I am working with an HP Elitebook 8740w and for some reason when editing a part in an assembly it's really slow and jerky when rotating the model. Same when editing a sketch. It moves fast and responds real fast otherwise. The editing thing is a real drawback though. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Am a little desperate already. If you shell out $2500 for a system you want it to perform.
Intel Core i7 Processor
HP Elitebook 8740w
4 gig ram
nvidia quadra fx 2800m
Windows 7 Pro 32bit
Hi Lars,
Just replied from my blackberry so i'm not sure you got the message. The assembly consists only of 68 parts. (Small Assembly.) I wrote in the reply that the laptop actually came with xp 64, windows 7 64, and windows 7 32. It is upgradable to 16gig ram. The reason I used the 32 bit is because I have a laser nesting (Prodesign) program installed that isn't compatible with the windows 7 64bit. Otherwise I would not have considered the 32.
I actually did go to my video card settings and disabled some antialiasing options ( that I found on other solidworks forms were not compatible with solidworks) off and it did make a considerable improvement. Whether that did it or if it was just a fluke one time work deal I guess time will tell.
Thanks for replying. If there's any other pointers or things you think would improve the situation then please by all means, pray tell.
I know it is a bit of a pain but you might consider using 2 operating systems. The savings in productivity with SW will offset the pain of having to operating with dual OS's. This is assuming you don't need both programs operating resident at the same time or have to switch back and forth frequently....
At one customer (I am contracting) site I was just discussing with someone the need for their company to get going with a 64 bit OS. They are being handicapped by the 3-3.5 GB memory limit of a 32 bit system.
I use XP and Win 7 64 on my system.
Hi David,
Sounds like I have to try out dual OS. Sounds like a fun project to test out :-)
Thank you,
Lars
That makes no sense at all to me. How in the world does having two OS's on your computer improve sketching performance?
You're right that doesn't make any sense. But the earlier discussion we had was that I have both solidworks and procad installed and procad was not compatible with windows 7 64bit. However solidworks has problems performing with bigger assemblies on a 32 bit system. One of the guys that replied suggested two operating systems on one computer to effectively run both programs. Which would make a lot of sense but i do use both programs simultaneously.
thanks
ProCAD? Is this the PDM/PLM software called Profile?
It's actually Hankwang's Prodesign. It's a 2D cad program but mostly it's a nesting software that we use to properly place parts on our laser cutting sheets.
"How in the world does having two OS's on your computer improve sketching performance?"
It doesn't.....However, the 64 bit will allow you to utilize more RAM. Even if you have say 12 GB a 32 bit OS will only use about 3 GB.
Hi Clint,
Your Blackberry has no problem delivering your message :-)
A 68 part assembly should under normal circumstances not have an issue working on your system.
If your graphic tweaks don't resolve your issue, I would look into stuff like how is your system maintenance. Other programs interfering by running in the background etc.
Let us know how you make out.
Best regards,
Lars
Thanks very much for the help guys. I am wondering though, how does file sharing work between two operating systems on the same machine. Or is it basically just like running 2 seperate computers.
Also Lars, what do you base your analysis on by saying it's not a powerful computer from a cad perspective. Are you basing it on the 32bit operating system or do you know something I don't. I mean, i've had it for only a couple weeks now. All I know is the pricing and specs seemed to meet my criteria.
Hi Clint,
Please don't take my reply the wrong way. Your system might very well be as powerful as you need it to be for running Solidworks, and more ram would be a waste of money. The 32 bit is defiantly a bottleneck. With most of us having email clients, web browsers and other stuff running while Windows is trying to control our magic in Solidworks, 3 gig is not much if you are trying to spin and edit a 200+ part assembly.
Anna Wood has a excellent website named solidmuse.com she as a great collection of benchmark test for different systems used with Solidworks. It will give you a idea how different peoples requirements are for Solidworks system specifications.
http://www.solidmuse.com/solidworks-benchmark-scoobydoo-surface-model.html
Hope you have a great day :-)
Best regards,
Lars
Lars,
I second the idea of going to Anna's site. I used her site to decide which hardware to get to replace my aging workstation. What I learned from her was very valuable.
Also, I have SolidWorks open just idling while while I am replying to this thread (not much else running on the computer) and it is consuming about 3.6 GB of memory. The OS + SW + a few utilities..... I think this is why it resonable to expect SW to need more than 4GB of Ram.
Hi Clint,
Hope you are doing well.
How big is your assembly?
Tools-> AssemblyXpert->Part count.
Do you use the Solidworks recommended driver? 8.16.11.8918
Device Manage-> Display Adapters->nvidia quadra fx 2800m->Driver
Hp 8740w is a nice system, but sadly from a CAD perspective it is not a powerful system handling big assemblies. 32 bit system is limited to only handle up to 3 gig of ram, so if you are working with big assemblies you might have to consider upgrading to 64 bit and add more ram.
Best regards,
Lars