Customizing memory limits and regeneration options

A geometric state is a snapshot of the internal representation of a part or an independent part instance. Saving geometric states in a memory cache speeds up regeneration performance; however, the saved states can consume large amounts of memory and decrease overall performance.

Context:

The options on the Memory tabbed page of the Options dialog box allow you to control the amount of memory allocated to the Abaqus kernel, specify the percentage of memory use that will prompt Abaqus/CAE to run in reduced memory mode, and tune the balance between the convenience of saving states and the performance degradation from increasing memory consumption. Select ToolsOptions from the main menu bar to display the Options dialog box, then click the Memory tab.

In most cases the default settings will result in acceptable regeneration performance. You should modify the feature options only if Abaqus/CAE takes a long time to regenerate a part or the assembly. For more information, see Tuning feature regeneration.

  1. From the main menu bar in any module, select ToolsOptions.

    The Options dialog box appears.

  2. Display the Memory tabbed page.

  3. If desired, specify a new Kernel memory limit in megabytes. If this setting is zero, no limit is imposed on kernel memory.

  4. Toggle on Run in reduced memory mode when memory reaches, and specify a percentage of the kernel memory limit above which Abaqus/CAE runs in reduced memory mode. Abaqus/CAE reduces memory by either paging geometric data to disk or by deleting data in inactive parts that can be automatically regenerated when needed.

  5. If desired, change the number of geometric states that Abaqus/CAE automatically caches in memory. Ideally, to gain the maximum regeneration performance, you would save the geometric state after every feature modification. However, storing a large number of geometric states consumes large amounts of memory and hinders overall performance. Deciding how many states to save is a tradeoff between regeneration speed and memory consumption. For more information, see What is a geometric state?.

  6. If you find that Abaqus/CAE is consuming a lot of memory on your workstation and affecting the performance of your system, you can use the Clear buttons in the Options dialog box to erase the memory associated with the part and assembly caches. Clearing this memory will increase performance; however, the snapshots of the geometric state will be erased and regeneration will be slower. For more information, see What is a cache?.

  7. If you want to save a current state in memory, click Cache current state in the Options dialog box. Abaqus/CAE can return to this state and regenerate any subsequent additions or modifications.

    The Options dialog box indicates how many geometric states are stored in the caches. Click Query to determine the positioning of geometric states relative to the sequence of features in the current part cache or the assembly cache. When Abaqus/CAE is running in reduced memory mode, the geometric states may be deleted if the memory consumption is higher than the specified threshold.

  8. Click OK to change the memory limits and regeneration performance options for the current model.

    The options apply only to the current session and are not saved in the model database.