Running ProE (Creo Elements Pro). CPU direction

[BrentDrysdale]

Hi Folks,

I have not been able to find anything substantial on this topic in any forum nor did I heard anything at the 2007 or 2010 conferences.

My understanding (which may not be correct) is that ProE up until present uses one CPU core for most of its work and particularly for regeneration. This seems to have been the case of all Versions and Releases that I have used since 1995 (presently on Creo Elements Pro M070 [= ProE WF5]).

I have seen posts in various forums that it is possible to set the Config variable cpus_to_use to 2 or more though on my system this does not seem to make any appreciable difference when I look at the task manager (I am still using XP pro [32bit]). Others using 64 bit seem to say similar things.

So my point is to find out if anybody knows if or when our CAD tool (ProE) is going to move to multi core.

• Many of the rendering and analysis programs seem to use multi core
• Modern CPU chips are all incorporating multiple cores and are winding back the clock speed which as far as I can see is detrimental to running ProE.

I would sure be keen to hear from PTC on this. For example does the drive towards Creo include such functionality.

Regards, Brent Drysdale

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[BrentDrysdale]

Hi Folks,

Three weeks and no replies? I guess I should post on the email exploder.

Regards, Brent

[cbernuth-disabl]

Hi Brent,

as far as I know multiple cores can can only be used in Mechanica. In Pro/E the option has no effect.

Best regards, Constantin

[BurtLand]

Mechanica, Assemby and perhaps the browser .... hyperthreading doesnt work at all

maybe the Renderer uses more - anyone with any experience with this one?

That shouldn stop you buying a multi-processor machine - theres bound to be more in CREO...

[PierrePatenaude]

So what is the use of that cpus_to_use option?

[BurtLand]

Mechanica and Renderer do use multiple cores - all of them by default. The cpus_to_use allows you to control the resource if you want to run other applications as well.

[David_M]

So far as I'm aware, multiple cores aren't much use for parametric modellers because the processor intensive tasks need to be done as single threads. So even if PTC did add multi-core support, it wouldn't make much/any difference. So they probably won't.

The thing to do when buying a PC for modelling is invest in a more efficient processor and disregard the number of cores. The logical conclusion if you have a Nehamlem based processor is to enable Turbo mode which boosts the speed of one core and turns off the others. Other types of processor may have similar features.