Slow mate command on Assembly

[Standing]

I am having trouble placing mates onto an assembly, average 2-1/2 minutes per mate. The following is what our VAR told me about the assembly with 588 parts and about 6 subassemblies.

Hi Brad,

The reason this assembly is so slow is the number of top level assembly mates. These should be kept to under 300, otherwise performance slows as you see it here. There are two main things you can do to reduce these mates: Use sub-assemblys and component patterns.

Remember that you can select several components in the assembly, rmb and choose "form new sub-assy here" in order to create sub-assys. On the component patterns, try to re-use part patterns by using feature driven component patterns. If you would like more tips, give us a call.

In my system (with several other programs running in the background) it took about 6 minutes and 30 seconds to apply this mate (using the alt-drag) to add two mates simultaneously. My system is 1.8 Ghz cpu, 1.0 Gb of ram, Wildcat VP870 video card.

I hope this helps,


Bradley

 

[SBaugh]

Have you tried your VAR's Suggestions?

Wildcat - Not a preferred video card IMO. Send the files to someone (Like your VAR) to test it out on their system or another system (with a different video card) to see if it runs slow for them.

In my system (with several other programs running in the background)

Shut them down. The more Apps you have running the more memory is being used by those apps and less is being used for your SW assembly mates.

Do you download and install crap programs? Like Weather bug or other Small applications running all the time.

Are you working over the network? - Don't! Move them locally and work on the files.

Get more RAM - 1 Gig is minimum IMO for SW04

Set your Virtual memory to 3 or 4 times your RAM and place that Virtual memory on a separate HDD. See Link for further Hardware and software setups

http://www.solidworks.com/swexpress/mar04/200403_techtip_02.cfm

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[Standing]

Scott,
My VAR opened my file and worked on placing one mate. Took him 6-1/2 minutes to mate.
The following is his reply with the question “Would a better computer help?”

Hi Brad,

As you know already, it is the cpu which is busy. SolidWorks has to calculate every mate in the assembly when you add a new mate and when you insert a part into the assy. You will see the biggest speed increase by getting your top level mates below 300. (to find out how many top level mates you have, go to Tools:Assembly statistics"). Certainly, getting a computer with a faster cpu will help you. However, to be appreciable you would probably need to at least double your present cpu speed.

A video card with more memory will not help on this particular issue. More computer RAM helps on large assemblys on crashing issues. Be aware that memory on a video card is not enough. SolidWorks works best with particular video cards, not as well with others. (nVidia Quadro 4 series or nVidia Quadro FX series works best)

As a demonstration, do this: Insert 620665 into a new assembly, save the new assembly and then open the new assembly lightweight. Copy the same washer you had me add into the new assembly. Mate it to the same hole. It comes right in.

I hope this helps,

Jim

I did what Jim (VAR) suggested with the assembly 620665 inserted into an assembly and it took 7 seconds to mate the washer.
Our network is a 1 gig fiber line. I am using a 1 gig network card also.


Bradley

 

[J-C]

Do you have any assembly cuts? I've seen that slow mating down quite a bit.

How many mates do you have?

Jason Capriotti
ThyssenKrupp Elevator

 

[Standing]

Jason,
I have several assembly cuts as I use top down design a lot. I will look at deleting all external links and delete them. Thanks for the idea.


Bradley

 

[ShaggyPE]

Do you have cut features in the assembly? Or do you have part feature cuts that are defined in-context of the Assembly?

I believe Gildashard was referring to the first variety which will have a greater affect on the speed of the assembly than the latter.

 

[Standing]

I have part feature cuts that are defined in-context of the Assembly. I am going to try deleting them.

Bradley