Computer specifications - particularly Intellicad

Intellicad = Save a lot

Richard, post: 376050, member: 833 wrote: As a long-term MicroSurvey user I have struggled in recent iterations to get through an hour without crashing.
Latest version using Intellicad 8.1b is completely unusable as I am lucky to see 5 minutes of work.
I posted a similar on MicroSurvey forum thinking it'd be helpful to see what others use that works or worse.

What sticks out for me is BricsCad works tirelessly, but Microsurvey flops.
Probably a conclusion there somewhere!

My new PC runs Win 10 Pro 64 bit
Specs as follows
Leadtek Quadro K1200 ‰ÛÒ DDR5 4GB RAM
Intel Core i5 6400 2.7GHz
Gigabyte B150M-D3H S1151 DDR4
2 X Crucial 8GB DDR4 2400
Its mated to 24" & 27" monitors

Other programs that run flawlessly include
Manifold GIS
BricsCad v16
Canvas GIS v16
All 3 are just so quick and do their work with ease.
Manifold is exceptionally quick.
I've run 2.8gb aerial images with this machine and it doesn't balk.
I loaded 2 such into BricsCad to test it out and didn't make any noticeable difference.

Interested to know what others use and how successful they are in keeping MsCad running all day without failure.
Carlson users could chip in. Might be interesting to see comments.

There is an option somewhere in the program to either use 3D graphics acceleration or not. There's also one in Windows 10 itself. When I was trying the demo version (with Intellicad), they had me turn one off and the other on (or vice versa...can't remember). I do know that 3D acceleration, and the specifics as to which versions of OpenGL and DirectX your graphics card support, can lead to crashes. Just thinking out loud.

I don't think your computer is the issue. I've got 16 Gb RAM, but only a Quadro K600 graphics card, and I still get IntelliCAD crashes (Carlson 2016). They are less frequent now than last year, due I suspect to updating the graphics card firmware, but I still will get a day on occasion with 2 or 3 crashes. Other days, no crash at all. These are not necessarily on large drawings either, and usually in the middle of the simplest of commands. IntelliCAD definitely has an issue with trying to delete layers from within the Layer Manager. That is a pretty consistent no-no.

Thanks for comments.
RFC I tried with hardware acceleration OFF inside Microsurvey and it did seem to help but still crashed. However it became so unwieldy as it needed a regen after anything serious and at times seemed to slow down.
Wasn't aware of a Windows option - will look into but a but loath to fiddle with a Windows one at the expense of other programs that currently work well.
Will investigate more though thanks.

Since starting this post I've used my little HP X360 and it works extremely well. Its an i7, built in graphics so obviously liked by Intellicad.

Peter I know its no comfort for you but at least I know that Carlson also misbehaves. I had been tempted to dive into Carlson and see what that was like.

I have been running Carlson since 2008, and can count on one hand the number of times it has crashed. When it does, it has only been in HUGE drawings with 20,000 plus points. I used Carlson Survey 2008 OEM (embedded AutoCad), and just upgraded to Carlson Survey 2016 with embedded AutoCad).

I am very happy with it. Like I said, the only time is slows down, is when I am working on really big drawings, and that is not too often.

I run my personal license on two different laptops, both off the shelf Dell laptops. One for the field, and one for the office, synced with Dropbox. The company license is run on a custom built desktop that really runs fst.

Richard:
How are you (or how is anyone with similar problems), determining that the culprit is intellicad (as opposed to the underlying survey software, be it MicroSurvey CAD or Carlson)?
Just curious.

RFC that's a good question! And one I've raised.
You're then starting to get a bit close to the subject and the defences rise.
To my way of thought, these, in surveying terminology, are only engineering issues waiting a suitable resolution.
Only the resolution never comes.
I seriously can't answer your question, wish I could.
Only the developers know the answer to that.

Jimmy your observations and experience are not alone.
Twice I've trialled EmbedCad and that's like chalk and cheese.
Only the price put me off.
I've lived in hope of each promise of fixes but reality is nothing changes.

Richard, post: 376222, member: 833 wrote: RFC that's a good question! And one I've raised.
You're then starting to get a bit close to the subject and the defences rise.
To my way of thought, these, in surveying terminology, are only engineering issues waiting a suitable resolution.
Only the resolution never comes.
I seriously can't answer your question, wish I could.
Only the developers know the answer to that.

Jimmy your observations and experience are not alone.
Twice I've trialled EmbedCad and that's like chalk and cheese.
Only the price put me off.
I've lived in hope of each promise of fixes but reality is nothing changes.

Well then, here's an idea:
Do a 30 day free demo with MSCAD with ACAD embedded. Run it; see if you have any similar issues.
If you do, it might be on the survey software side; if you don't, then at least you've narrowed it to Intellicad.
You can then explore the most likely culprits: drivers, and graphics adapters. I'll bet the tech support folks at MicroSurvey would be *very* interested in the experiment.

Well! Confession Time!
Somehow I'd installed the program on my beloved new PC.
Had a call from Microsurvey (all way to Australia) and we discussed this in length.
There's some settings in Nvidea that can be tailored to individual programs.
We reset some then he decided to confirm the version I was running.
Clown here was on the very version I'd held off against!

Seems Microsurvey are taking these things seriously.

Anyway, had an hours use without a hitch.
Will see what happens.

RFC it would be an interesting comparison, based on previous experience I would expect EmbedCad to be in front.
Will see how I go.

Richard, post: 376329, member: 833 wrote:
Had a call from Microsurvey (all way to Australia) and we discussed this in length.

Seems Microsurvey are taking these things seriously.

RFC it would be an interesting comparison, based on previous experience I would expect EmbedCad to be in front.
Will see how I go.

Their technical support team seems to be really on top of things, both technically and customer service wise. My brief experience with both them and Carlson leads me to believe they're right up there with Carlson's renowned support.

Keep us posted on how it goes.

I will admit, Carlson on the PC is pretty darn good (I'm running 2016 just purchased in January). However, Intellicad is not very good IMHO. I wish Carlson would switch over to Bricscad, as I demo'ed that a while back and it was very sound. I had actually demo'ed it accompanied by a cogo program for it and was pretty well sold, but working w/engineers I needed a bit more than just "cogo", so we went the Carlson route. Bricscad was way more stable than Intellicad, although from what I can tell 2016 is better than the older versions.

I lean toward blaming IntelliCAD rather than Carlson because these crashes almost always happen after executing a basic CAD command, rather than the routines written by Carlson - mouse wheel Zoom, layer Delete within the Layer Manager, Move, middle button Pan - are the pre-crash actions that stand out. I know a fellow at another company running Carlson within Civil 3D, and he does not have these issues.

Peter Lothian - MA ME, post: 376543, member: 4512 wrote: I lean toward blaming IntelliCAD rather than Carlson because these crashes almost always happen after executing a basic CAD command, rather than the routines written by Carlson - mouse wheel Zoom, layer Delete within the Layer Manager, Move, middle button Pan - are the pre-crash actions that stand out. I know a fellow at another company running Carlson within Civil 3D, and he does not have these issues.

I note that all of those are graphics intensive. The graphics card/driver is often a least partly to blame when graphic intensive commands cause software to go boom. Check your graphics card against http://www.carlsonsw.com/support/system-requirement/&apos ;">Carlson's Intellicad system requirements

I'd second Peter L's comments

After my debacle with Win 10 and latest (so I thought) install of SP1 and Intellicad 8.1b I can safely report with the correct software installed the difference between 2 versions of Intellicad is dramatic.
Microsurvey says Intellicad has put some work into Quadro Cards.
They rang me to discuss the issues and their desire to know more from users.

I'd encourage Carlson users to seek responses on this.

I bought the Quadro K1200 after my PC builder offered it as a good option knowing the type of work I'd put it to.

Stephen Ward, post: 376561, member: 1206 wrote: I note that all of those are graphics intensive. The graphics card/driver is often a least partly to blame when graphic intensive commands cause software to go boom. Check your graphics card against http://www.carlsonsw.com/support/system-requirement/&apos ;">Carlson's Intellicad system requirements

My computer meets or exceeds the system requirements. 16 Gb RAM, XEON processor, Nvidia graphics card (K600)

Got a new dose of CAD weirdness to report. Started a new drawing yesterday, processed a small topo file and imported with F2F. Looked good. Drew in a 3D polyline to use as a breakline in the surface model, then quit for the day. No problems with software crashes, or anything else I can think of. Came in this morning to do a little more editing and build the surface model. Hmmm - some of the 3D polylines created with F2F are not behaving as breaklinesn neither is the one I drew in. List the 3D polys, and some have 0.00 elevation at all vertices, and some have 0.00 at only some vertices with the other vertices at the correct elevation. (I have "Ignore zero elevations" toggled on when building the surface model). The drawn 3D poly has a mix of 0.00 and correct, with the zeros falling on vertices I had created by point number, and the correct elevations on ones I had picked on screen and typed in the elevation. I opened a new drawing, and imported the points / lines with F2F again. All the 3d polys were good. Used these to fix my actual drawing, and moved on, but I have no idea what happened to cause the 3D poly vertices to drop down to zero elevations.