Issue with large IGES file

[hemuman]

I tried to open an IGES file happens to be 11MB in size, and FreeCAD stopped responding......I am using a CORE i7 machine with 6GB of RAM.

[NormandC]

Hi,

Have you tried letting FreeCAD run its course? I mean, how much time did you give FreeCAD before terminating its process? It's possible that the import just takes very long to compute.

I'm not sure if FreeCAD uses multiprocessors.

[wmayer]

Very likely you have set a too strict tolerance for the tessellation in the user preferences. Go to Edit > Preferences > Part design > Shape view and increase the "Maximum deviation" to e.g. 1%. If the loading still takes too long go back and increase the value again.

Actually, the loading from file is rather fast the long and memory consuming operation is the tessellation into triangle meshes for the display. If you choose a moderate deviation the algorithm is much faster, needs less memory and creates less triangles.

A file size of 11 MB is not that much. I already loaded STEP files with more than 40 MB.

I'm not sure if FreeCAD uses multiprocessors.

Unfortunately, not here. Using OCC functions from several threads is a bit tricky but it must be possible. Roman Lygin author of the CADExchanger project managed to do it but he has much more knowledge about the internals of OCC. On his blog he mentioned some tricks. Maybe we should have a look on it to see if it's possible to make it faster.

[hemuman]

Hi,

Have you tried letting FreeCAD run its course? I mean, how much time did you give FreeCAD before terminating its process? It's possible that the import just takes very long to compute.

I'm not sure if FreeCAD uses multiprocessors.

I waited for 5 minutes....Actually it loads the data into memory but it hangs while I try to move or rotate the 3D model in window.

[hemuman]

Attached is the Original File.

[NormandC]

Your file is not attached. The forum has a 256KB limit so you'll have to use a hosting service and paste a link. You could use for example MegaUpload.

BTW did you try what Werner suggested?

I once opened a very large STEP file. It took more than 10-15 minutes to load, and each time I'd move or rotate the model, it would take a few minutes before the model window was active again.

Edit: original thread here: STEP import/large model performance

[hemuman]

Yes I tried till 10% but same result....

[NormandC]

Maybe your IGES file is the problem.

Since you didn't manage to post a link to it, I guess we'll never find out.

[yorik]

You can also send the file by email if you prefer (yorik.vanhavre [at] gmail.com), i'll upload it somewhere for everyone to be able to test...
( )

[NormandC]

Let's add some more for good measure