be more than sufficient)

Also note the box that Says: Total paging file size for all drivers-- What does the minimum allowed say? Your initial size (MB) should be about 25 % greater than that number.
15) click apply
16) restart your computer

Your programs will take a little longer to open up with these settings, but you can work faster inside them.

If there is any thing on your computer that doesn't like these settings you can always change all or part of them.

You should be fine though.

Also try installing the free version of CCleaner and try cleaning out the registry. you can get it here for free: I use this, and its safe.

http://www.piriform.com/download

If you try this setup process, let me know how it works for you.

Hope it helps, Ben

[adrianm]

It's probably got a video card that shares the system memory which means you'll be running way below 1gb of actual memory.

[God's Girl]

Looking forward to getting my SB and ALL the stuff we have to get to actually use it.... I have been trying to figure out which computer to fork out the used-to-be gold backed green on. Judging from this line, I need for my Windows 7 (student/home) at least 4 gig ram (8 would be much better), and a "good" video card that has its own memory. But, is my student/home version good enough? What is a "good" video card? Do I need as much memory on the computer that runs the SB as the one on which I will be doing the designing? Seems like the "designing" computer should be the golder green and the controller just green. Can I use my stupid, tiny, almost useless Aspire as the controller? Oh, nobody accidently erase the step by step post from Daryl - it could save my life!
marquitta

[srwtlc]

Marquitta,

Win 7 Home/Student may work fine, but I'm not sure. Win 7 Pro would be a better choice. If you want more than 4gb of memory, you'll need to use the 64 bit version as the 32 bit version will only see/use 4gb (actually a bit less I believe).

I just built a couple of new computers, one for office/design and one for the shop/ShopBot (also works well for design). Both running Win 7 Pro 64 bit. The shop one has on-the-motherboard graphics and 4gb ram with a 3 ghz quad core AMD processor and the office one has a separate graphics card (Radeon HD5850) with 8gb of ram and a 2.8 ghz quad core Intel processor. I see very little difference between the two when designing with Aspire and other programs and the shop one runs the Bot great.

The parts I used for the shop computer cost me about $500 (just the box, not monitor/keyboard/mouse). These parts have been solid so far and if anyone has the capability of building your own computer, I'd recommend it. You don't have all the preinstalled crapware clogging the tubes and you can set it up for "You". It's really not that hard to do. NewEgg is my shopping mall. ;)

Scott

[jerry_stanek]

I am using the student version of Windows 7 home premium 64 for my laptop and it runs Aspire fine. If you go to Vectric forum Brian says you really don't need a real powerful computer.

[feinddj]

One thing you might check is if the Animate tool path button is checked. Drawing the tool slows everything down quite a bit.

David

[knight_toolworks]

it's the processor that makes the difference in rendering. pockets take the time to calculate.