System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
(OP)
OK,
Here is my system
SolidWorks 2006 SP 4.1
Windows XP Professional SP2
Dual Core 2.0 GHZ AMD Opteron Processor
2.00 GB Ram
Nvidia Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI
I imagine this problem is related to the dual core portion of the CPU. Is there anyway to change this so that Solidworks can access both cores. Currently when I am in any large assembly or large assembly drawing my system locks while my CPU goes to 50%.(large assembly being 100-150 parts). This usually happens when I am mating parts in assemblies or moving views in drawings. I have read the FAQ and changed my settings to use less memory but that did nothing for this problem. Also I have added the 3GB switch. I also made sure that my affinity was set to use both cores.
Any suggestions (besides throwing away the entire system, I only got it 5 months ago).
Thanks
Brian
PS: thread559-151928: dual core processor this was the closest thread to my issue that I could find. I also read thread559-80802: Has anyone found benefit in using a Dual CPU? but it was written in 2003 so I am not sure how current it is.
Here is my system
SolidWorks 2006 SP 4.1
Windows XP Professional SP2
Dual Core 2.0 GHZ AMD Opteron Processor
2.00 GB Ram
Nvidia Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI
I imagine this problem is related to the dual core portion of the CPU. Is there anyway to change this so that Solidworks can access both cores. Currently when I am in any large assembly or large assembly drawing my system locks while my CPU goes to 50%.(large assembly being 100-150 parts). This usually happens when I am mating parts in assemblies or moving views in drawings. I have read the FAQ and changed my settings to use less memory but that did nothing for this problem. Also I have added the 3GB switch. I also made sure that my affinity was set to use both cores.
Any suggestions (besides throwing away the entire system, I only got it 5 months ago).
Thanks
Brian
PS: thread559-151928: dual core processor this was the closest thread to my issue that I could find. I also read thread559-80802: Has anyone found benefit in using a Dual CPU? but it was written in 2003 so I am not sure how current it is.






RE: System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
CAD Administrator
SW '07 SP2.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2GB RAM, nVidia 2500M
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog
RE: System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
I thought that might be the case. These files are all on my hard drive with out a PDM system.
Thank you for the response.
Brian
RE: System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
I noticed that my CPU will go over 50% (I saw it go to 80%) when I regenerated a drawing. That lead me to believe that SolidWorks can sometimes access both cores. I did the regen again while looking at the processes and it verified the 80% number. So now I am confused. Does Solidworks have some internal setting that states what processes are allowed to access the second core and what process are not?
Brian
RE: System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
How complex is your drawing? How many pages? Are there lots of sections, broken out views, crops, etc?
How much memory are you using when the computer appears to lock up?
Your 2 Ghz AMD processor does not have near the performance that an Intel Core 2 Duo would have.
You may also be hitting memory limits on your 32 bit system when opening your drawing. Drawings are very compute intensive and it is very easy to push the memory limits of your system with a large drawing.
This can result in some very slow opening times or lock-ups when trying to open large drawings.
Regards,
Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP4.0, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse
http://www.phxswug.com
RE: System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
The drawing is one page and only has two views, one of the assembly and one of a section view cut through the assembly. We make long tubular assemblies. The assembly in question is approximately 10 feet long and 2 inches in diameter. I am only using 900 MB of memory when these problems are occurring. I think that I need a processor upgrade.
Thank you for the response.
Brian
RE: System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
Here is a link to a somewhat un-scientific benchmark test that I have.
ht
Download the file and do a crtl-q re-build of the model. Then check Feature Statistics to see how long it took to re-build. Be prepared for it to take a bit of time.
In the Google spreadsheet are the times required to re-build the part with various computer systems.
If you would like to send me your files on one of your drawings. I will run on the Core 2 Duo system I have at home and give you an idea of time to open, and moving around the drawing.
Regards,
Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP4.0, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse
http://www.phxswug.com
RE: System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
I got the future version error. I am still using 2006 SP 4.1.
Brian
RE: System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
Sorry, I forgot that you are using SW2006. You can look at the spreadsheet and get a relative idea of where your computer will probably be in the list from a CPU performance perspective.
Regards,
Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP4.0, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse
http://www.phxswug.com
RE: System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
SW/PDM 06 5.1/5.0 x64
RE: System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
That is a good point. That happened to one of our engineers. To solve some unrelated issue our IT guys installed the Intellimouse driver on our engineers computer. It really screwed up his SolidWorks performance. Un-installed the Intellimouse software and his SolidWorks started working properly again.
FWIW,
Anna Wood
SW 2007 SP4.0, WinXP
Dell Precision 380, Pentium D940, 4 Gigs RAM, FX3450
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse
http://www.phxswug.com
RE: System Locking at 50% CPU Usage
Thanks for the advice but my mouse is by HP. I think that my problem is the actual assembly that I am working on. I pulled up another assembly file that was larger than the one that I was working on and I did not have any problems. I went through all of the parts making sure that the mating structure made sense and noticed that this problem only existed when I modified certain parts. I am really confused. The good thing is I finished with the major assembly. But I still do not understand why I am having problems with this assembly. The assembly file itself is only 5MB.
Brian