Puget Systems Reduces Rendering Time for Zelmar Kitchen Designs & More
About Zelmar Kitchen Designs & More
Zelmar Kitchen Designs & More is a family owned design company with 20+ years of experience, including both European and American design expertise. They are located in Orlando, Florida and offer a variety of services. Some of their more popular services include Bathroom Remodeling, Custom Countertops, Custom Kitchen Cabinets, Kitchen Remodeling, and Tile Installation. Their accomplishments include being Angie's List A rated, BBB A+ rated, and awarded 2015 – 2017 Best of Houzz ratings in both Design and Client Satisfaction categories.
The customer is led through the entire design process by one person: the designer and owner of the company himself. This creates a smooth process where both the designer and client are on the same page at all times. They provide each customer with the best service possible throughout the entire design and installation process, and guarantee full satisfaction upon completion.
Tools of the Trade
I had the opportunity to talk with Aleks Markovic, the Head of Marketing at Zelmar Kitchen Designs, about their processes. During the initial visit, the client's home is hand measured. The measurements are then entered into 2020 Design and the room is created. The cabinets and countertops are then imported and product textures are applied to them. Once the design is finalized, the 360° panoramic renderings are then created. Zelmar is then able to apply lighting and texture effects and create a photorealistic model. Each model that is created is specific to the homeowners own house layout.
During the review process with the client they are then able to modify the design elements as needed to suit the homeowners request. With the ability to edit in real time, the homeowner can see those changes being applied by the Zelmar designer in their energy efficient showroom.
Click below for sample 360° panoramic models.
Challenges
"One go at it would crash the computer. It required just that much processing [power].
Prior to purchasing from Puget Systems, Aleks would spend the majority of his time waiting for renders to finish. This predicament is why Aleks was in need of a workstation that would allow him to complete jobs and move on to different projects quickly. The 2020 Design software being used is very demanding and would bring their old systems to a halt. They experienced frequent crashes, instability, and extremely long render times – occasionally taking up to 48 hours to complete. All of those issues combined made it impractical to create 360° panoramic views for every client.
Puget Systems Solutions
Our technology consultants determined that 2020 Design was primarily utilizing the CPU to do the rendering. Puget Systems configured a Genesis II workstation with two Intel Xeon E5-2690 v4 14-core processors. By having a total of 28 CPU cores it makes quick work of renders. Puget Systems also gave Aleks enough memory to handle the large files Aleks works with and rounded out the system with a couple of high-speed solid state drives along with large mechanical drives for archiving projects. The SSDs and hard drives were set up in separate redundant arrays to prevent any data loss in the event of a drive failure.
With their new system from Puget they are producing the 360° panoramic renderings in 15 to 30 minutes. By being able to create these images quickly Zelmar is able to set themselves apart from the competition. Not only does this help them stand out, it also gives the homeowner the real sense of how their new space will look after the remodel.
"It has really cut our processing time tremendously. Historically images like this would take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to render on the old computers. Now it’s taking 15 to 30 minutes."
Why Puget Systems?
While shopping around for PC builders, Aleks soon realized that most companies wanted to sell them a predetermined configuration. There was no research behind the system and how to optimize it for the best performance in 2020 Design. What drew Aleks to work with Puget Systems is the ability to customize the computer to their needs, there was no restriction to a predetermined format. The human factor of being able to talk with an experienced technology consultant and solve all of their current frustrations was paramount.
"Knowing that if we have any issues, there is someone to take care of it."
Are your needs similar to those of Aleks and Zelmar Kitchen Designs & More? If so, we can build a system for you too! Check out the solutions-oriented systems we provide, or contact our consulting staff to discuss your specific needs.
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Puget Systems has configurations tailored for many popular CPU and GPU based rendering engines.