Out of memory when using clone tool

[Ilan]

PWP runs out of memory when cloning a large area. The clone options are "copy", "linked" and "continuous". I run PWP 5.0.1.10 on 64 bit Windows 7 home edition. I checked the amount of memory used in the task manager / resource manager. Before starting the clone tool it is less than 300 MB. While cloning the memory used climbs quickly to about 1900 MB and PWP runs out of memory.
Is there a workaround for this? Can this be fixed in a future update?

Ilan

[jsachs]

The problem is the undo buffer for the clone tool which gradually gets larger and larger the more cloning you do. The larger the brush, the more memory it needs.

You can set Undo (File Preferences) to Single which still allows you to undo one stroke but not all previous strokes, or you can reset the Undo buffer at any time by switching briefly to another tool or by simply closing and re-opening the Clone tool dialog box.

[Ilan]

Thanks for the quick answer. Limiting the level of undo is probably the better option since I want to keep the reference point when I continue cloning.

Having the option to limit the undo level to two or three would be nice (instead of single only). It would be helpful if the clone tool would remember the offset between the source and destination while switching to another tool.

Thanks again,
Ilan

[bobsofpa]

The problem is the undo buffer for the clone tool which gradually gets larger and larger the more cloning you do. The larger the brush, the more memory it needs.

You can set Undo (File Preferences) to Single which still allows you to undo one stroke but not all previous strokes, or you can reset the Undo buffer at any time by switching briefly to another tool or by simply closing and re-opening the Clone tool dialog box.

This is one of the reasons we are awaiting the 64 bit version of PWP. I have 16 gig RAM but it does me no good in this situation.

[den]

Found and installed a neat little Windows freeware utility: MemInfo v2.2 [http://www.carthagosoft.net/MemInfo.php] that will display memory usage in percent with warnings at 60% and 90% usage... ...claims to be compatible for 64bit Windows OS's...

You can set the % usage to display in the notification area of the Windows Task Bar and if you elect to not 'auto-hide' the Task Bar, the display remains visible while using PWP at Full Screen frame size...

Perfect for me at 3GB RAM and Vista 32 bit....

known issues
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- MemInfo itself, takes up memory, however is small footprint and should
not be a problem.

- Note that Windows 32 bits versions see only up to 3.25 GB of RAM.
This is not a problem with MemInfo, but rather a limitation on Windows
32 bits systems. Please contact Microsoft and\or your support representative
directly regarding this.

- Windows Vista and 7 automatically hide tray icons, if you wish to have the
memory statys always visible please edit MemInfo to always show. Refer to
the Windows documentation on how to always show tray icons

[Ilan]

Thanks den. This looks like a nice little utility but it does not solve the problem. I am running PWP on a 64-bit system. Only PWP runs out of memory not Windows. There is still much memory left for other programs. I see two problems:
a) The clone tool seems to use too much memory for the undo information.
b) PWP should be a native 64 bit application in order to utilize more than only 2 or 3 GB ( the Windows 32-bit limit). This would be useful for other transformations as well.

[den]

You are right... a coming of age (64-bit) version of PWP as announced is coming soon to take advantage of current processors/OS's... I am still in a time warp.... and probably will remain so for awhile yet... ;-)

[dbd]

...
I am running PWP on a 64-bit system. Only PWP runs out of memory not Windows. There is still much memory left for other programs. I see two problems:
a) The clone tool seems to use too much memory for the undo information.
b) PWP should be a native 64 bit application in order to utilize more than only 2 or 3 GB ( the Windows 32-bit limit). This would be useful for other transformations as well.

For use with Windows-7 64-bit, I have been using Windows Task Manager (accessible from cntl-alt-del) for a quick view and Resource Manager (accessible from the Performance window of Windows Task Manager) for the process by process memory usage under Windows-7 64bit.

I frequently edit large files and have to watch what processing I attempt with what images loaded. The situation has gotten worse under W7-64 than I experienced under XP-32. Under XP-32, PWP seems to properly track memory usage except for 60-70MB (of the available 2G). I found that when I encountered Out of Memory, I could save images, close and reopen PWP and recover that 60-70MB and perform operations that had resulted in Out of Memory messages. Under W-7-64 the amount of lost count space seems to have gotten as high as 250MB at times. Worse yet, whenever I get the Out of Memory message from PWP-32 under W-7-64 I have problems with attempts at saving my currently loaded (and modified) images. The problem seems to be failure of required control windows to appear to allow selections to be made.

The problems with saving work also occur with real Out of Memory situations when I make the mistake of causing them to happen..

Dale B. Dalrymple