Greg Corke explores how it can transform 3D performance dramatically, particularly when working with large assemblies, and enable you to get more out of your workstation hardwareSoftware Requirements for SOLIDWORKS 2017 SOLIDWORKS Products for Windows Operating Systems SOLIDWORKS 2015 (EDU 2015-2016) SOLIDWORKS 2016 (EDU 2016-2017) SOLIDWORKS 2017 (EDU 2017-2018) Windows 10, 64-bit (2015 SP5) Windows 8.1, 64-bit Windows 8.0, 64-bit Windows 7 SP1, 64-bit (only) Hardware RAM 8GB or more recommended Video Card Certified. Quadro NVS.SolidWorks 2019 includes a brand new graphics engine based on the modern OpenGL 4.5 graphics API. Intel integrated graphics and gaming cards (Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon) are not certified and not recommended. If your exact computer model is not listed, leave that field set to All and rely on the graphics card, Windows version and SOLIDWORKS version to see a list of results.Nvidia Quadro or AMD FirePro. The new website design for graphics cards on the SOLIDWORKS website still works as before you put in specifics, including your exact computer model, if it’s listed.
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Even lower frames can be acceptable, but going below 10 FPS is undesirable.It’s certainly worth asking what’s good enough for your needs.Importantly, when you go above 60 FPS, it’s almost impossible to notice any difference on a 2D display. “So our goal was to get performance up to 30-60 FPS for all assemblies,” he says.At DEVELOP3D we’re a little less demanding, and find anything above 20-24 FPS to be adequate for 3D modelling. As Kidder explains, 60 FPS feels “silky smooth” but anything less than 30 FPS starts to feel a little jumpy. “With the new render engine we’ve really moved to a place where we are GPU-bound, which is exactly where we want to be.”By reducing the reliance on the CPU, DS SolidWorks has been able to increase frame rates dramatically and it is aiming high. It is tuned to take full advantage of modern GPUs and allows models to be manipulated smoothly in the viewport without having to compromise on visual quality by reducing the LoD.“With the older rendering engine, we were largely CPU-bound,” says Justin Kidder, director of graphics at DS SolidWorks. And while it can increase frame rates to an acceptable level, it does significantly impact the user experience, particularly when trying to impress in a slick presentation.A couple of years ago, Dassault Systèmes (DS) SolidWorks decided to address this and develop a brand new graphics engine for SolidWorks.Based on OpenGL 4.5, it uses a much more modern implementation of the popular graphics API than SolidWorks currently does.
GPU compatibilityIn order to use the new graphics engine, your workstation’s GPU must support OpenGL 4.5, which pretty much the case with all professional GPUs released since 2012.This includes Nvidia Quadro GPUs based on the Kepler, Maxwell, Pascal or Turing architectures and all AMD FirePro W Series and AMD Radeon Pro WX Series GPUs.Those with older GPUs will have to rely on the current graphics engine, which will continue to be developed even after the new engine comes out of beta.When it eventualy becomes an integral part of SolidWorks – which could be with a SolidWorks 2019 service pack or in SolidWorks 2020 – the software will automatically identify your graphics hardware and enable the most suitable engine. As it’s a beta feature, users are advised not to use it on live projects. The new graphics engineThe new OpenGL 4.5 graphics engine is currently a beta feature of SolidWorks 2019, so is not enabled by default when SolidWorks first launches.“We wanted to give our users the opportunity to try out the new render engine, get a feel for its performance, give us feedback on pros and cons of what we’ve been doing, while we continue to wrap up developing the functionality,” says Kidder.The new engine is enabled through SolidWorks options – simply go to Tools > Options > Performance and tick the checkbox at the bottom of the page.SolidWorks will then need to be restarted.
If you do intend to use the GPU for ray trace rendering, 8GB should be considered an absolute minimum. SolidWorks 2019 will still run, but performance could be impacted as the graphics driver will need to continually move data between the workstation’s system memory and GPU memory.Our tests show that 4GB should be adequate for even the largest models, but this doesn’t take into account other applications being used at the same time, particularly a GPU renderer like SolidWorks Visualize or AMD’s Radeon ProRender for SolidWorks. This is one of the major reasons why the current graphics engine is CPU-limited, as a significant amount of data still needs to be fed from the CPU on demand.To take full advantage of retained rendering, DS SolidWorks has developed new GPU-centric versions of key algorithms.These include Ambient Occlusion, for more realistic shadows Anti-Aliasing, for smoother edges Order Independent Transparency (OIT), for faster and more accurate transparent objects and Occlusion Culling, which doesn’t render objects that are obscured by others.By using more GPU memory, users may find that older GPUs with 2GB or less may struggle with larger models. But in order to deliver new levels of performance and open up the CPU bottleneck, GPU memory needed to play a much more important role.The new graphics engine is built around OpenGL’s ‘retained rendering’ mode, where more data is stored on the GPU than in the previous engine’s ‘immediate’ mode.For many years, SolidWorks has used an OpenGL feature called VBOs (Vertex Buffer Objects), where model geometry is stored on the GPU to increase performance.The new engine now takes this one step further, as Kidder explains: “We also have the ability to store things like colours and textures and component transforms and lighting information.”The net result of buffering more information on the GPU is less time waiting for the CPU to feed in data, resulting in much better performance. Even the biggest assemblies only use a touch more when viewed at 4K resolution. Most models sit comfortably within 2GB.
Intel Xeon W-2125 (4.0GHz, 4. On testTo compare the performance of the new graphics engine against the old graphics engine, we tested with a variety of real-world SolidWorks models and a wide range of professional GPUs, old and new.These included two current generation Nvidia Quadro ‘Pascal’ GPUs – the midrange Quadro P2000 (5GB) and high-end P4000 (8GB) – and four current generation AMD Radeon Pro GPUs – the entry-level Radeon Pro WX 4100 (4GB), mid-range WX 5100 (8GB), mid-range WX 7100 (8GB) and high-end WX 8200 (8GB).To see the performance one might expect to get out of older hardware, we also included the Nvidia Quadro ‘Maxwell’ M2000 (4GB), the predecessor to the Quadro P2000, and the AMD FirePro W2100 (2GB), a sub entry-level CAD-focused GPU released in 2014, which was the only GPU we tested that had less than 4GB of memory.Our test machine was a typical mid-range workstation with the following specifications: But you only need to look at a modern design viz focused application like Autodesk VRED Professional (OpenGL 4.3) to see what’s possible.Rendering a model in the viewport, instantly, with much more realistic lighting and materials, can really bring a product to life and reduce the need for ray trace rendering.Kidder acknowledges the potential, but is not able to share any details of where things might be heading.“We’re currently in the process of working with our customers to identify different areas for improvement and understand where they’d like to see improvement,” he says.
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