Routing of pipe components

[gmarken]

Hello All,
I have been using the SolidWorks Routing module to create the plumbing for a biodiesel processing plant. The routes are comprised of flanges, fittings and valves. Is it just me or is Routing inherently unstable? If I create a pipe run and need to go back to adjust a dimension of the 3D sketch all of the pipe and components located between the starting and ending flanges disappear. No amount of rebuilding will correct this. I have also edited the route in another assembly to change the direction of a fitting. This caused the size of the pipe to change from 2 inch to 4 inch. The sketch does not drive the pipe size, the fittings do and I did not change the fittings at all. Also when inserting a fitting into the route sometimes you get the preview of the fitting so that you can adjust its orientation, other times you do not and must drop the fitting into the route and hope it is oriented correctly. I have also had frequent system crashes while in routing. Actually I crash at least once a day in assemblies to drawings and anywhere in between.

I am running SW2007 SP05 (I am putting off loading 2008). My operating system is WinXP 2002 SP2. Hardware is a Dell Precision PWS490, Intel Xeon 5130 @ 2.00GHZ and 2GB of RAM, video card is an Nvidea Quadro FX 3450 with the latest SW recomended driver.

I have talked to my VAR and have very little help. So any input from the forum would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Gmarken

 

[NL8]

I have noticed some inherent instability, but nothing on the scale you are talking about. I've seen 3-D sketches that overdefine when you try to change a dimension that should be changeable. And i've seen routes not updating to in context changes of the parent assembly.

 

[josephv]

Hello,

I have to agree with DekkerDesign, we have seen some issues, but not as serious as what you describe.

Here are a couple tips:

1) Have you tried working locally to see if these problems are related to the network? To work locally means that all your library files and work files are in your hard drive (i.e. no SWX files are in the network).

2) We created a thread with some routing tips:
thread559-198904

Best wishes,

 

[Eltron]

Yeah, Routing has a tendency to make me want to kick my dog sometimes. It seems like the routes are pretty robust unless you have to make any changes. The main problem is that a lot of the issues are not repeatable. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Unfortunately, I've found that sometimes it's just easier to recreate the route.

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

 

[tristram]

I have also noticed that when it rebuilds a route, a lot of times it randomly hides a bunch of fittings and or pipes/tubes.
I have also found it easier to just rebuild parts of the route rather than trying to modify it.
I work with very large routes (150' yachts) and experience about 1 to 2 crashes per day.

 

[gmarken]

Thanks for the input. Currently I am the only designer using SW, so I am working locally, not on a network. I have been using SW for seven years, and have seen how working on a network can be a disaster, but I have just started to work with routing. After I posted this yesterday I was able to do some route mods that worked pretty well, only four crashes. When it works its a real time saver. When it doesn't........

 

[NL8]

The best part is that if your VAR ever demo's it for you then it will work perfectly, updating consistently without errors or crashes. That's what led management to outfit us all here with Routing packages, though we're not quite up to using them yet.

 

[josephv]

One thing I found helps is to break down a route into spools. In other words create a different sub-assembly for each spool. Then mate the spool sub-assemblies in a main assembly. At first it seemed like a bit of work, but by doing this we avoided many of the issues you get when you try to create one big route assembly.