Solid Model load time

[yaspan]

Hi all, I am working with solid models of the size between 30 and 150 Mb. The problem I am having is the time it takes to load the models can be anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes, which seems ridiculas to me.

I have a P4 3gig, with a gf4 4600 graphics card and 1 gig of ddr333, so I do not think that my system is the problem.

I would like to know if these load times are normal, or perhaps there is something wrong with the models?

Thanks in advance,

Yaspan

 

[MadMango]

Its hard to say what, if anything, would be "wrong" with your models. Do your models have a lot of helix-based features? Do you have a lot of fillets in your parts? How many parts are we talking about, as size size alone (30-150mb) dosn't give us much to work with.

Are you loading your models across a network? If so, maybe you need to take a look at your network card, and see if you can increase the speed there by installing a card that allows faster transfer rates.

Maybe you could try to create a new asssembly configuration, and suppress parts and sub-assemblies that you do not to need to see or view. Do you have the Show Model Edges option on? Ray Reynolds
Senior Designer
Read: faq731-376
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."

 

[yaspan]

Thanks for the response mango.

To elaborate a little more, yes I am loading my models across a network, and I did suspect this might be a problem but I am unable to see the speed at which the loading process is taking place (is there any way to show this?). I am able to see the speed of drawings in pdf format, which is about 150KB/s.

Also an average model has about 15 sub-assemblies, with each sub-assembly having also about 15 different parts (and I need to show them all).

My knowledge of networks is a little bit sketchy, so I kinda have to have faith in the IT department, and since they seem to know what they are doing, I didnt want to point any fingers in that direction.

I also suspected that it might be because of the way the files were being saved, or that the directory that the files were being saved to was just to big, so my next question would be, is there any way to make a report for a model showing the location of each sub-assembly and their coresponding parts?

Thanks,
Yaspan

 

[SBaugh]

Yaspen,

Once you have the file open (over the network) you should do a file\find references\ Then a menu pops up. In that menu there is a button "Copy files" click it and place all those files on your local Harddrive. Then close the network file and SW. (Note: you will have to copy the main assembly to the new file folder manually)

Once that shuts down and all your memory is re-allocated (check by checking your Task manager performance\mem usage) Then re open SW and reopen your file, but this time open the assembly on your Hard drive. IF it opens faster on your local Hard drive then your bottleneck resides in the network.

Are you running a Novell Network by chance? (Ask your IT Department).

Best Regards, Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.3dmca.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[EdDanzer]

I would guess the network is the problem. We use a network attached hard drive on a T100 network and never see that low of data transfer.
I read an article about storage and it talked about one system that uses packet transfer and another that uses file transfer. Packet transfer is best for large data bases and file transfer for individual files. This link will give the full details if you IT department would like to read it.

http://www.dmreview.com/d.cfm?E=6493&i=032103&r=3

 

[macPT]

Check also if your anti-virus is running. It can take twice the time to load the files if the anti-virus is active. This is a major problem in assemblies, since SW will open several files, each one being inspected by the av.

Regards

 

[Bosco5]

Are you using a lot of hardware (does the hardware have detailed threads?) if so then create a configuration in the hardware part files to supress the detailed features. This should speed things up a lot.

 

[DetroitPickles]

If you do as Scott suggested (copy all to HD) and there is a massive improvement, you have your answer. The network. Something along the network is choking you down. Either too many folks accessing it, or something. Perhaps you are on a 10/100 network, and your network card is stuck in the 10mb/sec mode?

If it isn't substantially faster, then you MUST have a bunch of fillets or threads in there. There is a big difference in speed with these 2 features. If you incorporate the fillet in the sketch, it is faster. And if you suppress the pretty threads, it will be much faster loading also.

Also, what do you have set in your System Porperties : Performance section? Are you "Always" Rebuilding Assembly on load? Are you verifing on rebuild? Loading anything lightweight? etc...?

Mr. Pickles