Dealing with huge patterns

[Nate242]

Many of the projects I'm currently working on have thousands of small cylinders(ø1.5mm .5mm high, with even smaller cylinders on top of them). My current system is really struggling with handling this many features. I'm currently running a Dell Precision 370 with a P4 2.8, 3.25GB ram, and an ATI FireGL V3100 graphics card. What do you think is the main limitation when dealing with thousands of small features? It is so slow that any drawings, etc need to be done in autocad. Anybody have any experiance dealing with parts like these?

 

[ctopher]

Have you read the FAQ's?
faq559-1094

Also, check Tools/Options/System Options/Large Assembly Mode

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP3.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

 

[MadMango]

If these are Features, try Geometry Patterns. They seem to process faster.

If these are Parts in an Assembly, try Component Patterns.

Bottlenecks usually go in order:
1. Graphics Card
2. Memory and Virtual Memory settings
3. Front Side Bus Speed
4. Processor Speed

But above all of that, it is making sure the model is created "high speed & low drag" first.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[rockguy]

The new "area fill" feature is SW 2006 maybe of some use eto you??

Rob Rodriguez CSWP

http://www.robrodriguez.com

SW 2005 SP4.0/SW 2006 EV

 

[davidinindy]

I had some similar problems, and never did find a solution. I had a screamer of a computer, tried many ways of constructing the features, and nothing worked. I ended up modeling one region of the part, and noted on the drawing that the features were patterned as such. I will say that I discovered a couple things that made it better. I had to design a component holder which was, what amounted to stepped cylindrical shapes with draft, patterened a total of 150 times. I don't remember the details, but drawing the profile, and revolving it worked better than drawing the 3 seperate circles, and extruding them with draft. After creating the features, I shelled the part to create the tray. This ussually took 1/2 hour to process, if it didn't crash my computer. This was in 2005. Maybe 2006 can do it more efficiently?

David