Although the amount of memory required by Ansys Forte to display and process a CFD model varies greatly depending on the number of cells in the mesh, and there is no value that is correct for all problems and usages, the user interface must know at start-up the maximum amount of memory that will be available.

The amount of memory Ansys Forte's user interface will use can be configured by editing the Launcher preferences. To do this, click the Edit Launcher Preferences button   from the Ansys Forte Launcher (see Figure 2: Launcher icon with Edit Launcher Preferences button).

After clicking the Edit Launcher Preferences button, select either the Simulate or Monitor application item and expand the Memory Settings panel. You may configure the default memory limit (in MB) and optionally choose to have the Launcher prompt for a memory limit (with the preferred setting as the default) before new instances of either the Simulate or Monitor interface are opened.

Figure 1: Edit Launcher Preferences dialog

Note that the memory limit specified is only an upper limit on the amount of memory that may be consumed by the user interface; in practice the actual memory consumption may be significantly less. However, to avoid interfering with other system processes and resources, Ansys recommends specifying a value that is below your total system RAM by at least 500 MB to 1 GB.

Also note that the memory usage will be cumulative with respect to multiple instances of Simulate and Monitor windows, so if you have 3 windows open, each with a maximum memory setting of 8 GB, your system could potentially require 24 GB of system RAM.