8 comments

• 

  Ivan

  1 year ago

  This is a solid post that works for me Josh... (no pun intended). Your 4 'small' reasons to hack up assemblies just make sense. However, I struggle sometimes knowing how far to go. I often run into assemblies that have 300 - 1000 parts but only go 3 sub-assembly levels deep. That sometimes makes for several hundred top level mates (sure to slow it down correct?). But I hate breaking these up any more and keep trying to maintain consistency in part numbers and manufacturing/assembly process. But in my experience I believe I have other factors that affect load times and performance (no specific order).
  
  1. Opening/saving files over company network
  2. Many sheet metal parts
  3. Part patterns
  4. Top level mates
  5. Assembly cuts
  6. External references
  
  Agree/disagree with anything?
  reply
• 

  Josh

  1 year ago

  Hey Ivan! Thanks! Everything you mention can slow indeed slow assemblies down. I've done another post on improving Large Assemblies performance.
  
  When you get assemblies that large, you'll want to suppress some of those complicated feature. I've gone as far as suppressing all my mates and fixing everything.
  
  I would make sure drawings are split up so that different production steps are kept separate. I suggest keeping construction drawings separate from build/assembly drawing. when trying to do both on the same drawing, it can turn into a very large and unclear mess. This get tricky because everyone has there methodologies driven by different reasons. If you can show how drawings can be improved and get productions help it makes changing assembly methods easier.
  
  I would try to "flatten" out your structure as much as possible. I try to stick to two levels deep. More is fine, I just try to keep it as shallow as possible.
  
  Hope this provides some further clarity for you. Assemblies can be a real beast but it fun to see how other come up with ways to handle them.
  reply
• 

  Chris

  1 year ago

  I pull in IGES data for vehicle layout studies all the time. I can't put into words how much I hate waiting for large assemblies. :D
  reply
• 

  Mark

  1 year ago

  hi Ivan
  
  You can get rid of a lot of the items you listed slowing down your assemblies. Part patterns can be Dissolved by Right clicking on the pattern feature once you know how many you need or could be done in a sub assembly instead. Top level mates can be reduced by first mating components into place then fixing them. In 2007 and 2008 the mates are suppressed automatically (so you can go back to them)but wont be rebuilt everytime.
  
  Assembly cuts could be done on the actual parts in another configuration of the part and External References could be locked while you are working on the assembly (RMB then List External and Lock, like breaking but you can get them back).
  
  To stop working over the network, speak to your reseller about PDMWorks Workgroup or Enterprise. The file open time will be the same but when you hit save it will save onto your local drive so that will be much quicker. Its also automatic revision control so not a bad thing.
  reply
• 

  Ricky Jordan

  1 year ago

  Ivan,
  
  Working local versus working over the network should give you the biggest performance boost of all. You should check out PDMWorks Workgroup. Since it is packaged with SolidWorks Office Professional, you may already have it!
  
  Great post Josh!
  
  Best Regards,
  
  Ricky Jordan
  http://www.rickyjordan.com
  reply
• 

  Ivan

  1 year ago

  Thanks for the ideas guys. I find myself fighting with things like assembly features and external references. It's a tough call, because it greatly speeds up design, does all this cool stuff and updates with design changes, while at the same time takes a hit on performance. And I know everyone's situation is different. I really believe my biggest bottleneck is the network.
  
  So... we do have PDMWorks. I've never used it and therefore am not confident enough to dive in. We make a lot of one-time custom projects, so I guess all the control that PDMWorks gives you seems kinda stifling to me. But I love the concept behind it and I'm sure we could customized it to suit our needs. Does anyone have some handy info on implementing it?
  reply
• 

  Mark

  1 year ago

  PDMW Workgroup is dead easy to set up straight out of the box. You basically install the PDM service on a server and it sets up a Vault where all the files go to. Clear firewall ports 20000, 30000 and 40000 if there is one between server and clients. If you have Office Pro you will already have the client installed. Fire up sw and add in PDMW Workgroup. If you dont have it you will need to modify your SW Explorer install to include the PDMW add in and the VaultAdmin tool etc. Then, all your settings are in the VaultAdmin tool. Without the training (only 2 day course, 1 day admin, 1 day user training) i would leave the Lifecycle management and just choose your revision scheme and general settings to suit. Hope that helps!
  reply
• 

  Rob

  11 months ago

  Question:
  
  Is SW 2008 able to keep in-context relationships when using the Form New Subassembly? With SW 2007 SP3.1, most, if not all, in-context relationships are deleted.
  reply