Solidworks Screen goes blank, processor 25% 1

[evolDiesel]

When I'm modeling in Solidworks, every 10-30 seconds my screen suddenly locks up, and according to task manager, the Solidworks Process is taking up a steady 25% of CPU. I know this b/c this is what I use to tell me if I've crashed or it's just doing it's video glitch thing.

I have over 5k hours of seat time in Solidworks. My machine is a Dell and it's only 3 weeks old. I would say it's "Mid range", but I can dole out specs if this will help any of you.

This problem is absolutely enfuriating and if you've ever experienced it, you know what I'm talking about. It can take me over 10 minutes to design a part that should take under a minute?!

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!

Evol

 

[Chalniss]

Hi again...

Did try with the change in the "Use software OpenGL" box. Well, it works slightly better, the update time and sketch editing time is somewhat reduced.

 

[evolDiesel]

At this point, I would look at your nVidia Quadro FX 4600 driver, and back check it to what Solidworks recomends for a driver.

If they are different, you should COMPLETELY uninstall the old driver, reboot (your graphics will look hideous), install the new driver (graphics will look great), then try solidworks again.

Also... how big are your assemblies? 5,10,100,1000 parts?

I ask b/c it can really make a difference.

My old company... nature of the product was an assembly that may have 3,000 parts.

This company... it's more like 200.

The old company... we had to switch to SW 64 bit b/c some assemblies would use more than the 3Gb of XP RAM. You had to be very patient to work on those larger assemblies.

Depends what you're application is (of course).

 

[Chalniss]

Well, I have been thinking about what you said

"SW doesn't HAVE to run like a dog."

Maybe there's something to it.. I´'m not working with assemblies only parts. But, they have really complex geometry, some of them containing 2500 x 1.5mm holes. So maybe it's not that strange that updates and editing takes a lot of machine power and time...


But I have installed new driver for NVidia, works better now. Don't get me wrong it still takes time to update, and so on, but it is a improvment in comparison.

Altough, I'm still not satisfied, there has to be a way to make it work even better.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Large patterns have a big impact on performance. Enabling the Geometry pattern option in the patterns often lessens the impact.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Chalniss,
Can you suppress the holes while working on the part and before saving? (to reduce opening time)

Do you really need the actual holes? Could you use a texture instead?

 

[evolDiesel]

We do our own threads, and springs, and I find that anything helical is super taxing on my parts.

Some things are hard to handle. I imagine 2500 holes isn't easy for SW to render if you're zooming and panning.

 

[Chalniss]

Hi

If I could suppress the hole pattern, that would make it much easier, but I can't. Other features are dependent on that pattern and I would not be able to build up the rest of the modell correctly. I have tried that allready, have been keeping some features suppresed, (or as many as I'm able to supress) in order to make it a bit easier for my machine.

Is there any way I can set the amount of comp. "power" that is used by SW?