NavisWorks Performance Issues and Settings

You are using NavisWorks Manage 2009 and notice that navigation around your model is not quite what you were expecting - with slow performance and choppy cursor movements.

The performance of NavisWorks can be affected by large models, hardware configurations and constraints as well as system settings. Good news is that there are some basic adjustments that you can make to optimize performance.

Most modeling computers operate with 4GB of RAM. However, you can enable the /3GB switch in order to free resources and use more memory for various system processes. Enabling the /3GB switch is not complex and information is widely available on its use and how it can be set.

Try turning off Hardware Acceleration to see whether performance improves, by using the following steps:

• Open NavisWorks.
• Click Tools menu > Global Options > Interface > Display.
• Clear the Hardware Acceleration check box.
• Exit NavisWorks.
• Restart NavisWorks.

If performance improves, the issue is probably due to the graphics board drivers. Graphics board drivers are often overlooked as an upgrade area. Some card manufacturers update their drivers every few months, improving performance and maximizing the capabilities of the card. Sometimes, drivers may become corrupted, causing performance issues. This can occur even on new computers or computers with newly installed drivers.

Please check with the manufacturer of your graphics board to see if new drivers are available. If they are, we recommend for you to install them and then to turn Hardware Acceleration back on (click Tools menu > Global Options > Interface > Display). If no new drivers are available, or newer drivers do not resolve the issue, leave Hardware Acceleration turned off.

If you access files from a central server location, bandwidth may cause performance issues. This is not common. However, if you experience slow performance, try copying the files from the server to your computer to see if this improves performance.

Please let us know whether you have any feedback, comments or suggestions.

Thank you.