Problem 1 — run time. When I run the Concrete Design add-on, the partial stage “Internal forces on members and deformations”* takes about 2 minutes, while every other stage (processing, member design, results) finishes in seconds. This happens even when only when 7 of 1536 members are selected for design — the duration is the same as for a large set. During the stage RFEM uses ~70 % of all cores, so it seems to be a solver-type computation over the whole model, not a data transfer.
What I have tried:
Removing every load state that includes the RSA from the design situations: the counters in the progress dialog drop (from 1302/868 to 210/140 “internal forces / deformations”) but the stage takes the same time. Reducing the number of selected members: no effect on duration.
Problem 2 — file size. With the RSA results present, the .rf6 file grows to 2 GB or more, which makes saving and opening very slow.
Questions:
- What exactly is computed in the stage “Internal forces on members and deformations”? Does it re-run the solver (e.g., effective-stiffness deformation analysis, result-combination evaluation, or modal re-combination) over the whole model regardless of the members selected?
- Is there a setting to restrict that computation to the members selected for design, or to reuse already calculated results?
- Which results are driving the file size with RSA (per-mode results, per-CO deformations?), and can they be excluded from storage without losing what Concrete Design needs?
- It may be possible that I am doing something wrong with LC RSA. I think it may be related with its settings.
I can share the model with support if useful.