| Product(s): | InRoads |
| Version(s): | 08.11.07.615 |
| Area: | Surface |
| Original Author: | Chris Key, Bentley Technical Support Group |
Question:
When working with InRoads on a 32bit OS versus a 64bit OS, are there any published limits in regards to surface size the program can process?
When working with larger datasets and processing surface information, there is an error message that can occur: "Failed Allocating Memory" resulting in a program crash.
Answer:
A “memory allocation failure” is when the software begins storing a process in a block of memory on the user’s machine. When writing a large amount of information to the CAD platform this process requires a large block of memory. If it cannot get through the process, the software returns with this message.
There are no official limits, but some testing yielded unofficial results that can be used as a base when determinng the amount of information the InRoads program can process in a 32-bit Operating System versus a 64-bit system. The main difference in the amount of data that can be processed is due to the amount of memory each Operating System allots to the applications. Here are those numbers:
On a 32-bit OS running InRoads V8.11, the number of random points in a surface that can be processed is about 9.1 million points, which is about a 340 +/- MB file. On average it took 3.4 minutes to process this information on import.
On a 64-bit machine, InRoads is able to bring in 22 million points (approx. 820 +/- MB) in 2.42 minutes.
Possible Solutions:
Here is some additional information to troubleshoot 'Failed Allocating memory' errors:
- If the mapping for the project is very dense you might have some latitude to thin the model. If using InRoads 8.7+, there is an Application Add-In called Thin Random Points. It will appear under Surface > Utilities. This command is much faster than the normal thinning routine and it was developed for Lidar data. The Help has an explanation of the methodology used.
- Go to Surface > Surface Properties and see how many deleted points are in the model. you may need to run the Surface > Utilities > Compress Surface command to remove these deleted feature points to reduce the size of the DTM.
- Copy portions of the large surface into separate DTM surfaces using the Copy Portion of Surface command. This will allow you to work in a designated area for a project that may be confined to a small area within a larger surveyed / laser scanned surface, greatly reducing the amount of information that is required to be opened in InRoads to perform your design tasks.
- Another possibility is to increase the virtual memory on the machine. Use your Task Manager and set the column view to include/show the Virtual Memory size. If the physical memory used exceeds the VM size, there are processes in Windows which can be performed to increase the Virtual memory.