Helpful tip for large scale MOCs

[alienwar9]

I thought I should share something I ran into accidentally yesterday while building in LDD. I've been a task watchdog and usually close as much as I can to let the computer run faster. But I left windows aero on accidentally (the "desktop windows manager" task), and when I went to save my LDD something different happened:

• The save window closed before the program tried to save;
  
• the 'hide' feature didn't un-hide everything while trying to save;
  
• LDD seemed to have an easier time trying to save, even though at the top it said the file was (not responding) for a little while.
  

So while I was scared at first , I found out that aero and desktop manager actually seemed to help LDD run. Even when LDD did crash, windows aero let me know WAY ahead of time that the program was not responding, allowing me to close LDD and restart much faster, instead of having to wait a few minutes praying that it worked.

Now, I only suggest this for people who have powerful enough computers to run both LDD and windows desktop manager (and who have win7 or vista, obviously). I haven't been able to test whether the aero feature is required, or just desktop manager (then again I'm not sure what the difference is ). If it is just desktop manager, it might even help people with less powerful computers.

The oddest feature is that whatever you had "hidden" before saving stays hidden. This means that you can hide ALL the pieces and then save, which gives LDD a little more chance to not crash!

So the tip is:

1)keep windows aero (and/or desktop manager) running

2)hide your entire creation before saving

[DLuders]

Nice tip! I never heard of "Windows Aero" before, so I read this good Wikipedia article to find out more.

[Nachapon Lego]

Thank for sharing this useful tip. Could you let us know your PC spec?

[Superkalle]

I upgrade from 2 Gb to 4Gb ram today. That made a whole lot of difference. With large models, LDD can eat as much as 1 Gb alone, so it needs room to breath!

[alienwar9]

Thank for sharing this useful tip. Could you let us know your PC spec?

yup yup!

QX5700 core 2-duo overclocked to 3.2 GHz (quad core)

Nvidia 460 GTX (1GB)

4 GB 800Mhz RAM

10,000 RPM 150GB hard-drive

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

just upgraded from vista with 32-bit. BIG improvement, and I have to say LDD runs smoother. At start-up zooming out doesn't jitter, and all camera movement frame-rates are higher I think. For 4GB, 32-bit doesn't actually use all of it and depending on your PC it could be a lot less. Mine used around 3.2GB of the 4. So I highly suggest if you have 4GB or more of RAM, you make sure you have a 64-bit operating system (especially if you have more RAM, say 8 or 16).

Usually LDD hits a limit of 1.3GB, but with all the other tasks running (and I stop as many as I can, so really it was vista's fault) the memory taken up hits 75-80%. Win7 runs using significantly less ram, which is great compared to vista.

[treeboy]

yup yup!

QX5700 core 2-duo overclocked to 3.2 GHz (quad core)

Nvidia 460 GTX (1GB)

4 GB 800Mhz RAM

10,000 RPM 150GB hard-drive

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

just upgraded from vista with 32-bit. BIG improvement, and I have to say LDD runs smoother. At start-up zooming out doesn't jitter, and all camera movement frame-rates are higher I think. For 4GB, 32-bit doesn't actually use all of it and depending on your PC it could be a lot less. Mine used around 3.2GB of the 4. So I highly suggest if you have 4GB or more of RAM, you make sure you have a 64-bit operating system (especially if you have more RAM, say 8 or 16).

Usually LDD hits a limit of 1.3GB, but with all the other tasks running (and I stop as many as I can, so really it was vista's fault) the memory taken up hits 75-80%. Win7 runs using significantly less ram, which is great compared to vista.

I have a similar setup but with a quad 2.4 GHz not overclocked, but one thing that also helps with speed of launch is I'm using an SSD for programs and a SATA 7200 RPM drive for data. All in all it works very well. Whenever I want to test my LDD for stability and speed I go and find alienwar9's latest MOC

[nemo]

I upgrade from 2 Gb to 4Gb ram today. That made a whole lot of difference. With large models, LDD can eat as much as 1 Gb alone, so it needs room to breath!

I run LDD on a 1GB netbook!

I don’t dare install it on one of the work machines.

[Brickdoctor]

I run LDD on a 1GB netbook!

He says 'with large models'. I've run LDD on laptops with 512 MB of RAM, but they start getting frustratingly slow around 300 parts. (thought that was with LDD 3 with LU mode; haven't tried it with the more advanced graphics of LDD 4)

[nemo]

haven't tried it with the more advanced graphics of LDD 4)

Well the “advanced graphics” aren’t an option on a netbook, apparently.

[Brickdoctor]

Well the “advanced graphics” aren’t an option on a netbook, apparently.

I say 'more advanced graphics' in that case, because even with the Advanced Graphics options turned off, I'm fairly certain LDD 4 uses more advanced graphics than LDD 3.