Large Assembly / Performance tips needed for user group presentation

The biggest, baddest, bestest thing I can think of is to turn on the 3gb switch. I have been running it for a few weeks now, and just about every day, I could not have done the stuff I did without it. The imported car bodies I have been working with have pushed me all the way up to 2.6gb Commit Charge. Obviously, this would not have worked without the switch turned on.

I know, not exactly what you were looking for, but it was what let me do my job for the last couple weeks.

WT

Here is my dozen.

1. 3GB switch as has been mentioned.
2. At least 2GB ram. SW seems to use large amounts of ram temporarily even though when quiescent it may indicate well below 1GB. With 2GB physical ram and the 3GB switch SW will max at about 2.6gb before terminating.
3. AMD64 FX53, FX51, 184 seem to be the fastest hardware.
4. NVidia FX series video cards also help.
5. Run the video resolution down as much as is tolerable: a. 1024x768 b. set document properties to fastest while working. c. turn off anti-aliasing d. work in shaded mode.
6. The new SATA hard drives are very fast.
7. There is an article on the SW forum about how to put together a very fast network setup which includes dual gigabit ethernet and other goodies.
8. SAMBA on Linux seems to be a very fast server.
9. Keep the assembly clean. Bad mates should be fixed when they occur. They seem to cause instability and slowness.
10. Avoid large numbers of patterned flexible assemblies. Having many duplicate configurations of the same sub assembly will greatly slow assembly performance.
11. Avoid large numbers of the same part with different configurations.
12. I find the Spaceball to be invaluable when mating due to the ability to pick up a part and move it into position while rotating the view with the mouse.

matt wrote:

Here's one that needs mention: Use a lot of subassembies. The effect they have is to group components together so that the higher level assembly mates them as a single component. This can save a ton of rebuild time. A subassembly is also the best way to re-use a functional group of components elsewhere in the design.

Oh yeah, learn to use skeleton parts as well.

Matt,

I did a similar presentation for the Buffalo/Niagara SolidWorks User Group. Here's some of my highlights, I hope they help:

1. Keep SW Part size small. Small file size in parts = faster Assemblies. Use "saveas" and ECOSqueeze" regularily. I've seen people try to get quick assembly performance but overlook the fact that the file size of their parts are HUGE.
2. 1Gig NIC. By far one of the cheapest ways to improve performance over a network (if the rest of the Network infrastructure will support it).
3. Use LAM. Very good tool, if tweaked properly.
4. Suppressed Parts (vs Hidden) ...duh. :)
5. Disable "realtime" virus scanning. I know your looking for SW tips, butI've seen this cause noticable improvements (especially over a network).

Regards,

Jeff

I've never heard of this. What is it? I did a quick search and turned up a clustering tool, but I don't see how that can help.

Wake up, boy - Large Assy Mode.... :-)

WT

I know that hidden parts still carry some baggage, but with the car body files (20-80meg) I have been dealing with, I could achieve 10 fold improvement by only hiding them. My thought is this. As I rotate and manipulate the assy, all the imported surfaced body info doesn't have to be handled with the video. If I suppress them, then I have to wait for them to load again when I do need them.

I also noticed that shaded with edges was dragging me down with noticeable delays, but when I switched to plain shaded, the delays were gone. I still like the edges on, for the most part, but will turn it off when I have the bodies showing.

WT

"Wayne Tiffany" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@uni-berlin.de:

Oh. Too obvious.

Hi

What is the 3gb switch?

Anders

Sorry, I just couldn't pass that one up - too easy. :-))

WT

Matt, Here's a couple for the "what ever" category.

Get used to it. Depending on your set-up, large assemblies can (and will) be slow. Look for other things to do during long rebuilds, loads, or mates.

Turn off things like view animation, mate animation (uncheck "preview mates"), don't use transparency.

Get a PDM system and run files from your local drive.

Richard

"Richard Doyle" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@uni-berlin.de:

I like that. It goes well with your crashing presentation called "It's your fault". You trying to get me hurt?

Thanks for the suggestions, people have to admit at some point that reality exists.

matt

Thanks for the list! OS, hardware and network settings are certainly valid.

How is that group going? I've heard good things about it from some jealous RUGS (Rochester user group for solidworks) members.

You didn't call it "BUGS" (Buffalo user group...), by any chance, did you?

Thanks again!

matt

"Jeff Kuchta" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mygate.mailgate.org:

Whenever people ask me about this, I point them to your website. I guess that isn't too much help in this case!

We don't deal in really large assemblies, but our complex part shapes cause a lot of the same problems in smaller assemblies. I've got to think that going back to SW03 might not be such a dumb idea. The bloated file size in SW04 is driving us nuts. Does it cause problems for large assemblies as well?

Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"

"Jerry Steiger"

Actually, it did help. I had forgotten I had that up there. Thanks for the reminder.

Thanks to all who posted something. I think I used some of everyone's suggestions. The presentation is up on my website now, if anyone is interested.

Go to the Rules of Thumb link, top of the list. RMB on the link to save the file locally, other wise it will run powerpoint inside the IE frame.

matt

thanks matt, I have found screaming at the software to be very therapeutic... : )

Matt,

When your "research" can you publish here your findings?

Thanks in advance.....

Hi

I always turn off cosmetic threads in assemblies.

Kind regards Klaus