4 Replies Latest reply on Jul 2, 2014 3:22 PM by Jared Conway

    Solving Contact Constraints Stalls

    Amit Gupta
    Amit Gupta Jul 1, 2014 3:22 PM

      Hi All,

       

      I'm running a linear static model on SW Premium 2012 SP5.  I have validated my model setup by running the simulation with the same loads/fixtures/connections with a draft mesh and everything works great.  When I try a high quality mesh, the mesh come out fine but the solver seems to stall.  I've attached a screen shot that shows my CPU usage sitting at near idle but the solver is apparently cranking away.  At first, I thought it may be in between steps, however it sits "idle" for 8+ hours.  This also appears to happen repeatedly - I've rebooted my computer and even rebuilt the model & simulation (with new file names) but the same thing happens.  Additionally, I just wiped and reinstalled SW last week.  All model and results files are stored locally and I have appropriate permissions to the drives.  Any thoughts as to why this could be happening?

       

      Thanks for the help!

       

      Best,

      Amit

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        • Re: Solving Contact Constraints Stalls
          Shaun Densberger
          Shaun Densberger Jul 1, 2014 3:40 PM (in response to Amit Gupta)

          I'd need to look at your model to get a good idea, but I'm not sure at this point that the simulation itself is stalling. Does the "Current Task" bar stay at 91% for 8+ hours? Looking at the image provided, you can see that something is being read in and out of your volatile memory, so something is chugging along. Have you looked under the "Processes" tab to see how much CPU and memory resources SW simulation is taking?

           

          Keep in mind that you're doing a nonlinear analysis (not a linear analysis) because of the contact definition. Your model is fairly big too, with almost 2.8 million DOF. Make sure that you're not unnecessarily refining the mesh in areas that don't need refinement; this will only slow your study down (particularly on a nonlinear analysis) without adding much to the accuracy.

            • Re: Solving Contact Constraints Stalls
              Amit Gupta
              Amit Gupta Jul 2, 2014 2:57 PM (in response to Shaun Densberger)

              The status bar wasn't moving and my computer did sit "idle" for about 12 hours but then my CPU usage shot up and the solver completed a few hours after that.  I don't really know what happened there but I guess I just needed to be more patient.  I had just assumed that given the time that my CPU was idle and the lack of motion on the progress bar meant that Simulation was stalling.  If anyone knows why this would happen or how to prevent this, please let me know.  It would be nice not to have 12 hours of "dead" time while running that model.

            • Re: Solving Contact Constraints Stalls
              Jared Conway
              Jared Conway Jul 1, 2014 9:15 PM (in response to Amit Gupta)

              do you get this error at the end? https://forum.solidworks.com/thread/83158?tstart=0

               

              if so, answer the q's there and let me know how much ram you have