Monitoring Windows System Resource Usage

This document is no longer available beyond version 21. Information can now be found here: Windows System Resource Monitor for version 24

Applies to Altium Designer version: 21

A Windows system resource monitor has been implemented within Altium Designer. When resource consumption gets to a level considered to be high, a resource warning indicator appears at the bottom-right of Altium Designer. Hover the cursor over the indicator for information about which resource(s) are exceeding associated levels of consumption. Note that the color of the indicator changes to highlight the level of resource consumption.

A warning indicator appears when Altium Designer's resource consumption becomes high, and changes color to indicate when action is required.A warning indicator appears when Altium Designer's resource consumption becomes high, and changes color to indicate when action is required.

A warning indicator appears when Altium NEXUS's resource consumption becomes high, and changes color to indicate when action is required.A warning indicator appears when Altium NEXUS's resource consumption becomes high, and changes color to indicate when action is required.

The following resources are monitored:

  • Memory used by Altium Designer
  • Count of allocated GDI handles
  • Percentage of allocated global and session atoms

The resource monitor triggers and displays a warning indicator when any of the above resources reach the following levels:

  • < 60% normal level (no resource indicator is displayed)
  • 61% to 75% is considered a high level, indicated by a yellow indicator
  • 76% to 90% is considered a very high level, indicated by an orange indicator. In addition, the message indicates that a restart of Altium Designer is advisable.
  • > 90% is considered a critical level, indicated by a red indicator. In addition, the message indicates that a restart of Altium Designer is advisable.
Only resources that have exceeded the permissable levels will be included in the hover tip message.
It is important to be aware that Windows has a default limit of 10000 GDI handles available per application, it is strongly recommended that you restart Altium Designer when advised to do so.

 

Note

The features available depend on your level of Altium Designer Software Subscription.