5 Replies Latest reply on Apr 30, 2015 1:27 AM by Jared Conway

    Setting Approximate maximum cells

    Jonathan Gourlie
    Jonathan Gourlie Apr 29, 2015 11:32 AM

      I am currently running a simulation that needs a higher mesh refinement than my computer can handle to get completely accurate results.  The results I get are acceptable for what I need, but I would like to be able to set the mesh to what I believe would provide me the best results, then control the mesh density by setting the approximate maximum cells to get the best ram utilization while still leaving enough ram to be able to use outlook and a couple other applications.  Is there any rule of thumb for how much ram each cell utilizes?

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        • Re: Setting Approximate maximum cells
          Jared Conway
          Jared Conway Apr 29, 2015 12:23 PM (in response to Jonathan Gourlie)

          meshing is nonlinear, it is going to be really hard to do what you're trying to do.

           

          are you sure you can't do your other stuff on another computer?

           

          if you are hell bent on this, there is an old flow article in the swx KB about ram per cell. but the challenge is going to be to get the cells where you want them and estimating/approximating how the cells will split and be resolved. (see the tech reference on what i'm talking about)

            • Re: Setting Approximate maximum cells
              Jonathan Gourlie
              Jonathan Gourlie Apr 29, 2015 12:31 PM (in response to Jared Conway)

              I was afraid that there wouldn't be a direct correlation between cells and ram utilization.  The issue isn't so much the ability to continue to use the computer as much as the simulation itself slowing to a crawl as the ram is maximized and the computer starts trying to use the HDD for memory.  Do you have a link to that article?

                • Re: Setting Approximate maximum cells
                  Jared Conway
                  Jared Conway Apr 29, 2015 2:43 PM (in response to Jonathan Gourlie)

                  you can only access it from inside the solidworks kb, customerportal.solidworks.com. this requires subscription. it used to also be in the help or technical reference as well.

                   

                  my opinion is you are likely going to get minimal improvements in "accuracy" by adding more cells, especially if you are saying that the accuracy is in the range that is acceptable to you. you might want to look at how sensitive your solution is to mesh by applying things like mesh controls in different areas. keep the same overall cell count, but move the elements around. but again, i'm not exactly sure what you're looking to gain.

                   

                  Another options, go to the cloud. Throw on an amazon instance, get instant access to as much RAM as you want. in the end, you need more cells and therefore more hardware, there is no solution to that other than more hardware.

                    • Re: Setting Approximate maximum cells
                      Jonathan Gourlie
                      Jonathan Gourlie Apr 29, 2015 3:10 PM (in response to Jared Conway)

                      I looked into the KB and found a couple articles, it explained that the approximate maximum cells doesn't apply to initial meshing anyway, only to mesh refinements after several iterations.  Because of this what I am trying to accomplish won't work anyway.  I am pretty interested in the Amazon Instance, would that be running the simulation via rented computer resources from a data center?  I have asked my VAR about renting external computing resources from data centers but they didn't have any experience with it or know of any data centers that had that capability.  Do you know where I could find out more about this?

                        • Re: Setting Approximate maximum cells
                          Jared Conway
                          Jared Conway Apr 30, 2015 1:27 AM (in response to Jonathan Gourlie)

                          amazon web service instances

                           

                          in the design space, i'd say this really hasn't been investigated much because the tools don't scale from a hardware perspective like they do with high end codes, but if you have hardware limits, it lets you essentially go to the max of what the tools can handle, and you don't need to spend a grip for one time need