First Slide

HANDLING LARGE ASSEMBLIES USING SOLIDWORKS 2004 – TIPS AND TECHNIQUES Senthil Kumar Manager, Engineering Services Shaji Shereef Sr. Engineer & CSWP

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HANDLING LARGE ASSEMBLIES USING SOLIDWORKS 2004 – TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

Overview Define large assembly Problems faced Understand the issues and reasons How to improve performance of a large assembly –Hardware –Modeling features –Drafting features –Productivity tools –Best practices –System options

How do you define a large assembly? Any assembly which slows down your machine can be called a large assembly. – This could be 100 parts for someone and 10,000 parts for the other. An assembly with 100 simple parts responds faster than an assembly with 100 complex parts. – Complex parts mean parts with a lot of external references, curved surfaces, sweeps, loft features and more number of faces.

Slow Unstable System Crashes Problems encountered with large assemblies

Optimizing large assembly performance boils down to reducing the amount of work the CPU, memory and disk drive have to do. The goal is to take available hardware and do more with large assemblies (solve / evaluate designs). To improve large assembly performance we need to – Reduce memory usage – Accelerate retrieval time – Improve regeneration time – Increase display speed Understand the issues and reasons

But how? Hardware Modeling features Drafting features Productivity tools Best practices System options We can optimize the performance by understanding the following in context of a large assembly.

hardwarehardware

HardwareHardware RAM Faster Video Card CPU Speed Faster Data Transfer Network Service Packs Swap Space First and the most influencing factor on large assembly performance is the hardware. Nothing could substitute for sheer system power!!

Modeling features

Resolved / Suppressed / Lightweight features Modeling Features…

*In-context features on resolved parts that reference lightweight parts update automatically. **Global operations include Mass Properties, Interference Detection, Exploded View, Advanced Selection and Advanced Show/Hide, solving equations, displaying section views, and exporting to other file formats. When lightweight components are present, the software prompts you to either resolve them, or cancel the operation. ***Lightweight components are resolved automatically when selected for this operation.

The sketch can be used to define the location and angle for interrelated assembly components. Modeling Features… AssemblyLayout Sketch Unnecessary assembly components can be hidden or suppressed to minimize the visual clutter and the required system overhead. This helps to improve performance and allows the designer to effectively focus on the task at hand.

Advanced Show / Hide features Modeling Features…

Envelopes Advanced component Selection (inside, outside, crossing) Modeling Features…

Use Folders Modeling Features… Organize Features in Parts Organize Parts in Assemblies Organize Mates for better control

Drafting features

Drafting features… Lightweight Drawings – Lightweight drawings are analogous to lightweight assemblies. When a drawing is lightweight, only a subset of its model data is loaded in memory. The remaining model data is loaded as needed.

Drafting features… With lightweight drawings, you can: – Create all types of drawing views – Attach annotations to models in views – Specify edge properties – Highlight and dynamically select edges and vertices – Set drawings of sub-assemblies to lightweight or resolved

Drafting features… Detached drawings – The term RapidDraft has been replaced by Detached. Detached drawings are those that do not need their associated models when opened.

Productivity tools

Productivity tools… SolidWorks Task Scheduler Unattended Automation Of: –Drawing creation –Publish eDrawings –File import/export –Printing –Updates –Custom scripts

Productivity tools… eDrawings Use eDrawings for communication. Multi-sheet drawing with 6 sheets and 32 drawing views, 11MB (part+drawing), becomes 2MB edrawing… (82% smaller..)

Best practices

Fully Defined Sketches Use Fully Defined Sketches whenever possible Do not use Over Defined or Under Defined sketches Best practices in part modeling…

Image Quality Use Lower settings for Image Quality for faster loading Best practices…

Rebuild Errors Always resolve rebuild errors Best practices…

Shaded View Use shaded view without edges Shaded view without edges Shaded view with edges  

Best practices… Advanced Features Minimize use of advanced features like Sweep, Loft etc., if possible These features take more regeneration time Use simple features wherever possible  

Best practices… Functional Dimensions for Purchased Parts Model the purchased parts with minimum details (Ex: Bearings, Motors etc,)  

Model purchased items as Parts than Assembly Best Practices…

Best practices… Configurations Configurations are the most powerful tool to manage large Assemblies Use simplified configurations for parts and assemblies Default configuration Simple configuration

Best practices… Geometry Pattern Use geometry pattern wherever possible – Geometry pattern increases regeneration speed – It also helps loading assemblies faster

Number of Steps in Feature Tree Try to reduce the number of steps in feature tree Plan ahead before modeling to reduce the number of features Combine features sensibly (mirror bodies etc..) Best practices…  

External References Remove all external references once the design is completed Lock the external references whenever possible Best practices…

Fillets & Chamfers Add fillets & chamfers at the end of the of the model whenever possible Suppress fillets & chamfers in simplified configurations Combine fillets of equal size  

Cosmetic Features Try to avoid modeling of conventional threading Use cosmetic threads representation Avoid too much cosmetic features which are not needed all the time in the design >900 KB<100 KB Best practices…  

Helix Use only representation  

Best practices… Company Logos, Text etc Use simplified representation for company logos, text etc  

Configuration for Fasteners Make configuration to suppress fasteners in an assembly, It improves the file loading time Best Practices… Configuration Without Fasteners Configuration With Fasteners  

Lightweight and Configure Options Use lightweight & select configuration while opening an assembly Best Practices…

System options

System Options… Large assembly mode – When working with large assemblies take advantage of the large assembly mode and customize the settings to increase the performance

How to switch on/off large assembly mode??

Other options to improve large assembly performance. Verification of rebuild (Switch-Off) Image Quality Settings. (Set it as low as you can work with)

samplessamples

Rollstand frame and Splicer 6000 components

Model II - Rollstand 3000 components

Slitter Scorer Machine Over 5000 components

Process machinery line Over 10,000 components

Wrap up.. So…. thoughtfully developed best practices, effective utilization of configurations and understanding the innovative features available with SolidWorks 2004 will help you to design larger assemblies without compromising the performance.

Questions?

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