Solidworks 2014 Performance Issues

[sillyfreak]

I have what I believe is a big performance problem with Solidworks 2014 and my new HP ZBook 17. When I select an entity in sketch mode, as expected, I get the pop-up properties dialog window. The delay is way more than on "slower" computers I use on campus. Additionally, if I control-click several sketch entities to assign a sketch constraint, each successive entity click seems to take forever. Adding dimensions is similar. Launching the program take a long time as well.

My laptop is a dual core i7-4800 CPU at 2.70 GHZ, 16 GB RAM, and an NVIDIA Quadro K3100M video card. Inventor and Creo seem to run quite well.

Attached is a quick video to show you my pain. Any ideas will be appreciated.

 

[Dievant]

Have you attempted to run SolidWorks Rx, there is a good chance that will give you an idea to where your problems are. That is if its related to hardware issues. The other thing i would check is if your video card driver is compatible, Rx will tell you that as well or you can check on the SolidWorks site.

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

 

[sillyfreak]

Thanks, I was not aware of Solidworks Rx. I checked the video card, and I have the approved version of the driver, and Solidworks Rx did not find anything out of the ordinary.

 

[Dievant]

I saw this post which may be of use since you are using a NVIDIA card.

https://forum.solidworks.com/thread/48662

Aside from that I have ever had this issue, its possible something went wrong with the install and it might be worth trying a fresh install.

 

[ctopher]

Maybe check your settings for OpenGL?
SW Help

Chris, CSWA
SolidWorks 14
SolidWorks Legion

 

[sillyfreak]

THanks Dievant. That post about the NVIDIA nView Dsektop Manager sounds exactly like my issue. However, that was something I checked before my post and found it to already be disabled.

I am struggling to find the Open GL setting under Options, but I will continue to pursue that was well.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Tools > Options > System Options > Performance
If you don;t know where an option is located, use the Search field at the top RH corner of the Options box and it will offer links to the location.

 

[sillyfreak]

Thanks CorBlimeyLimey. I checked the "Use Open GL" box, and restarted Solidworks, but still the same delays....

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

You should expect lower performance when using the Use Software OpenGL option. That setting is only used when the graphics card is unable to run OpenGL on its faster hardware.

Your performance problem could be caused by a mismatched graphics card driver though. Have you run the Solidorks Rx > Diagnostics tool yet?

 

[sillyfreak]

Solidworks Rx reports "all systems go" (see attachment). I turned Open GL back off. Thanks to all for the help, but it seems to be something besides the video card/driver.

 

[Dievant]

Is it only when sketching and placing dimensions that things seem slow?

 

[Dievant]

Try checking your power saving settings under control panel>system and security>power options.
If you are in power saving mode it can cause your processor to downclock. Try switching it to the balanced option. It will reduce the amount of time you can run on your laptop battery but it will hopefully allow you to do things a better pace and save you from throwing it out the window in frustration.

 

[sillyfreak]

It is hard for me to say since I have not run Solidworks until I got this new laptop. However, in general, there seems to be a two to three second delay between the time I select any command button and when the dialog box pops up with options to proceed.

Zooming and spinning operations are very fast with no delays. It is almost like it is checking something every time a new command is begun...

 

[sillyfreak]

Thanks again Dievant. I tried both "balanced" and "high performance" power settings with the same results.

I do have to retrieve a network license over a VPN connection to run Solidworks. I am not sure if that could be a problem, possibly checking on the license each time I select a command?

 

[sillyfreak]

Don't know if it is related, but when I look at the SW Licence Manager (attached), it shows I am using two licenses, one is borrowed, and the other is pulled from the server. However, under borrowed product license tab, everything is blank. It thinks I have a license checked out, but at the same time, it thinks that I don't. If I try to launch without the VPN connection, it says I do not have a license.

Any idea how often it checks for a license?

 

[SBaugh]

Try checking it in anyway. If it doesn't go away you or your IT will want to check out the Registry to delete the borrow location.The location when you borrow a license is located at "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\FLEXlm License Manager\Borrow" it will list the server and the bundle type borrowed e.g. borrow-d8b1b11c-solidworks. Just delete those values, but keep the "infoborrow" binary value.



Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.superATV.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

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