What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
(OP)
We are growing large in file size (100 mb) and we seem to be running into very slow speeds on our computers and I wanted to see what other people are using for computer specs before we spend alot of money to find out that we are heading in the wrong direction.






RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
Search this forum for "RAM" and you'll see some recent posts regarding this issue.
I recently added another 1GB of RAM (for a total of 3GB now), plus enabled the /3GB switch because I ran into some huge assemblies that were sucking up my RAM. This combination was inexpensive and solved my problems.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
ht
What are your current computer specs?
Are you using the /3GB switch with suitable VM setting?
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
I'm running an AMD FX-60 (64-bit, dual-core) chip with an nVidia FX-1400 graphics card (256MB memory, I think). Dual 160GB SATA drives. So far, so good. The coputer was built by Xi Computer.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
Are your video drivers up to date?
My present computer is a Dell M90 (specs in my signature) and it works great. My last set up had a Pentium 'D' dual core, 2 GB RAM, nVidia Quadro 3400...never had a problem with it, either.
Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP1.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2MB RAM, nVidia 2500M
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
The slow downs we are having here is that we have about eight configurations in the assembly so that when we create the drawings we can build up frames in steps for ease of the welders to have a clear picture and we have seperate sheets for each configuration in one drawing file. The big slow downs are flipping between sheets in the drawing, saving, rebuilding, and opening it can take up to 10 to 15 minutes or longer. Also dimensioning the parts can take up to two minutes to get one dimesion.
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP1.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2MB RAM, nVidia 2500M
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
Pete
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
Would it benfit me to save each configuration off as a sub-assembly then assemble them in a full assembly then hide show components in the drawing? does anyone have any experience with this?
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP1.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2MB RAM, nVidia 2500M
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
When we were using 2005, we had found out that the time required for drawing views to update was directly proportional to the processor speed. We proved this out by running the same update on the same drawing on an old worksation and on a new workstation during our hardware upgrade.
Remember...
"If you don't use your head,
your going to have to use your feet."
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
When you are updating your drawing, check your task manager - how much memory are you using? I know you have the 3G/B switch enabled. Also, do you have the Userva=2900 swtich also enabled? By checking the memory useage, we could tell whether you are just running out of memory - which would tell you whether it might make sense to have more than 4GB ram with a 64 bit version of SolidWorks runnning in XP 64 bit edition. If its not that, then get rid of the intel P4 processors. They are slow compared to the new Core 2 Duo processors or some of the AMD Athlon 64 or Opteron processors. You could always find a more qualified machine to benchmark this data set and record the times to compare it against your machine. Computer vendors, other users on the forums, or your VAR may be willing to do this for you.
Pete
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
You cannot suspend a rebuild to my knowledge.
Regards,
Scott Baugh, CSWP
www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
Regards,
Scott Baugh, CSWP
www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
You mention that you have grating and thread plates in your assemblies. How much detail do you have in those parts?
That could be what is hurting you in your drawings. The parts that have a large number of patterned features really drain resources. Having to render them in wireframe in a drawing can really push your system.
Can you show those views as a solid instead of wirframe mode? The solid views will render quicker then wireframe mode. You may also experiment with suppressing those parts in your assembly, then seeing what the drawing performance is.
When I have a drawing that is taking a while to work with I will often temporarely show all the views in solid mode, then switch over to wireframe when the drawing is done and ready for the last saves and printing of the pdf's for release.
You are very likely running out of virtual memory and going to a 64 bit operating system will probably help with drawing speed. Drawings are the most resource intensive task of all the work we do in SolidWorks.
Anna Wood
SW06 SP4.1 x64, WinXP x64
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
www.auerprecision.com
RE: What computer hardware is working well with working with 100 mb files?
You could use display states to do what Anna is suggesting. You could also create a simplified configuration of parts that have a significant number of surfaces (such as a part with a high number of patterned features). You would then use the simplified configuration of the part in the assemblies where they are used. This would lessen the number of surfaces shown in your assembly model and relieve your computer from the burden of rendering and updating all those surfaces. If you have SolidWorks Professional, or if you have access to the SolidWorks Utilities add-in, then there is a tool that helps with geometry simplification for cases such as these. It will build a configuration in your part file(s) and de-feature your part automatically where it can to simplify the geometry. You can do this at the assembly level and have SolidWorks create simplified configurations in the part files. This would do the bulk of the work. You could then go into each part file and change how parts are simplified or strip away even more features to simplify the config at the part level. Don't know if this applies to your situation, but thought I would mention, as round-tripping parts breaks the associativity to the real part file that defines the geometry. If creating a simplified config could help, then you might not need to round trip.
Pete