Any way of making a perforated part less heavy?

[atama]

Hi, I have a 90/80 cm, 2 mm thick plate that has 112 irregular double holes (i.e. 224 holes) in a specific pattern. I made the holes' pattern in the sketch, I think this is the "lightest" way. The file is still very heavy and reacts very slowly. Is there a better way to do the pattern? Would a feature pattern be lighter? Is there a trick I don't know?

 

[woolly]

A feature / fill pattern may help, but I normally create another config with no holes in it for use in the assembly and only use the config with holes for ref in the drawing.

Woolly

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Did you use the Geometry Pattern option when creating the pattern?

 

[atama]

I used the linear sketch pattern in the sketch itself. Where and what is the geometry pattern option?

 

[Eltron]

The Geometry Pattern function is available when you pattern a feature or do a fill pattern. Check the help for Geometry Pattern.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I missed that you used a sketch pattern. I find feature patterns to be easier to edit.

 

[handleman]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who read the subject of the post and thought, "Umm, make the holes bigger?"

Sorry...

 

[fcsuper]

No handleman, you aren't alone...sep I said, add more holes. lol

Matt
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
sw.fcsuper.com
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group

 

[pdybeck]

In SolidWorks 2008, you can create a cosmetic pattern on a planar face. This does not create the geometry, but rather a representation of the geometry. This should be much faster. I would advocate creating 2 configs. Have one config for the actual geometry correct version. In the second config, supress the feature pattern and create a cosmetic pattern. Each config could be used for different purposes, depending on needs (correct weight, performance in assemblies, etc...).

Pete

 

[Updraft]

atama,

Pete and Wooly's advice to use two configurations is about the only effective option. The regeneration time is not so much a function of the size of the part, but its complexity. Even that is not so much a function of the math to generate the geometry, but all the surfaces that are created. Using the Geometry Pattern option, if it works, rarely saves on the regeneration time. Saving a part with all the holes as a parasolid and then importing back into SWX demonstrates this easily. The part is a dumb solid, but due to all the holes is slow to regenerate. This is an area that benefits from a good graphics card.

There really is no work-around except to reduce the part complexity by using a simplified, i.e., no holes or only holes in certain places, configuration.

- - -Updraft