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Slowdown with large assemblies - what's the cause?

Slowdown with large assemblies - what's the cause?

Slowdown with large assemblies - what's the cause?

(OP)
Hi,

The slowdown problems I'm experiencing with large assemblies (2500 parts, only 70 unique parts) has got to a stage where they're taking a few minutes to save each time, let alone rebuild and check-in to PDMW.  Repeated 'out of memory' errors have led me to flick the 3GB switch by modifying the boot.ini file, but I'm still running out when inserting BoMs into drawings of large assemblies.

For information:
- I'm working from local C: drive
- large assembly mode is selected
- most components are quite simple sheet metal parts, very few complicated features (sweeps, etc...)
- only add-ins selected are 'toolbox' 'toolbox browser' 'PDMWorks' and one custom small macro add-in
- most patterned components have 'geometry pattern' selected
- Machine spec:
2.4GHz Pentium 4 processor
2.0GB of RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX1000 Graphics card
- SW options have been adjusted to be kinder to the system

Having seen the 'what's new in 2006' demo earlier this year where our reseller was modelling an oil rig, I can't help but think SW should be able to cope better with my (comparatively) small assmbly.

Am I missing anything obvious?

RE: Slowdown with large assemblies - what's the cause?

How many Top-Level mates? If more then 300 then thats going to cause a slow down.

With your video Card what driver version are you using (and don't say latest give us the actual version #). To be honest a 2500 part assembly with a 1000 Quadro is not enough IMO, you should look at the higher end cards when working with assemblies of that size.

Suppress the patterned components and see if you speed up. Patterened components can surely slow you down.

Sweeps are not simple parts, it's complex in a SW stand point IMO compared to a block. Some SM parts are not simple either.

Best way to test the speed is start cutting things out and see what helps it run better, after you can be for sure it's not the system, but with a low end video card you can't really rule that out as the problem.

http://www.scottjbaugh.com/Tips_Tricks/Slowdowns.htm

Regards,



Scott Baugh, CSWP
www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376

RE: Slowdown with large assemblies - what's the cause?

(OP)
Thanks for the reply, I can answer as follows:

- Only 67 top level mates in this assmbly
- Driver version 4.5.2.3 for the graphics card

With regards to sweeps, that's what I meant - there are hardly  andy parts with them (and no lofts or helixes anything).

Even if the graphics card is getting a hammering, would that explain the "out of memory" errors?  I'm starting to think that more RAM would be the answer, but my (limited) computer knowledge is saying that 2GB should be enough, shouldn't it?

RE: Slowdown with large assemblies - what's the cause?

What's your RAM usage when the assembly is fully loaded?

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2006 SP4.0 on WinXP SP2

RE: Slowdown with large assemblies - what's the cause?

ALthough the assy is on your local drive, in Option settings, do you have anything linked to folders over a network to another server? i.e., templates, tables, etc.
Could be any network you are connected to is slowing you down. Try disconnecting from PDMW and see if your large assy runs faster.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-06)

RE: Slowdown with large assemblies - what's the cause?

That driver version is OLD you need to upgrade to the lastest approved drivers for SW, which is 77.56.

http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/videocardtesting.html

That maybe why you are getting out of memory errors!

Also check the SW new Knowledge base... it has some answers to "out of memory" errors. Maybe one of them is like what you are seeing.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376

RE: Slowdown with large assemblies - what's the cause?

What is your VM set to? If using the /3GB switch it should probably be about 4096MB (Max & Min).

Also, is all of your physical RAM being recognised?

cheers
Helpful SW websites  FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions  FAQ559-1091

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