Knowledge Base

PLAXIS 2DV9, PlaxFlow, and PLAXIS 3DTunnel are 32-bit applications, meaning that can only address a maximum of about 2 GB to 2.5 GB, even on a 64-bits Windows Version. The calculation kernels for these programs are also only available as 32-bits single threaded applications. This means you will not profit directly from a multi-core CPU for the calculations.
The best options to improve the calculation speed for these 32-bit applications is:

• at least a DualCore PC. This will not give direct benefit, but it will make sure that you have your Plaxis process running on one core, and the others on the other (like Windows)
• Harddisk: Fast HDD with high IOPS, e.g. a SSD. Store the Plaxis project files on this local fast HDD to get good read/write speed for data of the the ongoing calculation process.
• 3 GB of RAM (even for a 32-bit Windows version)
• use a fast CPU (high clockspeed and recent archicture)
• minimize the amount of other running applications on that computer

PLAXIS 2D 2010: parallel phases

PLAXIS 2D 2010 is also a 32-bit application, but with the advantage of calculating phases simultaneously when these phases are independent. An example: take a project that has three phases and both Phase 2 and Phase 3 will start from Phase 1. This makes Phase 2 and Phase 3 independent of each other. With PLAXIS 2D2010 you can now calculate Phase 2 and Phase 3 simultaneously when Phase 1 is finished and when you have at least 2 CPU cores available. Another advantage is that the calculation kernel can do the matrix decomposition over multiple CPU cores, making calculations with advanced soil models, like the Hardening Soil model, faster. Especially for calculation phases with a lot of steps (e.g. Dynamics) this can give an improvement of 20%.

The best way to improve your calculation speed for 2D 2010 is:

• at least a DualCore PC
• a fast CPU (high clockspeed and recent archicture)
• 3 GB of RAM (even for a 32-bit Windows version)
• Harddisk: Fast HDD with high IOPS, e.g. a SSD. Store the Plaxis project files on this local fast HDD to get good read/write speed for data of the the ongoing calculation process.
• minimize the amount of other running applications on that computer

PLAXIS 2D 2011: multicore solver

With the release of PLAXIS 2D 2011, Plaxis moves another step forward for fast and efficient Finite Element calculations: a single phase calculation will now use all available CPU cores for the fasted possible phase calculation. As a side effect, the algorithm for parallel phases that was available in PLAXIS 2D 2010 cannot be used to avoid system overload (multiple phases all using the same amount of CPU cores).
Note that this calculation is currently still 32 bit, but the calculation can now handle more than 10,000 15-noded elements.

For the best calculation performance for PLAXIS 2D 2011:

• at least a DualCore PC
• a fast CPU (high clockspeed and recent archicture)
• 3 GB of RAM (even for a 32-bit Windows version)
• Harddisk: Fast HDD with high IOPS, e.g. a SSD. Store the Plaxis project files on this local fast HDD to get good read/write speed for data of the the ongoing calculation process.
• minimize the amount of other running applications on that computer

PLAXIS 2D 2011.01: 64 bit multicore solver

In the PLAXIS 2D 2011.01 update, Plaxis adds another calculation improvement: the 64 bit calculation kernel. Now larger models can be calculated: in the 64-bit calculation kernel the memory limit is determined by the maximum available RAM memory in the computer system, improving the 2 GB limit of the 32-bit kernel. And in most cases the 64-bit calculation kernel will improve the calculation time.

Note that the software can still run on a 32 bit Windows version, in which it will fall back to the 32 bit calculation behaviour.

For the best calculation performance for PLAXIS 2D 2011.01:

• a 64-bit Windows Operating System
• at least a QuadCore PC
• a fast CPU (high clockspeed and recent archicture)
• 4 GB of RAM
• Harddisk: Fast HDD with high IOPS, e.g. a SSD. Store the Plaxis project files on this local fast HDD to get good read/write speed for data of the the ongoing calculation process.
• minimize the amount of other running applications on that computer

PLAXIS 3DFoundation & PLAXIS 3D 2010: 64 bit calculation kernel

PLAXIS 3DFoundation 2.2 and PLAXIS 3D 2010 and later, a 64-bit calculation kernel is available. In order to use such a 64-bit calculation kernel, it must be run on a 64-bits version of a Microsoft Operating System. In that case, the calculation kernel's memory limitation is based on the available RAM in the system, rather than the 32-bit limitation of about 2 GB. These 64-bit calculation kernels are available via the PLAXIS VIP Licence.
For PLAXIS 3D2010, the system of independent phase calculation is also introduced, so a multicore processor will have some advantages.
For the best calculation performance using a 64-bit calculation kernel:

• a 64-bit Windows Operating System
• at least a DualCore PC
• a fast CPU (high clockspeed and recent archicture)
• Harddisk: Fast HDD with high IOPS, e.g. a SSD. Make sure the Windows TEMP folder is located on this disk to get good read/write speed for data of the the ongoing calculation process.
• a graphics card with a minumum of 256 MB RAM (dedicated, not shared) and support of OpenGL 1.5 (improves the visualisation of the results)

PLAXIS 3D 2011: 64 bit parallel solver

With the release of PLAXIS 3D2011, Plaxis will allow for the usage of different solvers, including a multicore 64-bit solver. With this new calculation option, a single phase calculation can be calculated using multiple CPU cores. For the best calculation performance:

• a 64-bit Windows Operating System
• for large 3D models, at least 16 GB of RAM
• at least a QuadCore PC
• a fast CPU (high clockspeed and recent archicture)
• Harddisk: Fast HDD with high IOPS, e.g. a SSD. Make sure the Windows TEMP folder is located on this disk to get good read/write speed for data of the the ongoing calculation process.
• a graphics card with a minumum of 256 MB RAM (dedicated, not shared) and support of OpenGL 1.5 (improves the visualisation of the results)

Note that all Plaxis programs can still run on a 32-bit Windows Operating System, but it will run with the 32-bit limitation of using a maximum of 2 GB of RAM. In most cases, this is not a practical limitation for 2D.