Thanks to Mike Spens got a hold of the Video from my SWW14 Presentation. Seems like it's still a very popular topic, now that Alin Vargatu has been heading on other SWW Presentations and Forum Discussions, most of the points I covered are still relevant, but there have been a lot of good updates to SW that improve things:
Related Threads:
Milestone 200,000 component Assembly
Best Practices for Large Assembly Management in SOLIDWORKS
Adrian, my assumption is that you used the "weldments" feature whenever possible. Looks like a lot of weldments involved in the product.
Yes, a lot of Weldments, some additional insight here:
Can you imagine doing that without the weldment function?
Huge time saver.
Would like to see something like what I mentioned on Don's discussion, where the weldment can be used as an assembly feature, and not require a part file.
Adrian Velazquez wrote:
Would like to see something like what I mentioned on Don's discussion, where the weldment can be used as an assembly feature, and not require a part file.
This right here is what is making it difficult for us to consider weldments. I am finding some improvements, but there is still much room for improvements.
Hello Forum,
A simple test with unexpected results. In the video linked in Adrian's original post he talks about simplifying geometry before saving an assembly as a part in order to reduce the part file size/process time/graphics triangles, etc. My question is what is the best way to simplify part geometry? My test (below) was to see if adding an additional feature (remove face on inside of red cylinder) to create simpler geometry would increase or decrease performance. The curious results are that the graphics triangles and file size went down but the rebuild time went up.
What is a preferred approach/work flow for simplifying geometry? Go back into sketches and make solid lines into construction lines? Suppress features?
Thanks,
--Ken
Edit: Test 1 is Red with the hole, Test 2 is blue without.
Hi Ken, simplification could be a presentation by itself. In our case the main focus was Assemblies, so we were not simplifying the end-parts. Most, if not ALL, of the simplifications were performed before saving the assembly as a part file, so we did not add many or any features to the end-part.
It's certainly specific to your needs. Graphics Performance vs CPU performance, as per your example adding features will increase file size and rebuild time, but is that your end-goal? Suppressing features is always better than adding new ones (even if they remove geometry). Also, in SW2019 there a lot of new enhancements that make that less relevant than in 2013 when we developed our method. Using the Rebuild Freeze-bar on parts or working in the Large Design Review mode are two things that help.
Ken Ballinger wrote:
Hello Forum,
A simple test with unexpected results. In the video linked in Adrian's original post he talks about simplifying geometry before saving an assembly as a part in order to reduce the part file size/process time/graphics triangles, etc. My question is what is the best way to simplify part geometry? My test (below) was to see if adding an additional feature (remove face on inside of red cylinder) to create simpler geometry would increase or decrease performance. The curious results are that the graphics triangles and file size went down but the rebuild time went up.
What is a preferred approach/work flow for simplifying geometry? Go back into sketches and make solid lines into construction lines? Suppress features?
Thanks,
--Ken
Edit: Test 1 is Red with the hole, Test 2 is blue without.
It makes sense for the rebuild time to go up, since you added new steps in the "recipe" for building the part. The good news is that the assembly does not care about that.
When you go to buy bread, you are not asking the seller to bake you one on the spot. You simply buy what is already on the shelf, without even caring about the bread's recipe.
The assembly does the same. It gets the feature data and body data as they were saved in the file.
If you ever see parts rebuilding during the opening phase of the assembly, you know you have a problem ("dirty components"). You might want to call in the cavalry then. I am waiting by the phone...
Good stuff Adrian!