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Processing Power Transparrency?

Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
Onshape is my favorite CAD I've ever used (including Rhino, Fusion, Solidworks). There's a fear I can't shake though – which I admit may be unfounded, but I feel it anyway. I worry that sometime in the future something will happen to cause Onshape's performance to drop below what I need professionally and leave me and my clients in a bad spot. It could be any number of reasons like:
  1. exponential growth that outpaces server expansion
  2. a financially down year or two or some larger internal company upset that causes servers to be used for other things or sold.
  3. Security Breach
  4. Future "Super Turbo Pro" plans with tons more horsepower while lowlier plans slowly slip into computational obsolescence.
I'd love to have some kind of confirmation that, yes, I'm getting a minimum of X amount of processing power assigned to me, almost like the speed test for internet speed. That way if I do something silly, like pattern 100 loft features, and it takes forever to compute, I won't be wondering whether Onshape isn't giving me enough juice. I'll know to blame myself. Any way to do that?

Note, I'm not talking about the regen time tool. I know that's there, but it doesn't tell me anything about how much computing power I have access to at any given time.

I imagine that all users share a human need for a sense of control and stability, which is one of the biggest psychological challenges that cloud CAD faces vs traditional software. I think transparency about processing power could address some of that for me. Is there already a way to see that stuff? If not, what might it look like to add it? 

Do other users think about this stuff? I bring this up mostly to start a conversation about it.
Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
Website: ovyl.io

Best Answer

Answers

  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    edited July 2018
    Hi.

    Interesting topic.

    As far as I'm aware OS runs on leased Amazon servers not OS servers, so scaling up is just a matter of paying Amazon more money not purchasing and maintaining hardware internally. I'd imagine this is dynamically managed so as load increases more resources are assigned.  As long as an accountant doesn't cheap out in the future we should be fine.

    Given how approachable OS staff are, and how seriously they respond to even minor issues I have a lot of faith in them.  Besides If a bunch of us had problems and vented about it on the forum then it would be bad publicity.

    I haven't had an outage in the last 18 months, I'm convinced and happy.

    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    edited July 2018
    Great explanation @ilya_baran.

    With regard to the slower initial load of a document after an update it would be great if you could indicate to the user that this was happening.  Say a different spinner icon and a friendly message stating that OS has been improved and the next load will be faster. 

    I think that would flip the bit in a user's mind from the helpless frustration of watching a spinner, to happinesses that not only have more toys have been released, but also that the next load of the doc will be quicker.

    We have two pet hates in our design office:-

    (1) Spinners with no indication of whether they'll stop spinning in 2 seconds, 2 minutes or not at all.

    I loved the improvement you guys made to show a simplified render of the model that is refined when fully loaded/rebuilt, but more info would be welcome whilst waiting. Just something to show there is progress taking place and that the browser hasn't hung.

    (2) Unexpected reboots, software shutdowns, or nonsensical outputs. These are known locally as "Microsoft Moments" and result in much bad language  :s.

    Onshape has been developed to be wonderfully immune to such things it seems.

    Thanks,
    OwS
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
    Thanks to @owen_sparks and @ilya_baran for such detailed replies (within a few hours on a Saturday no less!). A few scattered thoughts:
    • It makes total sense how the concept of "X processing power" could be meaningless, especially after Ilya's detailed rundown. Still blows my mind that I can get feedback (or trivial Featurescripting help) from an actual Onshape developer so easily through the forum. Thanks for that!
    • I still think that Onshape is going to keep on having to find ways to improve the user's expectations and perception of how Onshape is performing. For most users – especially if Onshape gets the widespread use it deserves – Onshape will always be somewhat of a black box, so finding ways to inspire trust are always going to be critical.
    • Part of the rub here is that coming from a Solidworks there's a mindset of needing to buy a "CAD Workhorse" computer to get fast performance. Yes, it's inconvenient, expensive, and obsolesces quickly, but at least I would have the feeling of control. The choice of how much power is up to me. I think users feel like they are giving up some control of their CAD fate when they switch to full cloud CAD.
    • Even though "X processing power" doesn't mean much it could still be good to see some kind of "performance index". If real performance is a result of a ton of different dynamic things, maybe there could be some way to communicate overall performance succinctly even at some loss of detail and accuracy.
    • I also like Owen's idea of showing some kind of progress on the spinner. I think if it usually goes more than 10-15 seconds I find myself mousing to the refresh button just to feel like I'm making a difference.
    • I have a ton of admiration for the Onshape UX/UI team and think implementation has been exceptionally thoughtful so far (like the configurations implementation, amirite?), so I'm sure my suggestion should not be exactly followed. I just hope I can help make the product a bit better by explaining a bit of raw feeling I've had about it, even though it may not be 100% logical. I know it is common to get too good at using a tool to the point that it's hard to remember what it feels like to a layperson. Others probably feel similar things, so it matters.
    • The Onshape team has definitely already demonstrated a commitment to constant improvement, and I'm really excited to be along for the ride. Really, anything that gives the user feedback about what's happening in The Black Box is helpful, even if it's not perfect data.
    Thanks,
    Evan Reese
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
  • MBartlett21MBartlett21 Member, OS Professional, Developers Posts: 2,034 EDU
    • I have a ton of admiration for the Onshape UX/UI team and think implementation has been exceptionally thoughtful so far (like the configurations implementation, amirite?)
    @Evan_Reese Yes, you are :):+1:
    mb - draftsman - also FS author: View FeatureScripts
    IR for AS/NZS 1100
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO

    • Even though "X processing power" doesn't mean much it could still be good to see some kind of "performance index". If real performance is a result of a ton of different dynamic things, maybe there could be some way to communicate overall performance succinctly even at some loss of detail and accuracy.
    I think this is a great idea! Ideally, we should never need to look at a performance monitor and generally this is the case for me but eventually, I do hit the limits on some documents and here I'd love something that I could look up to let me know where the problem is and give some suggested remedies. I am thinking some kind of performance dashboard that would be run similar to a net speed test (which would, of course, be 1 part of the dashboard).  
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • Jake_RosenfeldJake_Rosenfeld Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,646
    Hey guys!

    Some kind of performance monitor would be a very cool idea!  Maybe log an improvement request?
    Jake Rosenfeld - Modeling Team
  • ilya_baranilya_baran Onshape Employees, Developers, HDM Posts: 1,173
    One of the ideas we've been tossing around is some sort of diagnostic tool that measures document complexity and informs you of where various parameters (things like number of tabs, parts, part complexity, regen time, assembly size, tessellation complexity, derived chains, configs, etc.) are on the scale of "Onshape should handle this comfortably" to "It's going to slow down to a crawl and a different design approach may be in order".
    Ilya Baran \ VP, Architecture and FeatureScript \ Onshape Inc
  • Evan_ReeseEvan_Reese Member Posts: 2,060 PRO
    Hey guys!

    Some kind of performance monitor would be a very cool idea!  Maybe log an improvement request?
    Will do!

    One of the ideas we've been tossing around is some sort of diagnostic tool that measures document complexity and informs you of where various parameters (things like number of tabs, parts, part complexity, regen time, assembly size, tessellation complexity, derived chains, configs, etc.) are on the scale of "Onshape should handle this comfortably" to "It's going to slow down to a crawl and a different design approach may be in order".
    Something like this would be pretty cool for me. I'm always experimenting with different workflows.
    Evan Reese / Principal and Industrial Designer with Ovyl
    Website: ovyl.io
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,137 PRO
    One of the ideas we've been tossing around is some sort of diagnostic tool that measures document complexity and informs you of where various parameters (things like number of tabs, parts, part complexity, regen time, assembly size, tessellation complexity, derived chains, configs, etc.) are on the scale of "Onshape should handle this comfortably" to "It's going to slow down to a crawl and a different design approach may be in order".
    This would be very helpful on both ends I am sure. 
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    One of the ideas we've been tossing around is some sort of diagnostic tool that measures document complexity and informs you of where various parameters (things like number of tabs, parts, part complexity, regen time, assembly size, tessellation complexity, derived chains, configs, etc.) are on the scale of "Onshape should handle this comfortably" to "It's going to slow down to a crawl and a different design approach may be in order".
    That sounds great.  I'd take no offense if OS occasional told me it was time to take a different approach.

    See, we knew you'd make a Philip_Bot eventually :p

    Cheers,

    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • robert_morrisrobert_morris OS Professional, Developers Posts: 166 PRO
    @ilya_baran (or other Onshape people),
    Can you explain how the number of tabs in a document affects the performance? I understand why part studio complexity and other stuff can cause issues, but not the number of tabs. Is it because of the tabs being cached in memory, or is there some other behind the scenes computation going on?
    I have noticed a performance difference in larger documents and I'm just trying to understand things for reference when working on new projects.

  • Don_Van_ZileDon_Van_Zile Member Posts: 195 PRO
    edited July 2018

    I second what @robert_morris is asking and others!

    Performance is a good discussion to get more in detail about and I'm glad that Onshape is taking it seriously. I'm starting to see the "Spinning Wheel" too often on a seemingly simply Doc and I know they're only going to grow in complexity. Also, a collegue who has started to utilize configurations in combination with drawings is seeing a noticeable difference; it's troublesome to work with indeed.

    Another example to question is Derived Parts/Sketches. I've noticed looking at the Regen Times that one went from 967ms to 74ms when I checked it again later (nothing changed to my recollection...) Not sure if "cached" data is part of the equation or not?
  • bill_danielsbill_daniels Member Posts: 277 ✭✭✭
    Ilya Baran wrote: "User's latency to our nearest AWS region - responsiveness of most aspects of the system that are not entirely client-side (so not view manipulation), including modeling, assembly drag, measure, drawings".

    I suspect this is a big one.  I use Comcast Cable for Internet because it's the fastest available in my area but bandwidth availability is terribly inconsistent.  It's so bad that streamed audio is impossible with constant pauses for buffer refill.  If I complain, they go through the motions but nothing changes.  For them, bandwidth is about downloading movies - smooth, consistent, real-time access is an alien idea to them.

    If the browser seems to momentarily freezes, my best guess is the local internet pipe has temporarily shut down.  I've been told cable companies allocate bandwidth with a time-division method so users get a lot - then nothing.

    FWIW, I'm relocating to a small town in another state where symmetrical 600MB fiber to the desktop is available for less than I'm paying Comcast.  I'm told it's great.  I'll get to see how that works out.

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