Large Drawing Performance in 2004 SP 2.1

[pdybeck]

I was just wondering if anyone could let me know if the problems with large assembly drawing performance have been resolved with SP 2.1. I have a test set up with SP1 installed and had some nasty problems with large assembly drawings crashing or not even opening. Those problems were not there in SP0. Does 2.1 eliminate these problems? I don't feel like rendering my machine useless for 1-2 hours to install 2.1 only to find out it doesn't solve my problems - terrible productivity. Thanks in advance.

Pete Yodis

 

[Rocko]

people in other forums have said it is better.

 

[pdybeck]

In compcad? Could you be more specific? Thanks

 

[MrMiller]

I'm in the same boat as you. We work on very large assemblies and drawings. We have had a significant speed reduction from SW2003 to SW2004. I hope SW2004sp2.1 does the trick. Hopefully someone has some experience with this and can give feedback.

 

[rockguy]

I can tell you that the same drawings I was running in SP1 are definately faster in SP2.1. My assemblies are not large (500 pieces or less) but I can see a difference between the 2 SP's.

 

[Bill87]

Just curious, what are we talking about for a "large" drawing? Number of sheets? What type of computer (MHz, RAM) are you using?

 

[SBaugh]

I know I say it all the time but, make sure your TEMP file is cleaned out between tests that you perform (if you preform them). Just make sure the TEMP is cleaned out all the time or at least once a week. This is known to cause slow performance and crashes.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[dogarila]

Scott,

since you keep mentioning to keep TEMP folder clean I become curious what is the mechanism that causes SW to crash when there are files in the TEMP folder?

 

[Scoobystu]

SP 2.1 speeds up drawings significantly, but it still takes a wee while to load a drawing with a shed load of components initially (if you are not in large assembly mode).

 

[pdybeck]

I did make sure of that. My VAR was able to confirm the file crashing upon opening, however he was able to open the assembly first, force rebuild, and then open the drawing and the problem seemed to go away for him. I was not able to do that here - it still crashed. We tried several methods, but still the same result every time. My VAR felt it was a bug that was enhanced more by slower performing machines. Yes, it doesn't help that I am running an older and slower machine, but that doesn't excuse the instability in the software. There was an SPR submitted for this, but there has been no correction action defined as of yet. I felt the problem would most likely go away when the issues in SP1 with large assembly drawing performance were fixed in a future SP. So far I am not ready to roll out SolidWorks 2004 to my company because of issues like these. Kind of crazy it has taken this long to get a stable SP. Now SolidWorks is talking about 2005. ??? My suggestion is slow down a little and make sure there are some solid SPs to work with. For a huge majority of people there are enough features to do what they need to do. I would prefer more stability and performance in futue SPs and releases and not quickly released, half developed features that cause problems. I'll get off my soapbox now.

 

[SBaugh]

since you keep mentioning to keep TEMP folder clean I become curious what is the mechanism that causes SW to crash when there are files in the TEMP folder?

Windows controls this folder and all the data that goes into it. I'm not sure how much stuff can be stored in there I know it varies between computers (I'm sure it's a Windows setting somewhere). But when you start exceeding the amount of allocated space(and since SW is so demanding) that 9 times out of 10 this will cause SW to crash.

Windows doesn't delete the information automatically and SW shouldn't be responsible for cleaning it out either. This is something that Windows should do, but since they and want to sell you more software. I'm sure that's why it's not an automatic process.

I hope this help... Regards,


Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[RufusUK]

Also see my previous thread559-79865.

Cleaning the temp folder hasnt significantly reduced crashes from our experience but we do it regular just to reduce the risk.
I am glad other folks are now reporting poor performance as we have complained from day 1.
I am just about to update to 2.1 so will see how it compares.

 

[francob]

Hi, I have been running SP2.1 for just over a week and I am extremely disappointed. I have lost all my faith in SolidWorks. Regarding drawings, for myself I've had way more problems with huge drawings in SP2.1 than in SP1.0. The drawings will open but many times i won't see the content.. i can move my mouse over it and it highlights but will not show anything,, try opening models then but usually just shuts down on me..
Actually i'm having the problem just now.. i've wasted the past hour with this problem..

so any of you who are upgrading.. Good Luck!!.. is all i can say..

PS. have been wondering if my system needs to be upgraded.. am running a P4 1.8, 786 RAM, Quadro FX 500.. is that way below the average of what you all are running??

 

[pdybeck]

francob,

Your machine has about twice the horsepower mine does - pathetic, I know. However, the software should not have instabilities regardless what your machine is (obviously within reason). I am able to open drawings fine in 2003 here. When I converted a copy of my data and opened in 2004, I began to have problems. SolidWorks 2004 is just plain slower than previous versions. I don't know what it is, but my assumption is all the added eye candy graphics stuff along with all the other data being added to the files because of added features. Irregardless, not being able to open drawings in a new version/release that worked fine in a release just prior is absolutely unacceptable no matter what machine you are running. I too have lost faith in SolidWorks and have been very disappointed with 2004. They are not realizing the losses in productivity that they are incurring. Terrible productivity. I am not one to rant or complain such as others on other news groups, but this definitely calls for it. My company's subscription money went right down the drain. That subscription money is paid to make the software better and in turn make us more productive, but this year it has been wasted by making us more unproductive. Case in point is the new WI installer method that gobbles up hours of time for each install. SolidWorks needs to right the ship in order to restore their customers' faith that their subscription money is actually going to making the software more productive, and the only way to do that is with fixing what’s broken/slowing us down in 2004 and making 2005 better. I'll be keeping a close eye on the SPs for 2004 and 2005 as it comes out to determine if I want to invest or waste another years worth of subscription.

 

[SBaugh]

I understand all of you that are having frustrations with SW. Do make sure you have all the latest drivers for all your hardware. Instability is sometimes caused because of the hardware you are running. Yes it might have worked fine in SW03 but now your at 04 - Update your drivers - It's required IMO.

As for the WI installer and losing Faith read this from the SW NG at

http://www.topica.com:

Everyone thinks that this is SolidWorks doing, but is does not all fall on their shoulders. Part of being Microsoft certified is that the compliant software use the Windows Installer. I can see that SolidWorks development will fix this or find a real cool work around. SolidWorks always trives to put out the best and fix other peoples problems. Does everyone remember the zoom/z-clipping issue that Windows 98/ME had, SolidWorks wrote software to fix that. When companies ran out to buy video card based on price and not quality (no hardware OpenGL), SolidWorks wrote software to bypass the hardware and use software OpenGL.

About Piracy, back in the day SolidWorks did lock the seats serial number to the computer ID and that lasted to the first SP of that version. It made it too cumbersome to move to a new computer or if you had to re-format your hard drive. The community complained and SolidWorks listened.

Last SP you only had to use just CD 1 now you have to use CD 1 and CD 3, the reason for this is because of the bug fix for the PDF writer. The WI utilizes information from the original install files to fix (rewrite) the corrupted files.

Everyone is justified in their concerns on the long load times, I too am concerned. However, I know that SolidWorks will do everything within its power to right this issue, it is only a matter of time. I know that SolidWorks has ALWAYS done right by it's community. This is a new step, using WI, and they just need the time to get the kinks out.

James Ortiz

I couldn't say it any better than James did. I agree with James on this statement.

The other thing I'm goin to suggest is in this faq559-884 - I just made it so hopefully it will be avaialble.

Best Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[t2design]

I would like to pass on, that there is actually two!!! temp directories. The first one is created by SW, in the systems options (you all know that one)and contains your backup files. However, the second one hides in you "local settings/temp" which stores your recoverable files when the system crashes. So, just cleaning out the SW backups, does not clean all the old files.

Cleaning both folders daily and defragging routinely (daily sometimes, especially after a crash!!). Keeps the PC healthy.

Also, hardware is very important!!!!! I've done many tests with various motherboards/graphics/ram/cpu's in the last three months because of all the crashes (blew the budget for the year). There is a very noticable stability issue with SW 2004 when mixing certain motherboards/graphic/ram and CPU's. I have found that anything with an 845/850 chipset and an Intel 'A&B' series CPU or anything from Dell will have problems.

So for those asking: running a 2.8(C), ASUS P4C800, OCZ High Perf., 750XGL, Raptor Hdrive. NO CRASHES!!!! in 7 weeks (even o'clocked 10%).

 

[SBaugh]

As for your Backup files you should make your Directory and not let SW create it for you. I have a folder called "Backup" on my local HDD. That folder contains all my SW files. You should set this up when setting up SW if you plan on making backups. Especially those that don't know how or where those files are stored. This should be a requirement IMO.

It should be cleaned out, but it's not as important to clean out unless you start running out of HDD space.

Defrag your HDD is not needed on a daily basis. It should be maybe 1 a month depending on much you move files to and from your HDD.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[VT600]

Out of interest, (because maybe we're go'ne switch to solidworks, previous Inventor). How much parts do you normally draw in Solidworks, I mean unique parts. How is the 2D drawing performance, creating views etc? Inventor is very slow when it gets to 200 unique parts and more. (and we have al lot of 200 and more)
Before whe invest in new 3D software, we want some hard evidence if it is beter in performing than Inventor.

Greetz,
Johnny

 

[SBaugh]

Get a SW trial from your VAR and test it for yourself. That's the best way to get your Hard evidence.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[Theophilus]

For what it's worth (or not), SW 2004 has a toggle switch for "draft quality" or fine quality for drawings. I would think large assembly drawings should be set to the draft quality while working with them, just in case there's an issue with RAM or graphics card (as it seems possible from a couple of the posts above).

Also, as t2design mentioned, certain combinations of components don't play nice together. I had an ancient P3 666 Mhz until a month ago and rarely crashed it. Very stable, albeit slow. The new AMD Opteron screams on two machines, ASUS SK8N and SK8V motherboards. The one with the SK8V would ocassionally crash without reason (usually with the screen saver going and no SW running), but that seemed to be a registry issue. (I ran Registry First Aid last week and it hasn't happened again--yet.)

My installation of SW 2004 took ~45 minutes on the new machine and upgrade from 0.0 to 2.1 was about 25 minutes--much faster than what I've been hearing with other people. (?)




Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com