Slow regeneration or loading
Slow regeneration or loading
(OP)
We had decided to migrate from Pro Engineer to Solid works and started implementing the move. We just started using Solid Works and we noticed that complicated solid models with large numbers of features (a hollow cylinder with 240 holes w/c-bores) take an unusually long time to load or regenerate compared to ProE. This is very disturbing and we are wondering if we've made a mistake by changing from ProE. Could there be some solution for this issue?
Thanks
Thanks






RE: Slow regeneration or loading
A quick test on my home computer using a hollow tube with a c'bored hole patterned radially and then linearly (240 holes total) resulted in an opening time of about 2 seconds and a regen of features (CTRL-Q) of about 6 seconds.
My machine is a P4, 2.4GHz, 1MB Ram, ATI radeon card (non-certified), SW2006, SP4.1.
What are your system specs?
Are you working locally or over a network?
Are you using a PDM system?
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
We decided to try Solidworks for cost savings. ProE is rather expensive, the maintenance cost alone is over 50% of the cost of the Solidworks seat including training and maintenance.
We were very motivated to make this work. We still would like to find a way to make this software work for us so we'll try your suggestions and input. So far we think that the graphics engine of ProE is just much faster than Solidworks.
What we did was to model the same part we had in ProE with Solidworks, then we created a drawing (this was done by the reseller's expert). After we loaded Solidworks in our machines we were able to compare directly the performance of both programs with similar files. We only did this because we noticed long waits while the drawing and solid geometry loaded in our screens. Solidworks takes 5 to 10 times longer than ProE to load these files. Then we modified the solid models in similar ways and measured the time to regenerate the parts. In this case it took about 15 times longer to regenerate the parts with Solidworks than with ProE.
The part in question is basically a tube, 18" OD x about .75 wall. It has some holes patterned on each side of the tube, some shallow channels about 1.00 wide equally spaced. In each of these channels there are 40 holes eually spaced around the outside wall with counterbores. The original part had 6 channels with the holes and the modified part was made longer so it could have 10 channels with the 40 holes per channel.
After the modification it took ProE about 10 seconds to regen, and Solidworks about 1.5 minutes... Perhaps there are some tricks or settings that we don't know to accelerate the Solidworks performance. We'd sure like to find a way to make it work for us.
Thanks
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
OK, we tried this but we did not get any noticeable improvememt. We are not working over a network or using PDM. Another issue of speed involves the hourglass that appears each time we spin, zoom or pan the part while in hidden line visible or hidden lines removed state. The hourglass appears for several seconds each time we manipulate the geometry while it changes from wireframe to whatever state we are working with, we do not experience this phenomenom with ProE...
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Thanks Jason, I just checked that and it's as you suggest....
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
As I mentioned before, using the Geometry Pattern option often helps.
If you can post the part for others here to download, (see FAQ559-1177) we could give you comparitive load & regen times on different systems. Also we may be able to offer alternate ways of creating the features to better suit SW.
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
I'll look at it first thiong Monday and post the files for download.
Thanks
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
It sounds like an unwanted process is running when you are using SW. Have the task manager running before starting SW & watch to see what processes start along with it.
Do you have any SW "add-ins" selected to be started when SW is opened? To save resources, it usually pays to start the add-ins only when needed.
Do you get the hourglass problem when using the shaded modes?
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
We are extremely motivated to make SW work. However, we cannot ignore what we are experiencing. We've spokeb with our reseller about this. He suggested the driver upgrades. We've gotten some good suggestions from this forum about software configuration. Unfortunately these things have not helped. We are hoping that our reseller can come up with some good solutions. Otherwise we are in the uncomfortable position of telling our boss that we made a big mistake...
CorBlimeyLimey, Thanks for your input. we'll check ito the possibility of some process running. We do get the hourglass with the shaded modes but only at the very start while loading the part or after making a change to the geometry.
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Do you switch the nVidia card "application settings" to match the CAD program being run?
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
My computer specs:
P4 2.4ghz
1gb ram
nvidia geforce 6800gt video
WinXp sp2
Solidworks 2007 PR1
With the "Geometry Pattern" option checked (default)...it took 26.86 seconds to rebuild. With the geometry pattern option unchecked, it took 2.59 seconds. Quite a difference.
"Geometry Pattern on"
"Geometry Pattern off"
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Jason, that model is very similar to what we made, we do have more features, but it's similar enough to compare. Your results are astonishing. As soon as I get back to work Monday, I'll try those settings. BTW, I thought we were supposed to run with the "Geometry Pattern" option checked for faster performance !?!?
BTW guys, thanks for your help. It's much appreciated.
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
I just made a model using the same sizes & patterns as you and get the opposite results. Speed is much better when the GP is checked (7 secs) ... when unchecked it was 28 secs.
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
You have to put in a forum enhancement request to David for that one.
B.E.
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
When you installed SW, did you disable whatever anti-virus program you use?
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
We were using an "unofficial" copy of the latest software installed by the reseller until the "official" stuff was received... We wanted to get started ASAP and he was helpful with that. I'm glad we were able to play with it for the 1.5 extra days we had it. Otherwise we would not have found these issues.
The software was installed by the reseller himself. And yes, he disabled the antivirus software before installing it. Previously, he had given us "evaluation" copies of SW, but they were of an earlier version, so we did not work with them very much at all. Particularly since they were not very similar as far as the interface and funtionality as the latest version (which is what we have already).
Anyway, he was very careful to unistall all previous versions of SW and any other associated software such as Edrawings, etc.
I'm 99.9% sure that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the installation or configuration of SW in our machines. Of course, we were 99.9% sure about the performance level of SW vs ProE before we did our A-B comparisons....
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
What version of Pro/E was you using?
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
The card might not be so new, but it does work pretty well with the ProE Wildfire 3.0 (that's the latest release AFAIK)
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Before you make a final decision on whether SW is a mistake for you, please post the file for us to download, investigate & report back.
From what I've read in these & other forums, I don't believe SW is that much (if any) slower than WF. Patterns, however, are definitely not one of SWs strongest points. It also appears to be more sensitive to video cards & drivers.
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
SW06 SP4.1, core SW with only my spaceball add-in running.
Window XP SP2
AMD Opteron 144 1.81 Ghz
2 Gigs of RAM
Nvidia GeForce 6150 (onboard video)
Nvidia ForceWare 81.98
ASUS A8N-VM CSM Mainboard
With Geometry Pattern On, Feature Statisics shows 1.67 for regen. With Geomery Pattern Off it goes to 18.48 seconds.
There is only a couple second lag from when the regen ends until the hourglass goes away. This is with a non-CAD, onboard video system.
FWIW,
Anna Wood
SW06 SP4.1 x64, WinXP x64
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
www.auerprecision.com
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Perhaps I did not make myself clear, but we already have 2 seats of ProE WF 3.0 (we've had ProE for perhaps 6~8 years) the whole reason we looked into SW was to save money. As I explained, the maintenance alone for ProE is 60% of the total cost of SW including training and maintenance. We need training for WF 3.0 because frankly, we don't know the program as well as we could because it's too new. That would only add more money to the cost of operating ProE... From a monetary standpoint it's a no brainer. However, our products are very heavily biased to pattern heavy geometry and we ran into this slow regen issues.
To give you an example, the drawing of this part alone takes something in the neighborhood or 30 seconds to load with SW. The same drawing in ProE loads instantaneously. The solid model regens are not quite so slow in comparison, but the graphics engine of ProE seems to handle these things more efficiently. I've spoken with the reseller again and he assured me that SW can perform at par with WF 3.0 and their resident SW expert will come to our office later this week to show us how to do it. I hope we get the results we want so we can implement the migration.
Thanks again for the input, suggestions and all the time you've spent on this. BTW, how can I post those screen shots of SW? I did a print screen and pasted the pictures in a Word document, but I cannot figure out how to paste them onto a post like this one. I'd like to show you all the exact part that we are dealing with. I'm also concerned about how the performance is going to be with large assemblies... I hope it all turns out OK. I know that I'd love to use that frameing or weldment feature of SW. As far as I can tell WF does not have anything like that....
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Solid Edge V18 SP6 on WinXP SP2
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Please let us know the outcome of the VARs visit. I'm betting that SW is able to match, or beat, WF3.
Gildashard ... that's good to hear, but I've not seen anything to confirm it. I'm just going by what I've read in these threads & personal experience of large patterns slowing things down, but have never seen definitive camparisons. If you (or anyone else) find any, please post.
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Basically it was large patterns getting into over a 1000 instances. It brought all the cad programs to their knees.
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
I work with both softwares and the truth is very simple.
Performance wise,SW cannot be even compared to ProE.
This is even more true for complex plastic parts (Let alon SW weaknesses in surface area)
If yoy want to continue to work with SW you will have to accept it.
However I would strongely recommend going back to ProE.
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
http:/
Would be great to have a more recent comparison.
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
I work with both softwares and the truth is very simple.
Performance wise,SW cannot be even compared to ProE.
[/qoute]
Well, I thought that might be the case. But I had hoped that it would not be so....
[quote Anunzio]
If yoy want to continue to work with SW you will have to accept it.
However I would strongely recommend going back to ProE.[/qoute]
We do not have complex plastic parts (other than parts with many patterned features) and we do not deal with surfaces either. But so far the parts we have created with both softwares present considerable differences so far... We researched this project as well as we could. From all our conversations with the resellers as well as with SW users, we believed that SW would definitely match or surpass ProE WF 3.0 in performance. Alas, that has not been the case so far. I hope that the SW expert who's coming next week can make it happen. Otherwise we'll have to stay with ProE and pay the higher price.....
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Welcome Anunzio...As a first time poster....do you care to share some screenshots and rebuild times you've experienced? What kind of features give you trouble? I've done some fairly complex parts with around 500 features...curves and surfaces etc. with not too much trouble. Plus there are some great examples like Mike Wilson's Scooby Doo and Mach 5 models. Be interesting to see those modeled in other cad programs....it would sure give a good comparison of rebuild times.
Mike's site:
http://w
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire vs. SolidWorks 2003
Solidworks 2001Plus over Inventor 5.3
But if you go to the Pro E site, there testing beats SW:
http:/
It may sound like a joke, but you might want to try and make some changes to the part at the top-level assembly and see how your system performs. Open it resolved, not lightweight, change the radius, etc. You can make a few changes to the system options, and see how it affects your performance.
If you want to try it, download a 1.1MB zip here:
http:/
Also check out Matt Lombard's site for descriptions of the options. He noted the options that can affect speed or file size with a red star:
http://mysite.verizon.net/mjlombard/
Rules of Thumb > Tools Options for SW2006
Flores
SW06 SP4.1
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Bottom Line. Solidworks is a great package. They all have strengths and weaknesses.
If you want my opinion, you can get a screaming processor, a ton of ram, a high end graphics card, an x64 system, and a huge monitor for less than the price of a seat of any of the cad packages. I think you should be complaining about your computer and not that SW is slower than that other package.
RFUS
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
This is not about which software is better or about how bad or good my computer might be. We've signed a PO for 2 seats of SW and we are now experiencing some problems or issues that makes us think we've made a mistake and we might have to absorb the price of this product as well as pay the ProE maintenance fees....
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
I would seriously give thought to some computer upgrades. Your setup may be working well with Pro/e but not Solidworks. A different graphics card may help with the graphics delay. I noticed the same thing in UG....there's a delay when creating this pattern at the end as it refreshes the graphics. The difference is in UG you can see it happening as the faces are popping up all over the place, in Solidworks it does show you that, you just wait til it's done.
A few seconds can add up.....but I would give a more in depth look at other features in Solidworks that may save you time elsewhere in your work. I never used Pro/e but from what I've heard, the Solidworks workflow is faster so that may offset any rebuild or graphics advantages that Pro/e may have.
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Also he isn't complaining about SW, just stating that he is disappointed with it's performance, when compared to WF3.
Silver92b ... Have you had a chance to "fine tune" the options per smcadmans suggestion? (Matt Lombards site).
Are you able to post the "offending" file (for downloading) so that we can investigate & compare times?
BTW, where are you based?
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Silver92b..... You did not make a mistake. I started on ProE. There are things that will drive you nuts about SW if you sit in front of it as much as a lot of us here do. But there are things you will not be able to live without once you master it. An optimally configured workstation is the key to long term success with SW. That was my only point.
RFUS
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
There are several "experts" here trying to help you out, and some have taken the time to model a part similar to what you are looking for, but we do not have the complete picture yet.
If you look at the number of posts this thread has generated, you will see that many members STILL want to help you even though you haven't posted an image/screenshot that better depicts your final result, or the file itself. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and someone here might be able to recreate what you need in a different manner than the other "expert".
Flores
SW06 SP4.1
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
After reading the progress of this thread, I was about to suggest the upgrades to the computer system as well. Since SolidWorks is quite dependent on the graphics card for smooth performance, I would disagree with CorBlimeyLimey that an upgraded system would equally benefit the WF3 installation. It could, but I think the benefits would be much more drastically seen by the SW installation.
Also, try smcadman's suggestion of making a tweak to the upstream geometry. I find that this sort of thinking will often force a more complete rebuild of the part and sometimes change the rebuild time from that point onward (strange, but I've been with SW since 1997 and have seen lots of oddities).
Otherwise, I don't have much to say with the ProE stuff. Of course, I do a lot of plastic part design with complex geometry and have had great results by sticking to logical building practices. I also have a client who--after seeing my work and the nature of the parts I create--is going to ditch ProE for SW when he can find the time to learn the new interface (cost issues are a big factor). However, some folks can use knives better than others can use guns. It's certainly tough to find true apples in comparisons of this sort.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
I looked in the links provided but have not had time to dig into them to implement changes. I'll try to upload the files ASAP. We are in the proverbial swamp ful of alligators right now.... We are located in Marietta, GA North of Atlanta.
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Large patterns in sketches can cost you a lot of time. So can previews, surface fills (shut off surfaces), Offsets, In-context updates, large assembly rebuilds, and so many other things....But just think.....while your sitting there waiting you can hang out on eng-tips. This is where dual monitors is key!
RFUS
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
http://ww
We are also installing new installtions of SW. My coleague's new installtion seems to work better than the previous one even though they are the same version of SW ?!?!
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
I use pro/e 2001 and SWx 2006 on the same machine and often at the same time both at work and home. My home computer is configured the same as Silver's with the exception of the graphics card....Nvidia Quadro4 750 XGL. Although our graphics cards a few years old they're still top end performers. I do not notice any performance differences between my home computer and works....even though my work computer has the forced network security processes that eat away the resources.
I would look at the differences of how you're modeling the parts in Pro/e and SWx. The core modeling engine differencs could account for the calculate feature creation and rebuild times. Also, remember you're new to SWx thus do not know all the suttle ways of making SWx perform at its best. Were you using simplified reps or family tables with your pro/e models?
Hang out on this site and you will learn a lot of advanced tips and techniques.
Best Regards,
Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
I just downloaded your part to my work computer. System specs are below.
From my local desktop, the file opens in about 1-2 seconds. After a crtl-q regen and check of feature statistics I show 5.64 seconds for a re-build. There is only a couple second lag for the hour glass to go away after the regen.
I also run my system with verification on rebuild switched to on. Which in general will slow the system down as it goes through a more thorough check for errors in the re-build process.
It was essentially the same open and reload times whether I was in my 32 bit SolidWorks or 64 bit SolidWorks.
This is vanilla SolidWorks with only a Spaceball 5000 running in the add-ins.
Regards,
Anna Wood
SW06 SP4.1 x64, WinXP x64
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
www.auerprecision.com
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Best Regards,
Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 5.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)
Never argue with an idiot. They'll bring you down to their level and beat you with experience every time.
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Do you usually work in wireframe mode? I ask that because your model was saved as a wireframe. In SolidWorks, solid mode will work must faster.
I seem to remember when I used ProE back about three/four years ago that it worked better in wireframe mode.
You guys with more experience with both systems, is this a valid observation?
Regards,
Anna Wood
SW06 SP4.1 x64, WinXP x64
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
www.auerprecision.com
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
/060706/11522http:/
Try loading that file and working with it.
BTW, the last SW install in my coleague's machine works much better than before! I'll install the new SW in my machine tomorrow.
Thanks for your help everybody!
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
The good news is that the programs are running much better and faster now.
I checked my machine and it has a Xeon 3.06 GHz and 1.5 GB of ram and has the Nvidia Quadro4 980 XGL withe the latest drivers. I'm running WinXP professional with whatever service pack was available the last time our IT guys were here...
My coleague's machine is older and has the 2.0 GHz, with 1.0 GB ram. Although he has the same video card I have, he is running with Win2K....
SW is still a little clunky compared with WF3.0 in some respects, but we are going to keep it. We might have some issues with our network policies and there might be processes running that we know nothing about and are using resources, but we can't do much about that now :P
Thanks to everyone for your help and your patience. I'm sure you'll hear from me again as I will undoubtedly need more help in the future ;)
Thanks again
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
ht
Also with larger files or assys, the /3GB switch will also help performance.
http://ww
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091
RE: Slow regeneration or loading
If you don't see the option...you may have to customize (bottom of menu) to add it.
Jason
UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2