I thought it useful to provide an update, made progress, not that this teaches anything about causes and reliable work arounds, am left to wonder…
I had suggested I’d next try exporting .rcalign and running in a new project. I did not clear cache, watched the console in the new project (with the imported Component) during Reconstruction, seems RC didn’t have to begin from scratch, but using Normal quality the Reconstruction of 392 images took over 24 hours, saw the same sluggish behavior, though just a hair more activity on CPU than what happened (or didn’t happen) in four days time prior. When it completed RC reported that 64 parts were missing. How might this particular issue be related to the original issue, RC turns slow like molasses?
I then wondered if my system may be straining, maybe try a smaller Reconstruction Region. My system has performed fine with way more images (same 42 MP density), so system resources wouldn’t seem a likely culprit, but you try anything. Again, I left cache alone, roughly half the image set ran through Reconstruction without a problem in only an hour or so, then same with the remainder.
What conclusions may one draw from this experience? RC often works, sometimes doesn’t? System resources may or may not play a role in how consistently RC functions as expected? Questions like these make folks running a business nervous. You don’t want to be forced to throw a percentage in related to an “RC uncertainty cost factor”. End users can deal with reality, so if RC engineers could weigh in and simply speak to the reality and share how their top power users work with those issues, this knowledge is most welcome and I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I’d never use knowledge of a weak spot in RC against Capturing Reality, slinging mud publicly. We all understand this work is nontrivial to say the least. It’s amazing this works at all, and RC is the clear leader in this space, so this isn’t about and shouldn’t be about editorializing the product. We simply want answers to better do our job.
In the meanwhile, I think my practise will be to keep an eye on Resource Monitor, and when too much time goes by, End Process Tree, restart PC, don’t trash cache, try running a smaller Reconstruction Region, try doing so in a new project based on an imported Component.