I'm currently having major issues trying to create an .ifc file for a customer. The issues I am facing are due to the sheer size of the files in question. I would go through the typical process of save copy_as ifc 2x3 or .ifc 4 through the assembly view in Solidworks 2017 and set options for BREP and Tessellation. We have a reasonably good setup here with fairly new PC's 3.4Ghz 7Core processors, 32GB RAM. but the system always seems to crash before completing the operation.

I start wit a 36 Mb file of around 650 components all constrained together as a skid package. There are a few minor assemblies within the overall master file but I never seem to get anything usable out of the other side (in situations where it doesn't crash - this can take over 3 hours) 

What are we missing within our system that would help me to create an.ifc file and then be able to open it to check that it had parsed correctly? In a desperate bid to see what I was creating I installed a trial copy of Solibri. This seems to be working okay but only when I get something intelligible out of Solidworks.

Is anyone else suffering in this area?