Reducing rendering time for Multi region sketches or extrudes

[maru487]

I work for an electronics company that uses the EDA tool to create a very accurate 3D Model of our PCBs. These pcbs become very complex in Solidworks due to the multi region nature of the component pads. These pads are basically rectangles or circles placed all over the PCB and are in the range of 200-400 pads, then extruded. There is also through hole pads and vias that create multiple holes in the board. When all of this is put together in one part, the time it takes to roll back, modify 1 pad, then roll forward and rebuild is in the range of 9 hours. Alot of this time is just in opening the sketch for modification.

My question is: With extremely complex multi region sketches and extrudes, is there a setting or option that will greatly reduce this rebuild/sketch opening time?

Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance,
Peter Rudge
Daniels Electronics

 

[ctopher]

Are you exporting from OrCad? Whichever software you get the EDA, check you settings there. SW will import whatever is in the EDA file.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP1.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

 

[Theophilus]

How does your computer compare to some of the systems/components recommended in some of the workstation threads in this forum (search)?

I've found that sometimes sketches get sluggish with too many elements in them. There might be a break-even point at which you'd be better off putting fewer sketch elements in a sketch and going to more features to get what you need. Nine hours is far too long to rebuild a part.


Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reality is no respecter of good intentions.

 

[maru487]

Sorry, i knew i forgot to mention something.

We use the EDA to export from Protel to Solidworks. The problem occurs after the EDA is complete and I want to modify a sketch in the Solidworks part. I will have several extrude features that make up the complete board. (ie TOP PADS, TOP TEXT, BOTTOM PADS, BOTTOM TEXT, PLATED HOLES, NON-PLATED HOLES) ... I then will go to modify the sketch in the "TOP PADS" feature and it takes 10 mins to open that sketch. I then move 1 pad and exit the sketch. Then it takes about 4-9 hours to, depending on the complexity of the features, to rebuild all of the features.

I was just hoping there was some kind of resolving or error checking going on in the background that I could disable.

Thanks,

Peter Rudge
Daniels Electronics

 

[MadMango]

There is an upper limit to the number of sketch segments you should have for features, on the order of 300 segments.

Take a look at thread559-107220

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Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[Theophilus]

Right--so if you break your sketches into smaller numbers of segments and use more features instead (to get what you need), this huge delay should dissipate.

It's a change in modeling style, but it should pay off greatly.

And your computer. ..? That also makes a big difference.


Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reality is no respecter of good intentions.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

How big (MB) is the file?
How much RAM do you have?
What is your Virtual Memory set at?


Making the best use of this Forum. faq559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions. faq559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of. faq559-520

 

[smcadman]

Is it being exported as sub-assemblies, or 1 solid part with hundreds of features? How fast is your CPU, and how much RAM do you have?

Flores

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

If this is a part file (.sldprt) run the Tools > Feature Statsitics on it. This will tell you exactly which features are taking the rebuild time. Text will often cause slowdowns, depending on the amount of text & the complexity of the font used.

When you have established which features are creating the slowdown, suppress them. Also use configurations with various features suppressed ... then when you need to work on any particular area, you simply open that config. When all changes have been made, you can then open the "all unsupressed" config for final rebuild.




Making the best use of this Forum. faq559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions. faq559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of. faq559-520

 

[maru487]

My computer is a P4 2.4G with 1G ram, Quadro FX500 video and the Virtual is set at 858M. The file sizes range depending on the board, around 3M up to 12M. But usually after i run UNFRAG on them they drop in half.

Peter Rudge
Daniels Electronics

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Check out the following web pages regarding VM & the use of the /3GB switch, but make sure you are running XP-sp2 before you activate it.

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

http://www.panoramafactory.com/discus/messages/17/313.html?1057432320

Making the best use of this Forum. faq559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions. faq559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of. faq559-520

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Ooops .. forgot to mention ... increase your RAM to 2GB if posible.


Making the best use of this Forum. faq559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions. faq559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of. faq559-520