3Shape Dental Designer PC specs

[jeppe]

Hi,

any suggestions for a PC setup that runs DD smoothly? Intel or AMD? What GPU? Memory etc?

 

[jeppe]

What kind of computers do you DLN users use for 3Shape? I'd be interested in hearing your experiences, especially what is needed for 3Shape DD to run smoothly.

 

[Brett Hansen CDT]

Basically, we bought a high end gaming PC. I think we spent around $2000 on it. I would suggest you call your 3 Shape tech support. We had Core3D at the time and they were very helpful with suggestions on what specs the PC needed and they helped optimize it once we did purchase the computer.

 

[Wainwright]

I agree with Brett, talk to your support / 3Shape.

I've ran 3Shape on lots of different configurations and there are two key aspects; 1) If you are running a desktop scanner having the right USB control boards, this can be very specific to the generation of scanner. 2) Dental Designer; Nvidia GPUs only (I'm currently running a RTX 3080),I've heard there can be issues with AMD GPUs. I've never had an issue with Intel vs AMD CPUs (knock on wood...).

32 gigs of ram minimum, SSD, yada yada, but again like Brett said a high end gamer PC has all that stuff in spades.

 

[Contraluz]

What kind of computers do you DLN users use for 3Shape? I'd be interested in hearing your experiences, especially what is needed for 3Shape DD to run smoothly.

Very good question!

I got frustrated with the performance with the stock PC from the very beginning. Only after bothering my vendor for months (!!!),I got help and some one form 3shape got onto the PC and tweaked something, which helped to improve it a bit. I upgraded to one of the higher end gaming PCs 2 years ago, or so. Although it exceeds all the minimum specs by miles, it still stutters on certain tasks and the periodical saving process takes forever. Before upgrading, I contacted my license holder on what to buy, but their advice was useless. My friend next door has Exocad (ZirkonZahn) and he runs it on a similar built PC, with no issues. Very smooth, even a few years ago, when he had a less powerful computer.

For 3Shape, from what I gather, look for the best performing single core processor. Obviously a good graphics card and decent ram.

However, what I don't get, it seems, when using Dental Designer, the PC barely gets challenged. No fan spinning no nothing and task manager shows usage in the 10 to 20 % range. I really ask myself why we buy these high end computer when the software is not using it?

I am looking forward to be educated on that!

Thanks!

 

[Brett Hansen CDT]

I agree with Brett, talk to your support / 3Shape.

I've ran 3Shape on lots of different configurations and there are two key aspects; 1) If you are running a desktop scanner having the right USB control boards, this can be very specific to the generation of scanner. 2) Dental Designer; Nvidia GPUs only (I'm currently running a RTX 3080),I've heard there can be issues with AMD GPUs. I've never had an issue with Intel vs AMD CPUs (knock on wood...).

32 gigs of ram minimum, SSD, yada yada, but again like Brett said a high end gamer PC has all that stuff in spades.

I will add that my 3Shape tech support optimized my video card to give priority to 3Shape. I am not sure if I worded that correctly, but they did something to make that happen.

 

[npdynamite]

Most everything is covered here, I would err on the side of overkill. That said I can't imagine you will see much change past a standard 3080.

Having the right USB control boards is mentioned, does anyone know how to tell, which are right? I have seen high end computers not be able to run a scanner for no apparent reason before.

Also, if you are using any design modules in dental desktop, you may need 64gigs of ram as that software can eat up ram sometimes. I have tried to get an explanation on this but haven't found any. I think it is just inefficient software.

 

[Wainwright]

Most everything is covered here, I would err on the side of overkill. That said I can't imagine you will see much change past a standard 3080.

Having the right USB control boards is mentioned, does anyone know how to tell, which are right? I have seen high end computers not be able to run a scanner for no apparent reason before.

Also, if you are using any design modules in dental desktop, you may need 64gigs of ram as that software can eat up ram sometimes. I have tried to get an explanation on this but haven't found any. I think it is just inefficient software.

It might be less of an issue with USB 3.0 and the more recent generation of 3Shape scanners, but I always thought older scanners needed USB 2.0 specific hardware and they don't like USB 3.0 and something around having enough "power". I remember back in the day all 3Shape scan stations had PCI based USB controllers so its not too much draw from the motherboard? I'm not really sure though. The good thing is if you do run into issues with the scanner and USB there are many PCI options that are very cheap that can hopefully fix anything that comes up.

I think anything over a 3060Ti or even 1080Ti would be just fine on GPUs, a 3080+ is nice to have and maybe a bit of future proofing.

On RAM, why not 64, its so damn cheap and if you have only 4 slots may as well just start with 4 x 16 gigers.

 

[NewGuyOnTheBlock]

I use a gaming computer "Acer" with no issues

 

[Sevan P]

since 2017 custom build
Intel i7-7820X 8x3.6ghx
Nvidia GTX 1080Ti
64GB ram
iTB nvme M2 SSD for OS and 1TB nvme ssd for DataBase


My MSI laptop i lecture on and travel with is sweat as well
i7 8750H 6x2.20ghz
17.3 screen
GTX1070
16gb ram but now 32gb
256 GB SSD but now 1TBssd and 2TB data HDD
both on win 10 pro.

But do not go full blow crazy as 3shape still doesn't utilize full resources yet. 6 or 8 cores will do and a 3060 card it like the limit. 3090Ti if you nutz and like to VR a lot. but honestly at the time i build mine the 1080Ti was overkill. 64 to 128 GB ram is great. and nothing but a NVME M2 SSD for boot drive and ssd or NVME ssd for data drive. you can use a HDD for other data.

 

[Contraluz]

both on win 10 pro.

Sevan, as far as you know, is there a difference in performance between Pro and Home windows?

 

[npdynamite]

I believe the main difference in pro and home will be the ability to network and have multiple design stations.

All advice here seems pretty good. As a last note, grab a quality mouse and a 3dconnexion mouse. I like the logitech g502 personally, but that is personal preference.

 

[Wainwright]

Sevan, as far as you know, is there a difference in performance between Pro and Home windows?

I think its just like virtual machine, some stuff IT uses for fleet management, and a crazy amount of RAM potential ("64-bit Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education will support up to 2TB of RAM, while the 64-bit version of Windows 10 Home is limited to only 128GB."). Home is very likely just fine

 

[Contraluz]

I think its just like virtual machine, some stuff IT uses for fleet management, and a crazy amount of RAM potential ("64-bit Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education will support up to 2TB of RAM, while the 64-bit version of Windows 10 Home is limited to only 128GB."). Home is very likely just fine

Got it, thanks for the explanation!

M

 

[KentPWalton]

Moving Bullseye

 

[Sevan P]

Sevan, as far as you know, is there a difference in performance between Pro and Home windows?

I always use pro, so i couldn't say.

 

[Contraluz]

I always use pro, so i couldn't say.

Thank you! When I bought the PC it came with Home. I have upgraded RAM and Hard drives, but I have not bothered to upgrade to Pro. And from what I see, it won't make much of a difference.

 

[TheLabGuy]

Don't use AMD, it will turn your 3shape into a bug fest. Use Intel, extra ram, 2tb ssd will help.

 

[jeppe]

Very good question!

I got frustrated with the performance with the stock PC from the very beginning. Only after bothering my vendor for months (!!!),I got help and some one form 3shape got onto the PC and tweaked something, which helped to improve it a bit. I upgraded to one of the higher end gaming PCs 2 years ago, or so. Although it exceeds all the minimum specs by miles, it still stutters on certain tasks and the periodical saving process takes forever. Before upgrading, I contacted my license holder on what to buy, but their advice was useless. My friend next door has Exocad (ZirkonZahn) and he runs it on a similar built PC, with no issues. Very smooth, even a few years ago, when he had a less powerful computer.

For 3Shape, from what I gather, look for the best performing single core processor. Obviously a good graphics card and decent ram.

However, what I don't get, it seems, when using Dental Designer, the PC barely gets challenged. No fan spinning no nothing and task manager shows usage in the 10 to 20 % range. I really ask myself why we buy these high end computer when the software is not using it?

I am looking forward to be educated on that!

Thanks!

Periodical saving lag could be caused by disk I/O speeed? Maybe RAIDing disks might provide some speed? Own disk for OS, Software and data at least?

 

[Contraluz]

Periodical saving lag could be caused by disk I/O speeed? Maybe RAIDing disks might provide some speed? Own disk for OS, Software and data at least?

Hi

Thank you for responding! I do have the OS and Dental manager on one drive and storage on a different. OS and 3shape software are on a WD Black NVMe M.2 1TB PCI. Storage is on a 'regular' SSD.

What did improve greatly after the upgrade is the rebuild process, when reopening a case. But what slows it down a lot is when you select 'visualizing the contact zones,' or what ever it is called. I mean the red lines on the occlusal surface or contact area. Whenever I do that on a bigger case, the software gets really slow. The same happens when undoing a step, in a bigger case. It slows down for a while. In general, full upper and lower cases slow down the software a lot when getting towards completion. And the fear of crashing it is always there...

Anyway, enough of a rant for a Sunday.

PS. I am not familiar with setting up RAID.