Drawings are very slow 1

[Scoobystu]

Can anyone help me?

I have a Dell Precision 2.8 GHz processor with 512Mb of RAM, with a NVIDIA Quadro FX 500 video card. I am running SW 2004 SP1 and I am finding that the part and assemblies are smooth when moving around however the drawings are very slow and jerky. It is much slower than my old pc that had SW2003 on it.

Are there any settings I can change to make the drawings faster and smoother?

Cheers

Stu

 

[SBaugh]

Have you checked your Task manager? I have one machine that has 512 RAM and when I run a drawing my memory pegs out and I start paging my HDD. You shouldn't run less than 1 gig IMO on a computer if your running SW04.

You can go to Tools\Options\System Options\Large assembly mode then click on the help in the lower right corner. Scroll to the bottom of the help file. there you find performacen information. If you go to Performance and I believe Display/Selection and do the same thing there are some performace options you can set there. You might check some of the other options as well.

You could use lightweight drawings while your making the drawings. Once it's done and your ready to print switch it to high quality or resolved and print it out.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[sirmick]

What is SW2004 doing in their drawings that earlier versions did not? I don't see anything that should hinder performance, however, my computer is very sluggish with drawings as well. This is true even when I am using only half of my chip ram.

 

[2433]

Hi Scott Baugh:

My company plan to buy a new PC from Dell for my station,
What is your recomendation??
I work on large assembly and also large dwgs.(2000-3000 parts in assembly)

Thanks

Ben

 

[SBaugh]

Download this Hardware Recommendations at

http://www.scottjbaugh.com/Tips_Tricks/Tips_Tricks.htm

If your going to be using a 2000-3000 part assembly in a drawing, you better soup that computer up a bit and work locally.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[CMcF]

There is a new setting on 2004, which makes a big difference. It is tools; options; drawings;
Save tesselated data for drawings..........
Try it, but read the warning about SW viewer.

 

[DigiBob]

Try turning off "show contents while dragging"



Bob Snead
Designer
Northropgrumman.com

 

[Scoobystu]

Thanks Digibob that did the trick!!

 

[JNR]

Also bear in mind that hidden line DRAWINGS - ie. edges only is in general much more time consuming on a processor than shaded mode graphics believe it or not.

Be naughty - save Santa a trip.

 

[t2design]

I have the same problem here!!!! Tried all the tips.

As I create a new drawing of a large assembly (500 pcs) or of a single complex part (The standard three views, an isometric and BOM) result in a 1.7MB file. Works well and I'm happy with that. (2.4 Ghz, 1 Gb ram, XGL 750... no slouch)
Now, add section views!!! the file performance slowly degrades with each and every additional view. Even spreading the work load across several sheets, does not help. I still end up with a 100 Mb file!!! and wait 10 minutes for a rebuild or view regeneration. Everytime I create a new section, my file size jumps 8 to 10 Mb.
Has anyone else experienced this problem? Any tips for a work around! I've turned off all background programs and all addins. Degraded my video res. But, no drawing performance improvement! I feel that I'm running a 286 here with these drawings.

 

[Scoobystu]

I feel your pain brother!

 

[SBaugh]

Try changing all the views to draft quality. If it's an assembly drawing try opening it up as a lightweight drawing (Only available in SW04).

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[t2design]

Yes, I've tried the draft quality, provides some relief. Done the light weight, but that will corrupt the BOM/Balloons (known issue). It's like that each of the sections is storing the full part model data of every part from the assembly and not releasing/discarding the unnecessary hidden data. I think something is seriously wrong within the database of the drawing file.

Try this, take a drawing with some sections. Do a "save" and then "save as", and watch the file size. It should reduce by half.

 

[SBaugh]

When you save a file to a new name yes it gets smaller and I pointed this out all long time ago... back in SW01+.

I can't remember what SW told me about this, but it will always return to the size when you do a "Save".

Are you working locally or over a network?

Have you tried logging in as a different user and see if it speeds up?

I'm sure you have but I have to ask... have you done the computer Maintenance? Clean out temp files, etc...

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[t2design]

Hey there;

Yes, I do daily maint., and work locally. Got fed up with all the network problems within Solidworks.

I believe the file reduction has something to do with "shadowing", just a mumbo jumbo for poor database management.

I'll try the different user trick. Thanks for the tip.

 

[rHiNoBaLls]

I have seen the same problem with SW2004 SP1. The longer you are in a drawing the slower it gets. I have seen it with other workstations as well. The only fix we can see for the short term is to save your drawing and close out of solidworks. Then reopen it.

 

[RufusUK]

I and my colleagues have had many probs with 2004 performance too. I have identified one problem in our case where a drawing took 5 mins to load. After some days investigation I discovered that if the drawing was originally saved in large assembly mode and the load components lightweight was ticked when attempting re-open..it looked like SW2004 had stopped functioning but in fact it paused for 4 mins before continuing.Task manager actually says the app is not responding during this period.
Unticking load lightweight in the large assy options cured this and it opened in 20 seconds!! However this does not apply to all our large drawings as you can expect from SW random quirks.
I have reported findings to our local support and await their views.

 

[frogsaregreen]

We upgraded to DirectX 9.0b and have seen a significant increase in speed on our drawings using SW2004.

 

[JNR]

Here's something surprising that I have posted in the past.
It works on at least Win XP (and the equivalents on 2000). It speeds everything up.

Go into Settings - Control Panel - System - Performance - Visual Effects - Advanced. Select Custom then turn everythin OFF except maybe "Use a background image for each folder" and "Use visual styles on windows and buttons". (The latter is what make XP look like XP and neither seems to effect speed at all.)

Now, all that fancy stuff is done in CPU NOT graphics board (?!!) Hmmm.... So if you think about it you don't want your CPU spending it's time calulating shadows for you pointer every time you move the mouse (on the fly - while you are moving it!!!) and such superfluous dumb sliding and fading garbage and so on.

You will be very surprised at the increases in speed. Note how FAST Word, Excel, etc. open after you have done this. (After I fixed up our home system, my wife asked me what the heck I had done with the computer the first time she opened Outlook. I hear her gasp of surprise in the next room.)

BTW: You probably won't even notice difference visually, so why does MS insist on literally wasting our time on this flashy crap instead of working on more REAL tools.

I was - and he did. So at least I didn't get coal.....
OK, OK, It's a reference to my holiday sig. "Be naughty - Save Santa a trip..."