Sub-assemblies unsuppressing themselves

[dedevo]

Since upgrading to 2011 I've been having some gremlins popping up in my top level assembly.

I have several configurations for my top level assembly with completely different parts. So the configurations are simply keeping track of suppression state. But it keeps unsuppressing the wrong components, and often while I am editing other parts. Sometimes it reveals a whole sequence of parts, forcing all of the mates to solve and sometimes this freezes SW on me. Saving every 5 minutes has become my solution so far.

I have found that even if I go and re-suppress the parts, they will come back if I:
- Open the Tools menu (at the top)
- Open the Shortcut menu (hotkey S)

I am hoping someone else has had this problem, or can help me debug this, it's killing my ability to do work.

 

[JMirisola]

Does it only happen with one assembly, or multiple? Just your machine, or co-workers' machines as well?

If it's happening on multiple assemblies and/or machines, get your VAR involved. More than likely it's a bug. If it's just one assembly, there may be a corrupt part. If it's just your machine, you're best bet is to run a repair on your install. If the problem persists, you'll need to do a clean install.

Speaking of clean install, when you upgraded, how did you do it? Also, did you convert all your parts to 2011?

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
Design Manager/Senior Designer
M9 Defense
My Blog

 

[dedevo]

Well you just put another question in my head.
A lot of my parts are nested inside each assembly (subs or top-level)[flange^suspension]. Is it better practice to save to external parts then?

It is 2 of my assemblies actually (one is a sub of the main).
In the top level, it could be any of the parts that are showing up: conveyor idlers, motors, different hoppers. The parts that show up are never the same. If all my idlers and hoppers show up, that is some 40 parts with 3 mates each and it will crash SW.
In one of my Hopper assemblies, it unsuppresses the deflectors which are part of a different configuration.

This doesn't happen on other colleagues machines in the office when I open my assemblies on their machines.

I know I had some issues installing 2011, I will try reinstalling tomorrow and see if that fixes any problems.

 

[JMirisola]

If you're going to re-install, then you should go full out and do a clean install. Because I'm too lazy to retype, I grabbed this from my blog:

First, go to Start->All Programs->SolidWorks->SolidWorks 20xx->SolidWorks Tools->Copy Settings Wizard and run it. This will create a reg file of your settings so you don’t have to recreate the environment you’re used to. Do the usual add/remove program thing and get rid of SolidWorks. Open up Windows Explorer and do a search for SolidWorks. Be sure to include hidden files and folders. When SolidWorks installs, it dumps some stuff into C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data, which is, generally, a hidden folder. You’ll want to delete any SolidWorks folders on your hard drive, except for ones you created to hold models/assemblies/drawings. Still with me? Good. Now, this next step is not for the faint of heart. If you’re uncomfortable messing around in your registry files, skip down to the next paragraph. Go to Start->Run and type in regedit then hit‘ok’. This will open up the registry editor. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and delete the any SolidWorks related folders. This may include eDrawings, Dassault Systemes, COSMOS, etc. Do the same in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE. You can also download a cleaning utility, such as ccleaner, to further check the registry and remove dangling .dlls. At this point, you can follow one of two paths. You can reboot or not reboot. I’ve heard various theories on both. Personally, I don’t reboot. More to the point, I tend to forget to reboot. Nonetheless, I haven’t had any issues by not rebooting. Go ahead and install SolidWorks. You can then use the registry settings to recreate your previous settings.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
Design Manager/Senior Designer
M9 Defense
My Blog

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

dedevo ... In additon to Jeff's advice, see also;

https://forum.solidworks.com/docs/DOC-1014.

The batch files it contains are really helpful.

What video card are you using?
Did you update the driver after upgrading SW?
Did you disable the Anti-Virus before installing?

When upgrading to a new version of SW, I prefer to do a completely clean install, and not carry over any settings from the previous install. The main reason being that it forces me to go through each and every options setting and I get to see what's new. Also, if a re-install is necessary because of unknown problems, re-using old settings could easily re-introduce the problem.

 

[PMarinshaw]

I had this same problem right after SW2011 came out and continued with SP1.0. I had several configurations in the main assembly, with various combinations of suppressed sub-assemblies. Some would work OK, other configurations would suddenly start unsupressing sub-assemblies at random. I never experienced this problem with SW2010 or earlier versions. I had my VAR technical support guru on line with my computer and he watched it happen again and again, and could not fix it either after trying a whole myriad of things. So he took some screen shots and said he would report it to SW. So maybe the problem will be fixed one day, or maybe not.

I haven't attempted to open the main assembly in 4-6 weeks, so I don't know if it is still happening. I'm going to install SP2.0 and try it again

 

[dedevo]

What video card are you using?
Did you update the driver after upgrading SW?
Did you disable the Anti-Virus before installing?

Video Card
Before: Nvidia Quadro FX 1300
Now: Nvidia Quadro 2000
Upgraded my computer to 8GB of RAM now; all new RAM (4x 2GB).

I updated the drivers after installing for the 1300. Then updated the drivers again after I put in the new graphics card; but did not reinstall SW.
I didn't disable anti-virus.

I had some difficulty getting 2011 to work in the first place with the old graphics card. After just writing this post I feel that I do need to uninstall and start clean to get this to work.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

It is usually better to uninstall the drivers before installing new ones ... or even the same one.

A lot of my parts are nested inside each assembly (subs or top-level)[flange^suspension]. Is it better practice to save to external parts then?

Do you mean Virtual Components? You should not have to save them as external parts. Some people do have problems with them, but I have found them to be very stable.

 

[ScottHeiden]

Try disabling Large Assembly Mode under Tools-Options-System Options-Assembly.

I had one assembly go haywire in SW2011 - if I inserted it in a drawing suppressed parts and sub-assemblies became unsuppressed, parts and sub-assemblies flew off into space ignoring their mates and others vanished from the screen.

Solidworks suggested I turn off Large Assembly Mode so everything would be opened fully resolved rather than Lightweight and all the problems went away.

SW has issued an SPR for the bug and will hopefully fix it with the next Service Pack.