280+ MB slddrw file

[jobiewan99]

i desperately need help trying to salvage a drawing file that i have put together. i recently put together my first large drawing set based off of a 100+ part assembly file. after sub assembly detail sheets, i ended up with a 10 page drawing set. i was monitoring the file size pretty closely and it started growing exponentially. eventually it got to where i have insufficient memory available and i cannot open the file. i have tried everything i can think of. 3gb switch is enabled, i ran ecosqueeze, i have closed and deleted all non-vital files and programs.

is there any way to attack this from outside of solidworks? is it time to delete and start from scratch?

furthermore, are there any thoughts on where i went wrong or what i could do to prevent this in the future?

thank you in advance for your help.

regards,
JEM

 

[EEnd]

Not sure if this will work, but you might try opening the assembly and simplifying it by suppressing components / features. That might reduce the resource load enough that you can open the drawing and try to salvage your work.

There are others here who have worked with large drawings more, but from what I remember of the posts, one technique is to create configurations of the assembly where some of the parts are simplified or eliminated and use the simplified configurations as the source for the drawing views.

Another technique is fewer sheets per drawing file.

Eric

 

[jobiewan99]

yeah, i tried going in and suppressing most of the parts in the assemblies and it still crapped out on me.

 

[Theophilus]

Find someone running WinXP x64. With such a system, the file will be no problem to open. From there, you can delete some detail and be on your way.

If you don't know of anyone who could do this, but still find it worth-while, let me know (email posted at my site) and I'll check with a colleague who runs x64 to see if they're willing to give it a crack--probably for a fee of some sort, since they're so busy.

Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Which versions of SW/SP are you using?

When you say, "it started growing exponentially" did you mean whenever you added a view or sheet?

Do you have any large feature (or sketch) patterns in the model?


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

 

[smcadman]

What are your computer specs by the way? Open the top-level assembly and go to Tools > Assembly statistics and see if the numbers are what they are supposed to be.

For example, I had an assembly that was ridiculously slow to open, then after checking the statistics, I knew the quantity of some of the parts were to high. On a linear pattern of a part, I had 2 directions. I forgot to pick the "Pattern seed only" for the 2nd direction, which made the assembly huge.

Look in the FAQ for rules of thumb for parts and assemblies. Also make a copy of the drawing using "Save As", because that tends to shrink a file down some.

Flores
SW06 SP4.1

 

[jobiewan99]

CBL: SW2006 SP 3.0. Yes, the file size grew when a new subweldment page was added and fully detailed. I don't consider any of the parts to be complex at all. Mostly just simple sheet metal pieces and structural steel parts. All of the sldprt files that make up the assembly are in the 300kb range.

smcadman:
winxp pro SP 2
pentium 3.4GHz dual
2 GB RAM
virtual memory 4095 MB

Assembly stats look reasonable. 207 total components, 100 unique parts. 14 sub assemblies. I have gone through my feature tree multiple times to make sure everything looks ok. Believe me, I wish I could go back in time and spend the 30 seconds it would have taken to do a "Save as" if i knew the grief it would have saved.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Do you not use the Automatic Backup option?


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

 

[jobiewan99]

Are you referring to the Auto Recover info every "X" changes? If so, that is another one of the "if only I had known the repercussions" I would have spent the 5 seconds to check that box. Like I mentioned before, I am just now getting my feet wet on some of this, so I am learning these lessons the hard way.

 

[sg20]

I've had much larger files than your assembly, with up to 15 sheets of detail drawings. Couple of things I've learn to keep the operation running smoothly are not to use auto-save, just do it mannually every so often instead; leave the assembly and parts resolved while working on the drawing, and use saveas detached drawing instead. All things aside, keeping your file clean is more important, and creating more subassemblies would also help...

 

[ctopher]

Change anything that takes up memory. Turn down the resolution on the dwg, turn off shadowing on the cursor, etc. Anything that will get your dwg open so you can fix it.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-05)

 

[SBaugh]

turn your image quality down. that can make a difference.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[jobiewan99]

I pretty much already run with all the unnecesary stuff (cursor shadow, etc.) turned off. I have turned everything i can think of down to the low apperance/high performance setting.

I guess I was hoping to find a completely different angle to attack this from. For instance some way to split the pages up from outside of solidworks or maybe delete a page or two from outside of solidworks. Or maybe a way to do a "save as" without actually running solidworks.........

Nothing more than wishful thinking I am sure.

 

[pdelnet]

try this

http://www.ecocom.com/eng/index00.h...com/eng/EcoSqueeze/ecosqueeze01.htm&frameno=2

I use it and havent had any issues yet, it could drastically reduce your file size.

SW 2006 SP4.0
Dell Inc. Precision WorkStation 670
2048 Megabytes Installed Memory
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400 [Display adapter]
Windows 2000 SP5

 

[jobiewan99]

As stated in my original post, I tried running eco-squeeze. It did reduce the filesize, but only from 285 MB to 278 MB which still crashed. I also tried running unfrag, but with no luck.

 

[EEnd]

Here’s another thing that you could try. I would recommend making a copy of the drawing file first incase it all blows up.

Try moving the assembly file to a different directory so that SW can not find it when it goes to open the drawing. It will likely complain a lot, but you might be able to get in delete a couple of sheets and do a save as. Then exit SW, move the assembly file back and try opening the copy.

Eric

 

[smcadman]

Open the individual parts and assemblies and correct any errors that are found. The quantity of sheets does not matter, but rather one of the parts or the assemblies on the sheets is the offending culprit.

System Options > Drawings > uncheck "Allow auto-update when opening drawings"

System Options > Assemblies > check "Suspend automatic rebuild"

System Options > Performance > check "No preview during open (faster)"

pentium 3.4GHz dual

Ctrl+alt+delete > Task Manager > Performance tab. For the CPU Usage History, are there 2 CPU graphs or 1? If there is 1, hyperthreading is disabled. If there are 2, hyperthreading is enabled. Try switching 1 mode to the other and see if that helps.

After restarting your computer, hit F2 (on mine anyway) repeatedly before the your log-on screen shows up. A screen should pop up that has your settings on it. Find the setting that says something like "Hyperthreading Technology" "Enable".

Also try EEnd's recomendation

Flores
SW06 SP4.1

 

[jobiewan99]

EEnd: that sounded like a great idea, but I don't understand the result. I actually moved all part/assembly parts off to a different location and it just went through the same routine as before. No error message, no "complaints" at all. It just straight up froze. Eventually giving me the not enough memory error.

 

[jobiewan99]

smcadman: no dice. Thanks for the suggestions though

 

[sg20]

You might want to try this method: exit Solidworks, delete all ghostly icons from your working folder and reopen the assembly. I seems it worked for me before but I am not so sure.