Suitable spec for PC for drawings of large assemblies

EUANS · Apr 4, 2003

SWHITEY's question of April 1st regarding hardware spec for large assemblies is quite topical. I use SWX2003 sp3 and the assembly I am currently "struggling" with has only 613 parts, approx a tenth SWHITEY's assemblies.
The machine I'm using is only a P3 running at 1000GHz with 512MB RAM, GeForce 2GTS 32MB card, NT4 and I'm hoping to substantially upgrade to something more suitable in the near future.

My problem is that typically the drawings of the assemblies I work with require a longitudinal section which cuts through all parts - in my current assembly all 613 parts. Sectional views appear to require a tremendous amount of computer resource - witnessed by a time of 47mins every time I change, for example, the hatch properties of one of the parts, or remove a part from the section scope.

The specification of the PC recommended by SWHITEY's reseller is broadly what I had in mind but because of my specific requirement to be able to easily handle sectional views through many parts I wonder whether such a PC would
meet my needs or if any one "element" of the PC specification needs to be further enhanced eg a higher end graphics card or even more RAM.

We have lots of similar drawings, some with far more parts, which were created in Mechanical Desktop. These drawings were done in a fraction of the time and without the same frustration I'm experiencing with SolidWorks. Like many other contributors to this forum I wonder whether I should be looking to change my software.

SBaugh · Apr 4, 2003

Your Video card is one of the worst cards to use with SW. Upgrade that card to something better like a Quadro, VX-1, Wildcat, or Fire GL. See the SW website on video testing for clarification of the best cards to use.

Opening that big of assemblies you should upgrade the RAM to at least a gig.

SW is a one of the most demanding pieces of software on the market. You need to get the same for your hardware and that GTS is not card for demanding (Maybe for Games but not SW). I have a customer using one now and I would say that about 90% of his problems reside from that card the other 10% is because of the network.

Which reminds me are you opening the files over the network? If so, are you using a Novell Network?

Novell networks are just bad to use because of the slowness that seems to happen when people use those types of networks. Otherwise if your not using a Novell, you may look at the way your Network is configured & how much traffic you have to deal with.
Scott Baugh, CSWP [spin]