?Locked in paper space... or something...

[MikeHalloran]

SW2009.0.0
Got a SW assembly drawing, trying to make a .DWG version for distribution to folks lacking SW.
Tried {print to|save as}dwg (I forgot which).

Now, I seem to be in the drawing editor, but almost everything is grayed out. I can get Page Setup and Print Preview dialogs, and I can change selection filters. I can launch Help.

I can't open, close, save, print, sendto, or >EXIT<.
I can bring up the window list, and everything else is greyed out and not selectable.

Window sizing up/down/restore works like a flash.
Minimize/restore all of SW works like a flash.
Here, 'like a flash' means faster than I've ever seen it.
I can minimize the drawing window and go the model window, and look around in it, but I can't rotate or manipulate the model. I go around back on another computer and look in the folder (remote server) where the model and drawing files are stored. No new entries in more than an hour, the last time I saved, before I got myself into this zombie land.

The X for closing the window doesn't work.
The X for closing Solidworks doesn't work.

Drawing view red/green highlights come up, and bring up the View properties window over the feature tree. That closes normally and the feature tree is redrawn instantly.

Whacking the Escape key brings up a dialog box that says "The current operation cannot be interrupted or the document is not accessible at this time." OK is the only choice presented; I hate dialog boxes like that.

Anyone have a clue what SW is trying to do here?



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Eltron]

Sounds like you're going to have to chew your leg off to get out, Mike. When I get locked in I usually resort to CTRL-ALT-DEL. Sucks to loose what you're working on, I know.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[ctopher]

You may have to close it within the Windows Task Manager.

Chris
SolidWorks 08, CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[MikeHalloran]

Yep. I used Task Manager.

I had to kill it FIVE times before it stayed dead.

Then I shut off the power and went home.

Thanks.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[MikeHalloran]

So, I tried again this morning.
SW doesn't appear to have actually crashed, but it's too busy to bother redrawing the screen or responding to the keyboard.

Once again, I told it to 'save as' DWG, and accepted the defaults.
During that process, it presented a dialog box asking something about "1:1" and some other stuff. It seemed to be a cautionary deal. I didn't try entering anything other than OK.

Does generating a DWG ordinarily take a very, very long time, or am I doing something stupid... again?



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Generally saving as a DWG doesn't take too long, but that might depend on the complexity of the model.

Have you tried saving as, or printing to, PDF?

 

[MikeHalloran]

Yeah, it prints to PDF pretty quick, maybe a minute.

I'm looking at it with Task Manager. It's consistently consuming exactly 50 pct of the CPU cycles.
It's done 401,0xx,xxx I/O Read Bytes, and the number is incrementing by about 2,000 per second.
It's done 6,633,532 I/O Write Bytes, and that number hasn't changed since I fired up TM.

Other current stats per TM:
Mem Usage 1,915,008K
Peak Mem Usage 1,945,656K
VM Size 1,838,188K
Paged Pool 1,516K
NP Pool 86K
Handles 2,560
Threads 24
GDI Objects 2,119

Does anything seem odd there?

The SLDDRW file is 172,027kB
The SLDASM file is 36,094kB
The drawing comprises one sheet with 6 views of the model.
The model itself must reference at least hundreds of other files; it includes complete exterior details of a Diesel engine and its accessories and brackets.

What I'm trying to produce is an AutoCAD drawing of the SLDDRW file, with the 4 orthographic images at 1:1 to the actual engine in model space. As I think about the complexity of doing that, I guess the computer and the server each have to do a lot of grinding.

The guy who used to do this didn't seem to have any particular trouble with it... but he didn't write anything down... and he's gone.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[cmb042]

The 50% processor usage tells me that's the bottle neck. I don't think solidworks supports multithreading, so it only uses one core of a dual core processor. I have had similar issues with a big helix or maybe it was when I tried rendering.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Is the DWG going to be modified by the people using ACAD?

If not just give them an eDrawing. They will then have access to both the 2D and 3D. They can either download the free eDrawing viewer or you can give them a self-executable eDrawing which does not require the eDrawing program to be installed on their machines.

 

[ShaggyPE]

Try saving as a DXF just for kicks.

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Certified SolidWorks Professional
Certified COSMOSWorks Designer Specialist
Certified SolidWorks Advanced Sheet Metal Specialist

 

[MikeHalloran]

What has apparently been provided to our salesmen in the past is a 2D AutoCAD drawing. I guess they just give it to customers. Most of the salesmen don't know how to drive AutoCAD, and have no particular interest in learning. Nor are they sophisticated enough to download and install a file.

I sent the pdf.

I will worry about producing an AutoCAD file when I have completed the next outer interrupt, "super panic gotta have it yesterday or sooner priority one" job nears completion, if it ever does...

Thanks, guys.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA