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Assembly Sequencing on Large Assemblies is impractically slow

Assembly Sequencing on Large Assemblies is impractically slow

Assembly Sequencing on Large Assemblies is impractically slow

(OP)
I have been trying to work with assembly sequencing to get some good images of my very large assembly (~30k parts). I have MOST of the parts hidden and many not even loaded (small screws, washers, pins, etc). And faceted reps for as many things as I can. I don't own the smaller components so I can't make major changes to them, but I'm trying as much as I can.

Despite the fact that NX6 is crashing on a somewhat predictable basis, when it is stable it so painfully slow that it is not worth using. I'm hoping I'm doing something wrong and that it's a simple fix, but I doubt it and I'm at wits end and for the last week I have done nothing productive and have not been able to deliver as I promised my customer.

Below are some of my collections that I was able to type while waiting for NX to process:

1)
Part management is PAINFULLY slow in Assembly Sequencing Module    
All parts are initially added to the "Preassembled" folder. This takes a long time for large assemblies and I don't want large assemblies completely added to this folder. Then, trying to move a large number of parts to the "Ignored" folder is RIDICULOUSLY cumbersome. Even selecting a large number of parts is so taxing (e.g. select assembly). I had an assembly with 28000 components. When selecting them in the ANT, the status bar was counting each and every one of them, the first 5000 went pretty quickly but then after that they were counting at the rate of maybe 10-20 per second and then after 12000 it got even slower. Simply selecting the assembly took about an hour. This is simple list mgmt, what's the big deal?

2)
Ignoring a part takes forever with a large assembly.    
Then, actually getting those parts "ignored" once selected, well that took HOURS!!! I tried to ignore 32 parts out of 28000. I gave up on it. In fact I tried to ignore only one part and it took minutes. ONE PART!
When I do this with small assemblies (<10 components) it works very well and lightning fast. So what happens that encumbers NX to the point of what I would call teetering on the edge of failure?

3)
Cannot "sort" parts in the Assembly Sequencer and parts are not kept in "assembly order."    
All the parts in the assembly sequencing navigator are just thrown in to one HUGE list. What the heck? I can't sort, pack, collapse, expand...etc.

4)
Simply adding a step in Assembly Sequencing with a large model takes FOREVER. It is prohibitively time-consuming...aka impossible.    
What the heck is it doing every time I insert a step? Here's a thought; an assembly sequencing tool is pretty useless if it takes forever to create an assembly sequence with an assembly of any significant number of parts.

I feel the only solution will be to completely "reassemble" the lower level components and remove all the parts that I have hidden and not loaded. It's just too much overhead.

Thoughts? Anyone else try to do this? Or is it generally accepted that it is impossible?

Justin Wade
Mechanical Engineer

RE: Assembly Sequencing on Large Assemblies is impractically slow

When I have problems working with large assemblies, I first load everything "structure only".  Then bring in only what I need.  Would this work for your application?

RE: Assembly Sequencing on Large Assemblies is impractically slow

(OP)
dtharrett,

Believe me, I have only loaded the parts that I need. The problem is that it seems NX Assembly Sequencing does not know the difference between loaded parts and unloaded parts in the structure. It goes no faster either way.

Justin Wade
Mechanical Engineer

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