I have 32 GBs of ram on my computer (16 and 16). When running the takeoff report, TBC's memory usage is at about 63%, with plan view and a 3D view open and not many other apps running 7-10% memory usage). Is there a way to bump up the memory usage to 75-80 to decrease the calc time. I guess I would anticipate more memory usage if it is available, about 25 left on the table. If I increase my ram would I get much benefit? Is there a buffer that TBC will hold back on extracting resources?

About 45% memory usage with only one view open and active.

For most projects when running one version of TBC 32 gb is fine.  The amount of memory used does not reflect a measure of speed, with a couple of exceptions.  If the program uses the memory and then pages to disk it will get real slow.  Having large gaps in the memory used makes memory allocation faster, just like saving to a hard drive.  When a program uses a modern computer language the memory management cleanup is done by the software tools used and not directly by the program. Because of this the amount of memory shown in task manager may not really reflect what is in use by TBC.  When you run out of memory, the program will most likely crash.

Memory is used to store data or intermediate calculation information.  Something like computing volumes uses a certain amount of memory.  Increasing memory usage makes no sense as the process just uses what it requires.

Most calculations in TBC use a single core as the calculation process is linear.  So when TBC is flat out computing something you will see a small partial use of the total CPU performance, but that is the best that can be done.  Other processes will be using other cores of the processor.  Typically when TBC is able to use all of the cores you may notice that the fan will turn on.

Go for processors that have good single core performance.  Faster memory is faster.  Faster hard drives help as most changes are saved to a file so that they can be undone.  Turn off the history recording. Refer to the following document within this forum for additional hints of how to speed up your workflows.

Technical reference Document - Managing Your Data for Speed.doc

Hope this helps.

tim