3D Modeling Computers

I highly recommend having these guys quote you a system:

https://www.boxx.com/

especially if you're using Autodesk products, since they're knowledgable of those products.?ÿ I bought a system from them just last year to process point clouds and DTMs and am very pleased.?ÿ Sort of a "more than the sum of its parts" experience.

It depends on the software and type of modeling.

Are you going to do surface models, or?ÿsolid models, Microstation or InRoads?

Are you going to use points clouds from drone data or scanner? This will far exceed any most limits of today's?ÿhardware.

For CAD models with vector data for surface modeling, a high-end laptop will be fine. For point clouds, drone processing and 3d modeling a high desktop with as much hardware as you can afford is recommended.

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Also worth noting. Many new PC have multi-core processors.

Most CAD software can only utilize one core processor at a time. While drone processing software such as Pix4d can utilize?ÿall cores.

We started processing drone data a while back. I git an ASUS gamer special laptop and love it.

I7 processor, 1TB NVME drive, 8gb nvidia and 64gb ram. I run a second monitor but no docking station. Projects are processed on the local drive then moved over to the server.

Lee- It is surface modeling running Carlson overlayed on Civil 3D

Bionic-Is it safe to say the extra ram is showing improved performance?

Typically my suggestion for these is to always spend a little bit more on a pc now so it lasts a little longer and wont restrict you if you want to try working with big data a little later on like point clouds. Carlson will take advantage of multi cores. - I've built 15 different systems for this over the past few years.

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My suggestion would be:

i7 or i9 K processor

32-64 GB Ram

1TB NVME M.2

4 TB HDD

GTX 1080TI GPU

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It'll cost you in the 3-4k range but it wont slow your workflow down for a long time to come.

HDD??ÿ Upgrading to an SSD was the single most impactful upgrade I've made in years.

I highly recommend investing in the best SSD you can afford.

Would make sense to have a secondary HDD for archiving/storage only.?ÿ Not as part of the work environment (programs, OS, project files).

I use a Dell tower with dual 10 core Xeon processors, an 8GB Nvidia card, 64GB RAM, and dual 500GB SSD drives. I process on that and then move it to an archive drive.

I've seen projects, especially with scan data, where I've wished we'd gotten 128GB RAM and if we get another processing machine it will have that. It's also impossible to have too much video card; Nvidia has a new one called the Titan Xp that I'd spec if I was building a machine today.

You're looking at $11 - 12K to build a machine like that.

Unfortunately, I have yet to see any program, including Pix4D, take full advantage of the hardware resources. Pix4D takes about the same amount of time to process big fixed wing aerial data as TBC and UASMaster.

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@Plumb Bill - The HDD is for static, secondary storage. I would never in a million years recommend an HDD as a main drive. Dropping $1,500 ish for a 4TB SSD is a waste right now for what we do IMO. The 1TB NVME M.2 drive will run circles around an SSD and should be enough for programs and your active project.

Right now Xeon's are not good chips for CAD, Photogrammetry Processing, working with Scan Data. The cost to performance is outrageous and you would benefit from the highest core count i7/i9 you can get or an AMD threadripper although I tend to avoid amd because most programs are built to optimize intel chips.

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My next build is going to be a 128GB, dual titan pc, but for someone thats not currently doing anything with scan or drone data, its not worth going that crazy. 32GB imo is absolute minimum right now for any 3D work, and 64GB is what I suggest as a good middle ground for someone that wants to possibly dip their toes into the big data scene.

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Pix4D will absolutely take full advantage of hardware resources. You just need to allow it to. It wont use all resources all the time because thats not how processing images work, certain tasks require more output in certain things, but it will take advantage of the better specs and process jobs faster than a lower specc'd PC.

Posted by: SuperiorRyan

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GTX 1080TI GPU

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Wow, a $500+ graphics card??ÿ That is a beast.

I have a NVidia GeForce GT720, and carlson has been a bit glitchy here and there.?ÿ Wondering if that is the issue.

Its roughly a $750 card. I have two right now. My suggestion for GPU's is to update every 2-3 years. I generally but the latest (x)x80TI card and sell the old one(s) to stay up to date. Next to Ram its the next easiest upgrade you can make for increased performance, depending on what you're doing.

They're the best value to performance youll get. The Titan V is really the card I would pick if I had an unlimited budget but I could buy 4 1080ti's for the cost of one Titan V and the performance isnt THAT much better than one-two 1080ti's.

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What are you doing in carlson? What are the rest of the specs of the PC you're working with?

Nothing special here.

i5-4460 @3.2Ghz

24GB Ram

Win7 64 bit

NVidia GeForce GT720. running a pair of 27" mon

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Just basic surveying here on Carlson icad, so didn't think I need a crazing gaming computer.?ÿ I have seen a few strange things though.?ÿ My coordinate display in the bottom line is sometimes jumpy, like changing precision or something but I have never been able to figure it out.?ÿ Sometimes I do sat photo JPG underlays and I think it could run faster when doing that.?ÿ Overall it seems OK, but I know it isn't setup to be a beast either.?ÿ I think I had like $1000 into the whole computer, so you get what you pay for.

If your graphics are jumpy and its slowing down with JPG overlays (how big are the files?), then I would try swapping out the GPU. On a build as old as yours I'd recommend grabbing a GTX 1050 or 1050TI ($140-$180) to see if that fixes your issue, so you're not spending any crazy kind of money. Also I would highly suggest upgrading to windows 10.

Windows 7 is EOL and only has 1.5 yrs until its completely unsupported. Definitely worth the upgrade, you'll almost definitely see a nice speed increase with the update as well.

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*Edit* What resolution are the monitors you're running btw?

Running at 1920 x 1080

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Will look into the graphics cards, but gonna stay on win7 until I can't any longer, and then take a hard look at something else before I go to win 10.

Every single business I have contact with has issues with win 10 conflicting with something or breaking software.?ÿ Not going to any software that has control over me and my productivity.?ÿ I will build a final computer and run it completely off line first as long as I can.?ÿ I still have a XP machine here in case I need it.

Oooof Never go Xp. They stopped firmware updates a long time ago. Thats a virus/malware bomb waiting to go off.

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The only people I've seen have issues with windows 10 stop it from updating (not talking about win10 server - thats different). If you let it update when it wants (at night) you wont have any issues. I've been using it since beta in 2014 and have never had an issue. Just runs faster.

You also have no other options as far as OS's go. Carlson and the other main CAD packages wont run on anything else.?ÿ

OH also BTW, if its an issue of "i installed win10 and now my stuff doesnt run", thats just a user error. Run the software in compatibility mode and you shouldnt have any issues if you still need legacy software.?ÿ I have zero issues running any old software (oldest program I have was made for windows 95) when I have the program run in compatibility mode.

95% of the time our computers are just running Civil 3D, say with Adobe PDF viewing, and Google search. The computers we have are supplied by our AutoCAD dealer and are all 4 core. I know Civil 3D only runs on one core, so most times the CPU is running at 15% (not sure why it is 15% on a 4 core - our older 4 cores when running Civil 3D went 25%) and I can't get anywhere close to a definitive answer whether single core would be better for "AutoCAD only" use.

Posted by: Richard Imrie

95% of the time our computers are just running Civil 3D, say with Adobe PDF viewing, and Google search. The computers we have are supplied by our AutoCAD dealer and are all 4 core. I know Civil 3D only runs on one core, so most times the CPU is running at 15% (not sure why it is 15% on a 4 core - our older 4 cores when running Civil 3D went 25%) and I can't get anywhere close to a definitive answer whether single core would be better for "AutoCAD only" use.

What are you doing with civil3d? It actually does use multiple cores but only for zoom and mentalrays. If youƒ??re just doing super basic work though then it wouldnƒ??t matter.?ÿ

Also, youƒ??d never want a single core machine. That would be super unproductive, while autocad may only take advantage of a single core, your computer still has other processes that need to run in the background so the other cores do help with that. Personally I would never go below a quad core/8 hyper thread chip. Even Microsoft office will take advantage of the extra power with larger csv files and the cost is truly negligible.?ÿ

The way I look at it is like this:

You spend the majority of your work day using a PC, helping you get work done. You should pay the few hundred/thousand extra for a PC that is ƒ??overkillƒ? so you never have to worry about slow downs, hang ups, or limitations because you cheaped out on a computer. The way the industry is evolving, you need a good pc to let you stay up to date.?ÿ