Slow upload / performance of CATIA files 5

[TurbulentFluid]

I've been modelling large sites with little detail in Catia (ie a schematic layout of a thermal plant cooling system including the topology of it's situation). I went about it by not using system layout wb but part/product/assemby and piping wbs, scaled to 0.001. Up until now, the total size of all files grew up to 30 MB. The problem is, loading of the main assembly is painfully slow (2-3 mins!). Once it loads, the file behaves satisfacory (rendering, zoom-in, -out, pan, rotate, even switching between wbs and part editing), but all the operations that include memory management (save, undo) are, again, very, very slow. Is there a way of improving this performance? Does it have anything to do with the way I arrange files (ie I do parts, assemple them in smaller assemblies, then add these to bigger assemblies)?

 

[DBezaire]

Turbulent, It sounds like your structure is correct but there are a bunch of things that could slow you down.
What type of PC, memory,CPU,graphics card are you using

1) under Tools-->Options-->Display-->Performance
Tone down the graphical accuracy,make sure you do not enable isoparamatrics
2) is your assembly clean of broken links, extra data not in use?
3) You may want to run CATDUAV5 on the file. This will clean it from erroneous items

Is the file located on a server or local???

Regards,
Derek

 

[silverunner]

You could try opening the product as a set of CGR files and only bring the ones that you are working on into Design Mode.
Use the "Work with the cache system" to enable the CGR creation.

 

[ferdo]

Hi,

You can go also to Tools-Options-Product Structure-Product Vizualization-Do not activate default shapes on open.

This will open your Product with whole nodes deactiveted you will not have any vizualization of the parts). So, you can activate after that what nodes (parts, products) you want.

Don't forget to turn back this option. Next time when you will open CATIA, you will not see something on the screen.

Regards
Fernando

 

[catiajim]

PS 30 MB and 3 minutes is nothing. We worry about 100+mb assemblies that take 45 minutes or more to load.

That being said, turn on your CACHE. It will be a little slow to load the first time as it populates the cache, but subsequent loads will be much faster.

 

[TurbulentFluid]

Thank you very much for your replys! Sadly neither of them offered a signifficant improvement; I guess it's just the way it is with Catia...

 

[Azrael]

Are you using R16?, must say that the performance improved with that release.

 

[TurbulentFluid]

Thanks everyone for the given advice; however... it didn't help much (bar the graphics reduction). As I add to the files, they only grow bigger and less versatile, not to mention Catia starts crashing! Yes, I am using v5r16, and yes, I did notice the improvement, but... I'm using a P4 3GHz, 1GB RAM, Win XP Pro SP2, ASUS Extreme N5750 V61.21 graphic card (GeForce PCX5750 chip)with 128 VRAM.

I DID however notice that the performance seems to improve with scaling the drawings to smaller dimensions - is this true, or just wishful thinking? Now I'm wondering how do you people manage to fit in a whole plane - with details - into a Catia file and live to tell the tale...What comps do you use to run Catia? Could it be my technique in drawing that makes files so unmanageable? (I'm self-learned, through tutorials, I'm often clumsy)

 

[catiajim]

While we define the entire airplane with CATIA, and save it all to a VPM Database, we cannot load the entire airplane at once. We find a practical limit of between 3-5k parts on an average workstation. We have done some experimenting with 64 bit, both in Unix and on Windows, and that allows us to load around 12K parts. Since a biz-jet consists of around 18-30K parts, we are still a ways off from loading an entire aircraft.

Looking at your system specs, push up the ram to at least 4GB. You can then use the 3GB switch that will allow CATIA to use 3GB while windows only uses 1 (without the switch, CATIA will only use 2GB).

 

[solid7]

Is the boot.ini file a default Windows file, or might it need to be created?

---
CAD design engineering services - Catia V4, Catia V5, and CAD Translation. Catia V5 resources - CATBlog.

 

[TurbulentFluid]

Thanks everyone! I see you're running this on much bigger machines than mine, so I take it that's the biggest problem. I've no idea how we're going to run this on a laptop for presentations, unless 3dxml manages a sufficient display... :-(

 

[DBezaire]

TurbuentFluid, - whats in your laptop? Also, if it is a presentation look at Catiajim's suggestion of turn on the cache. The initial load of the part/product will be a bit sluggish, but this will create the cgr's. From there your ram/graphic requirements drastically go down.
We use 3dxml in customer presentation, internal manufacturing line ups and various areas of data management. It's a handy little feature.

Regards,
Derek

 

[ferdo]

Hi,

Yep, Derek's right (also Catiajim). "Clean" the Win registry also.

Boot.ini file is a default file (as far as I know).

Regards
Fernando

 

[solid7]

Boot.ini file is a default file (as far as I know).

Can you please tell me where to find it? I have looked hither and yon...

I'm not what you'd call a computer admin expert.

---
CAD design engineering services - Catia V4, Catia V5, and CAD Translation. Catia V5 resources - CATBlog.

 

[eklunja]

Boot.ini is a hidden system file at C:\ root directory.

 

[Akesson]

To change boot.ini

Right-click on My Computer
Select Properties
Advanced
Startup and Recovery /Settings button
System Startup /Edit button

Create a new start command for XP by adding following line in the boot.ini file:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Pofessional 3Gb” /noexecute=optin /fastdetect/3Gb

save the updated boot.ini

restart computer and chose the new start command

 

[sqi]

Performances are affected by several factors:
1. data size of your model
2. number of links: this is very true at loading time. A spaghetti plate of external links dramatically slow the loading of your model and any modification (update graph is complex then!!)

The problem is mostly methodologic: think about your tree organization and the granularity of your design to find the good compromise between CATPart size, number of CATParts and design relations.
1 CATPart => 0 external links but data size to big to load everything, concurrent enginerring impossible
1000 CATParts => small CATParts size (visu mode possible) but lots of links (loading, modification, concurrent engineering problems)

 

[Crazyfrog]

Thanks Jim and Akesson for their help.

I've asked for the 3Go switch to be applied in my compagny.

But the IT people have answered me : "This is not an approved Microsoft switch and is not supported
if it causes problems"

Is it right ?
Do Dassault Syst. recommend somewhere this manipulation ?

 

[PeterGuy]

It is a microsoft approved switch. It may not be supported, this depends on what type of support they have and from whom. It can cause problems, however these are mostly well documented an relate to specific items.

There is certainly information on the specific impacts of this switch in the microsoft KB.

Any problems it creates may be trivial compared Catia exiting with an unhandled exception (as a rule only r13 and below just leave the building the later releases tend to be a bit more graceful) but it is still an undesirable thing.

However, I would ensure you are using the correct methods for handeling large quantites of data before, invoking the 3Gb switch, Your support channel should be able to guide you with this.

 

[DBezaire]

Send this link to IT and ask them why microsoft would provide support to an unsupported item.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=829364

Then redirect them to this page

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833721/en-us

Regards,
Derek