Hello all.

I have recently run into this message while working on a model. I'll start off with the computer specs:

Dell Precision T3500

3.5GB memory

ATI FirePro 2260 (512.0 MB)

32-bit Windows XP Professional (SP3)

Solidworks 2011

Based on what many have said in discussions on this forum, it seems like updating to 64-bit Windows would be the best solution. I have some questions about this though.

Now, after reading around, I've come to understand that since I am working on a 32-bit platform, Solidworks is allotted 2GB of unique addressing space (though in practice, the error message in question will appear at ~1.8GB usage?). I looked around with Windows Task Manager to see just how much memory Solidwork was using at the time of the crash, and I'm a little confused as to how these numbers add up to prove that Solidworks is indeed trying to use more than its allotted 2GB of addressing space. Here are two screenshots:

This is the Processes tab of Windows Task Manager around the time of the error message appearing.

This is the Performance tab of Windows Task Manager around the time of the error message appearing.

A big question I have is what exactly the Mem Usage and VM Size columns in the Processes Tab mean. Task manager help says that Mem Usage is "the current working set...currently residing in memory" and that VM size is the "amount of virtual memory, or address space, committed to a single process." So in my case with the screenshots above, that is ~0.84GB working set in memory (by the way, does this refer to physical memory?), and ~0.77GB or addressing space being used by SW.

Is it simply a matter of adding these numbers up to get 0.84GB + 0.77GB = 1.61GB being using by Solidworks, which is, I supposed roughly close enough to 1.8GB to cause the memory error message in question to appear? How does my graphics card's memory play into this?

So yes, I'm just puzzled on where exactly I can see the numbers add up to the 32-bit 1.8/2GB allotted limit for addressing space. Any help is greatly appreciated. I'd like to understand this problem more so that I can make the best choice regarding a solution. Thank you!