Noseman, Yes, it was empty, so I deleted it, and the rendering worked, as it was applied to the default scene.

My idea here was first to make the setup small and working, as rendering was the main question. After that, check why things are set up as they were. Then explore what is needed and wanted. So we have a good progression and a savvy feeling about it.

So, with two solutions now, perhaps there is confusion for people reading along.

The short answer is: both are correct, while using no Scene Object places it all into the default scene (Attributes>Mode> Scene> Simulation), while using the Scene Object (or more than one) allows creating independent Simulation setups. What is the right one now should be easy to decide.

Cheers

P.S.: thanks for confirming that the scene is demanding, I checked it on several computer here, all show very little responsiveness here.