Solidworks Performance Problems

[CadAndy]

Questions about performance:

Is anybody having problems with Solidworks performance
issues with assemblies over 200 pieces?

Yes, we have already talked to Solidworks and our
system which is a Dell workstation PWS530 with a
Xeon Chip running at 1.8 GHz and 1 GB or Ram.
Our video card is NVidia 900 XGL with the driver
from April is considered an excellent system
according to Solidworks.

The only thing Solidworks tells us is that its the
video card. Does anyone else have any suggestions?
Solidworks doesn't seem to have an answer and when
your computer locks up when you try and save or print
a document something is definately wrong.

Is anyone still running NT 4.0 with Solidworks 2003
or 2004 and if you are, are you having problems. It
seems 2000 NT stability is questionable at the moment
with Solidworks.

 

[Rocko]

Luca if it is true from your post that you are using surface modeling because of the intricate details can you create a closed volume by stitching the surfaces together into a solid. This will cut down dramatically the demand on your system.

 

[Luca83]

Rocko,

I do knit to a closed volume and thicken the surface to create a solid body out of my surface model, but the problem is I end up having over 300+ features in a part when im at the point of creating a solid.

 

[CADShark]

Hopefully all of our performance probs will be minimized by SW2004. They did say that they increased performance in large assembly mode. I currently build assemblies in the 50 to 100 part range. I'm running a Dual AMD Athlon MP1900+ (well one right now, somehow I fried one) w/Win2k Pro, 3GB ram and an Oxygen GVX420 vid card. And I still see some performance problems. I thought I built a speed machine, guess I'm wrong.

 

[MadMango]

50-100 parts is a small assembly for most folks I think. I have a similar set-up as you [blue]SharkMan[/blue], but 1.7ghz P4s and only 1g of memory. I work on 500-800 part assemblies everyday, and I think the performance is fine. Now, it is slower than just working on a 5 part assy or the like, but I think one has to expect some sort of performance lag when dealing with large assemblies over 300 parts.

As for your single processor problem, make sure both of your fans are working. On the system I have, one of the fans went out, and the system shut down that processor. I didn't even notice until I brought up my Task Manager one day and noticed only one CPU being charted. So a $5 fan was the problem. Replaced it and everything was good.

MadMango
"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities."
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[Luca83]

You could always overkill it and get a liquid cool your processors :-D

 

[CADShark]

Well a liquid cool system would be great. I have five fans in the case now. It sounds like a hovercraft. The one thing that I have against myself is that I'm very detail oriented. I have to make sure every part is as close to the real thing that it drives my file sizes up. Fits are critical in my line of work. Tolerancing in the + - .002"

 

[empty]

Yo Dudes,
I know this ain't really on the post but it may be of interest to some of you.
I just got me a Thermaltake V1000 series case.
7 liquid fans, adjustable speed!!
Also Ttake power unit with 2 fans on it (420W).
Its quieter than my old single fan piece of crap.
Not bragging just informing.
Well worth £150.
One love