How large of an Assembly can SolidWorks Open? 1

[Standing]

One of my users is having trouble opening what we think is a large assembly. The assembly on his computer takes 20 minutes to open. We had our VAR out here and he does not think this is a large SolidWorks assembly. We followed his suggestion to update all models to SolidWorks 2008. The user did this and still 20 minutes to open. He has talked to Catia about SolidWorks and the salesmen told him that is the number one reason people go to Catia, “Opening large assemblies and Catia is very stable”.

Do any of you open large assemblies? What are you times and do you always use lightweight?

Total number of components in 55555: 16692
Parts: 15466
Unique Part Documents: 1788
Unique Parts: 1716
Sub-assemblies: 1226
Unique Sub-assemblies: 459
Unique Sub-assembly Documents: 398
Maximum Depth: 6
Number of top level components: 358
Resolved components: 8886
Lightweight components: 0
Suppressed components: 7806
Number of top level mates: 543
Number of bodies: 8167

His computer spec’s are as follows:

SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3
PDMWorks Workgroup
SolidWorks BOM
HP xw8400 workstation Intel(R) Xeon CPU 3.00 GHz
6 GB RAM
Virtual memory 12000 MB
nVidia Quadro FX4500
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes


Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes

 

[JMirisola]

You have an excessive amount of top level mates. Those will take SW some time to resolve. It doesn't sound to me like you're having stability issues, just speed issues. I'm assuming that you're opening up the assembly locally and not across a network, right?

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

Dell M90, Core2 Duo
4GB RAM
Nvidia 3500M

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Does the 300 mate limit still apply in an x64 system?

 

[Standing]

Jeff,
You are right we are opening it locally. Forgot to mention, He suppressed all mates and fixed their locations. Yes it does crash, but that is another issue altogether.


Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes

 

[ShaggyPE]

Any top down design? or is it all bottom up?

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional

 

[Standing]

Dustin,
99% bottom up

Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes

 

[JMirisola]

Something I found in the kb:

General comments on mates:
The time to solve a mate group has a squared rather than linear relationship with the number of mates to be processed. There are a large number of mates in this sub-assembly which will generate a long rebuild time for the mate group.

One could assume that the above statement would hold true for your situation...

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

Dell M90, Core2 Duo
4GB RAM
Nvidia 3500M

 

[Standing]

Jeff,
You might be right about this. I was thinking that subassemblies would not be affected in mate relations too upper assemblies.

Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes

 

[Eltron]

Did you try suppressing all of those mates and reopening the file?

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

 

[Standing]

Dan,
No. Way to many mates in the sub's.

Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Bradley,
You said he had already suppressed the mates?
"Forgot to mention, He suppressed all mates and fixed their locations."

Are all the subs being opened in lightweight mode?

 

[Standing]

CorBlimeyLimey,
The mates are suppressed at the top level assembly, not in any of the subassemblies.
He did not open lightweight, he says the SolidWorks BOM will not update otherwise.


Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes

 

[pierdesign]

I agree with your var this is not a very large assembly, it is however large enough.

Unfortunately problems like this often typically run deeper into actual part and subassembly modelling methodology.

Patterning, multibody (patterned) parts, inserted parts, some surface features whether absorbed into solids or not, and especially configurations. Less high level mates, even zero, is best.

The Catia spokesperson was telling you an outright mistruth on two accounts. Catia is the most unstable CAD platform with large assemblies, outside of Toyota, Airbus and their ilk. I work with several companies using Catia and none of them have ever been able to resolve large assemblies, and one company tackled the problem of large assembly stability with a lot of attention. Second, only reporting what I have heard, but most companies switch or choose other than Solidworks due to either compatibility or unease over the Dassault - EDS contract and Solidworks longevity.

 

[Standing]

pierdesign,
Thank you. A star for you.

Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes

 

[pdybeck]

Bradley,

How much RAM is in use when the whole assembly is open? Might you be able to disable the virtual memory settings to prevent windows/solidWorks paging the hard drive? There is a possibility that this can affect your load times significantly. If you can test this and it does seem to affect load times, then maybe consider upping your RAM to 8GB and turning off the page file...

Also, contrary to popular basing, Vista x64 might offer better memory management performance over XP X64.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/15/vista_workshop/page6.html

 

[Standing]

pdybeck,
We both use less than 4 Gb or ram to open the drawing and model. I will give this a try.

Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes

 

[pdybeck]

Bradley,

I am not sure how XP x64 will handle this. I have heard of people having an extra hard drive solely for the swap/page file that XP is managing. People that do this get a very fast hard drive for this and claim a nice improvement in load times... Possibly in Vista, the extra drive might not be needed. I don't know yet.

 

[Standing]

I have a second hard drive, doing as you suggested. But IT will not do this for the newer computers.

Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes

 

[SBaugh]

I see that your top level mates exceed 300. That can cause you to slow down and might be a reason. Unless SW changed something I am unaware of.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[Standing]

Scott,
Yes, our VAR told us the same thing. Now that all parts and assembly models are at SolidWorks 2008, the times are better for me. Now I am going to correct all the errors in simplified configurations.


Bradley
SolidWorks Pro 2008 x64, SP3.0
PDMWorks Workgroup, SolidWorks BOM,
Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB,
nVidia Quadro FX 3400
Use SolidWorks BOM
e-mail is Lotus Notes