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.

 

[ctopher]

Yes, I had this problem. We thought it was memory, fixed that...didn't work. Bought me a new PC with 512 RAM, very good video card, etc. SW performance is still very slow. I found out recently that it is the line connecting our pc's to the server in the hall then to the server down the building. The line can only handle 100kb at a time. We are planning to upgrade the lines and server.

 

[MadMango]

You should consider running Windows 2000 or XP professional. We use to run on NT but had too many problems.

I'm running on Win2k with 1g memory, dual 1.7ghz processors (I know, not much help with SW) and an Elsa GLoria III graphics card (a bit dated now, but still good). I work with assemblies that range from 400-900 fullt resolved parts with no problems.

It's not realy a question of how many parts, but rather what type of parts you have modeled. Stay away from helix-based models if you can, especially hardware. There shouldn't be a need to show that level of detail for hardware. Try using component patterns of hardware instead of individual instances.

What's your network looking like? Try to ensure you have a 100mb connection instead of the standard 10mb.

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

 

[ctopher]

Forgot to mention, I use WIN XP prof, P2, 2.4ghz, NVIDIA Quadro4 750XGL video card.
My biggest file is 97,000kb and runs very slow.

 

[Theophilus]

I operated an NT system with 2003 until a short time ago and generally had good results. The machine is six years old with dual P2 300s, 512 MB RAM, and an Oxygen card. It was finally taken out by a worm and back door that loaded the machine with viruses (difficult to get up-to-date scanners for NT). I reformatted the C drive and reinstalled SW 2003, but couldn't get PhotoWorks to operate without crashing, so something is still wrong.

I normally use Win2000 Pro and have excellent stability and performance for my 3-year old machine.




Jeff Mowry
DesignHaus Industrial Design

http://www.designhaus-i-d.com

 

[SBaugh]

You need to go to the SW website and log in under your subscription services. Then check out the software and hardware requirements. There it will till you what OS is supported. Win NT SP 6.0 or higher is supported by SW but they can't guarntee the SP for SW03 after Microsoft stopped supporting NT this pass June. As for SW04 you can install SW 04 with Win Nt with SP6 or higher but it list the first verison after SW04 Win NT will not be supported.

See site for clarifications

If your opening your files over a network, then try moving them local and see what kind of speeds you get.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[TheTick]

Maybe the driver? It sounds like you already are using an nVidia driver and not a Windows default driver. But, just in case...

faq559-715

All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted.

 

[drvitorino]

I have already operated SW2003 with assemblies over 1000 components (sheet metal and profiles) in a Notebook Celeron 1.06 MHz and 256 MB SDram. Video? Only 8 MB and I think it was great. The problem occur if you try to edit a part inside the assembly. You must open it in a new window.
Of course the image wasn't so smooth, but I could work on that

 

[drvitorino]

Forgot this: I use Windows XP Pro

 

[earnest]

for the benefit of theophilus:
I had the same Photoworks problem and questioned SW about it:

Photoworks needs your TCP/IP installed.
Apparently, it wants to talk out.

Preferably, SW - which is clearly pushing the limits of what a PC can do - should not be on a system which connects to all the junk on the internet. You can disable (untick) the TCP/IP and Photoworks will still run.

 

[Theophilus]

earnest,

Thanks! I'll need to try that. Where are the settings located to disable ("untick&quot the TCP/IP so Photoworks will cooperate?




Jeff Mowry
DesignHaus Industrial Design

http://www.designhaus-i-d.com

 

[JNR]

And don't forget on XP (and a few on 2000) to go into control panel and disable all those stupid "performance" features that are robbing you bling of you CPU time. You probably don't even know somw of them are turned on.

For example, who needs a freeking shadow dragging round on their cursor?! Nobody needs the CPU to be constantly calculating that stuff real time. You would think that if Mr. Gates insists on cute little graphics widgets he would have the decency to hand them off the the graphics board.... but nooooo it drags down the CPU every time you move the mouse.

3/4 of all the Spam produced goes to Hawaii - shame that's not true of SPAM also.......

 

[Nimbus1]

I am running SW2003 on NT with SP6.0 1.8G Intel and 256 RAM with Geforce2 MX400. When editing a profile in "assembly"my system sometimes freaks out completely and returns me to zero!! (the Desktop) I am a new user of SW and assumed that this was the usual obscure problems we all have to contend with at times.My parts are only about 2mb with 3 or 4 in each file.I am a former trainer in the late 80s vintage systems and they were really fun to work with!!!

 

[MadMango]

Nimbus1, I can't tell if you are complaing about your SW crashes, or praising your tired but functioning system.

If you are getting crashes in assemblies that only have 4 parts, and it's effecting your productivity, it might be time to consider getting a more up-to-date system. The more functionality that SW Corp adds to SW, the more computer-intensive it gets.

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

 

[SBaugh]

You need to consult the Hardware requirements at the SW website. That will help you determine if your system is inadequate.

From what I read... I would say you need about 3 updates:

Video card
RAM
OS

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[Luca83]

I'm running a slowbo computer at work (1.7GHZ, 512MB Ram) for the things i've been doing, its been handling it quite well. Even though my assemblys consist from 3 to 8 parts, I usually end up having about 300 to 600 features per part (Even though Solidworks reconmends 1GB of memory for parts over 300 features). My machine will usually crash if I have the quality/wireframe view at full blast, but since the steps to upgrade a computer at the company I work for are very hard (Yet its so easy to spend $50,000 software, go figure) I've found that keeping the image quality to the lowest setting, is the best method for me to cut my chances of crashing.

 

[SBaugh]

SW supports shading better over wireframe. Which is reverse to the way it used to be. It takes more power to make a model wire frame than it does to shade it in SW.

That sounds like you Graphics card Luca83. You didn't list your card... but 512 is better than 256 like Nimbus is running. I ran 512 on a 870Mhz computer up till about a month ago and mine SW ran great then. Now it runs better with my new machine. 1.7GHz isn't that bad either!

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[Luca83]

Yes, It isnt bad, but Id like something a bit more built up.

Running a 3Dlabs 64MB card, which yes its a good card, but when you have an Assembly with 5 parts when each of those parts has over 300 features a piece (like the one im currently working on, biggest part has 517 features) it starts to get shakey.

 

[MadMango]

Is there any way to Supress a group of Features in your models? If there's no need to have all of these Features in your parts while you work on the main assembly, perhaps you can create a config that will Suppress these Features while you are still working on the design.

Once the design is complete, you can switch back to your Feature-heavy configs of your parts for Production.

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]

Actually, I need to have all of the features in my model, for what I do I rely on 90% surface modeling, intricate details, and mold design.