When does Calypso use the GPU?

[[Da...]]

Sometimes I need to load a fairly complex CAD model which is annoying because that means an extraordinarily long time programming because of the sluggishness of Calypso.  Rotating the model in the cad window is very choppy.  If the cad window is being rendered using the GPU this should be as smooth as butter, but when I look at the performance the GPU is doing almost nothing.  Does Calypso even utilize the GPU at all?  I have a Quadro P5000 which should handle it just fine.  Is there a setting I'm missing or is this just how it is?

[[Ka...]]

Hi Dave,

Keep in mind that CALYPSO was developed sometime in the early 1990s. Back then, ACIS was also used as the 3D kernel, and of course, that hasn’t changed to this day.
ACIS uses only the CPU and will likely never use a GPU. The current version in CALYPSO 8 is ACIS R35 2606.2.8.0. The poor performance when rotating or moving objects is mainly due to the graphics engine. It’s probably just a very old piece of software that Zeiss hasn’t (yet) brought up to current standards.
The big breakthrough with CALYPSO 8.0 was supposed to not only finally be 64-bit but also deliver major performance improvements. Let’s wait and see what version 12 brings....

Edited 7 hours ago

[[No...]]

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Where did you get this information from? 😯

ACIS R35 ist the 2025 version of the ACIS CAD core. I don't think it could be much more recent in Calypso 2025. 😄

I strongly doubt ACIS only uses the CPU. While I can't provide a source explicitly stating it uses the GPU, this would be absolutely unthinkable nowadays, don't you think? Who would buy a CAD software (ACIS is not Calypso-only) that doesn't utilize the GPU?

 

So the question is not so much "does it use the GPU at all?" but more likely "which GPU does it use?". On hybrid systems with a GPU and onboard chipset graphics, the chipset graphics is often preferred over the GPU in normal applications to save energy. This setting can be changed in Windows as well as e.g. in the nVidia control panel.

Another possible reason why Calypso gets sluggish with complex models might be the fact that it intensively communicates with the CAD core to query and update all the information about the CAD entities (which you can see in the hierarchy) and to combine the rendered model with all the overlayed Calypso stuff like vector arrows, labels etc. So I rather suspect the inefficient data traffic between Calypso and ACIS is the culprit. And this is really an old concept that was introduced decades ago and was never really brought up-to-date.

 

 

[[Ka...]]

Hi Norbert,
The latest release of ACIS is described in the release notes for CALYPSO 8.0.

I may be wrong, but ACIS is a 3D modeling program. So it’s about calculating and breaking down 3D data, not about displaying it. The display is then usually handled by a graphics engine, which (if it’s modern) uses the GPU for rendering and so on.

On our computers, the NVIDIA settings always say “Autodesk Motion Builder - Compatible.” Anything else consistently causes problems.

[[Ma...]]

I've just tested loading programs, evaluating with CAD views - on my T1000 8GB is only in peaks max 8% in 3D - rest is none. Mem usage is about 1GB

I would need to download TMOG to see more data and do testing

[[No...]]

The whole CAD view is handled by the separate ACIS process. You can think of it as an ACIS overlay window hovering above the Calypso window. So it does in fact handle display as well. Calypso is just communicating with that process to control the way it's displayed, to create additional elements (like the axis tripod, vector arrows, labels etc.) and to query data concerning the model entities. 

You can test it yourself, because the ACIS window is also a command prompt. If you enter a Scheme extension command, the effects immediately become visible in the CAD view and are available in the Calypso hierarchy. Try the following:

(solid:block 10 10 10 -10 -10 -10)

This creates a cube of size 20 mm. To make it permanent you have to additionaly mark it as workpiece in the hierarchy and best also save it with the measurement plan. But that's how Calypso creates and modifies things in the CAD view. Loading of all model formats, even SSC and CMM models for Planner is also handled completely by the ACIS process. Since SSC is a proprietary Zeiss format, they either maintain a special version themselves or Spatial does it for them.

Edited 2 hours ago

[[Ri...]]

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[[Ri...]]

Calypso is like Crysis. 🤣