If you try to add large FBX 3D model to the XNA project, and build it, you can get an OutOfMemoryException build error like following:

Error    1    Building content threw OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.
   at System.Collections.Generic.List`1.set_Capacity(Int32 value)
   at System.Collections.Generic.List`1.EnsureCapacity(Int32 min)
   at System.Collections.Generic.List`1.InsertRange(Int32 index, IEnumerable`1 collection)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.Graphics.VertexChannel`1.InsertRange(Int32 index, Int32 count)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.Graphics.VertexContent.InsertRange(Int32 index, IEnumerable`1 positionIndexCollection)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.Graphics.MeshBuilder.AddTriangleVertex(Int32 indexIntoVertexCollection)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.MeshConverter.FillNodeWithInfoFromMesh(KFbxNode* fbxNode, String name, KFbxGeometryConverter* geometryConverter)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.FbxImporter.ProcessInformationInNode(KFbxNode* fbxNode, String name, Boolean* partOfMainSkeleton, Boolean* warnIfBoneButNotChild)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.FbxImporter.ProcessNode(ValueType parentAbsoluteTransform, NodeContent potentialParent, KFbxNode* fbxNode, Boolean partOfMainSkeleton, Boolean warnIfBoneButNotChild)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.FbxImporter.ProcessNode(ValueType parentAbsoluteTransform, NodeContent potentialParent, KFbxNode* fbxNode, Boolean partOfMainSkeleton, Boolean warnIfBoneButNotChild)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.FbxImporter.Import(String filename, ContentImporterContext context)
   at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.ContentImporter`1.Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Pipeline.IContentImporter.Import(String filename, ContentImporterContext context)
   //additional calls here …
 

My desktop PC have 8Gb RAM, and Visual Studio’s process devenv.exe use under 2Gb of it while build process (about 3.5-4Gb of RAM is always free). It’s obvious, that VS can’t address more than 2Gb of RAM, and when that limit is over, build process is fail.

OS on my PC is Win x64,  so I “charge” devenv.exe by using editbin.exe utility – in the VS Command prompt I run following:

editbin "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /LARGEADDRESSAWARE

This command edits the image to indicate that the application can handle addresses larger than 2 gigabytes.

After that FBX file successfully built! Of course, you must put proper path to devenv.exe, depend on your installation path. If you are on Win x86, you need to do additional action – more info here.

P.S.: although now you can build a bigger files, than usual, keep in mind, that XNA have some restrictions on vertex buffer size etc., depend on your current XNA project profile (Reach or HiDef). And if your model’s vertexbuffer size more than 64Mb (with Reach profile), that model can’t be built and raise an error.