First Slide. HANDLING LARGE ASSEMBLIES USING SOLIDWORKS 2004 – TIPS AND TECHNIQUES Senthil Kumar...
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Transcript of First Slide. HANDLING LARGE ASSEMBLIES USING SOLIDWORKS 2004 – TIPS AND TECHNIQUES Senthil Kumar...
First Slide
HANDLING LARGE HANDLING LARGE ASSEMBLIES USING ASSEMBLIES USING
SOLIDWORKS 2004 – TIPS SOLIDWORKS 2004 – TIPS AND TECHNIQUESAND TECHNIQUES
Senthil KumarManager, Engineering Services
Shaji ShereefSr. Engineer & CSWP
• 22 Facilities
• 23 acquisitions in the past 15 years
• 2600+ Employees
• 350+ employees Dedicated to Consulting
• Large & Diverse Client Base
• Revenues of $500MM
• Privately Held
Today...
• Founded in 1885
Our Beginnings...
Barry-Wehmiller Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc.Companies, Inc.Barry-Wehmiller Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc.Companies, Inc.
Barry-W ehm iller Packaging Group
Packaging IndustryIntegrators
Design Group
IT and EngineeringServices
BW IR
Barry-W ehm iller Consulting Group Barry-W ehmiller Corrugated Group
Barry-W ehmiller Com panies, Inc.
• Organizational Chart
Barry-Wehmiller Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc.Companies, Inc.Barry-Wehmiller Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc.Companies, Inc.
Consulting Group FactsConsulting Group FactsConsulting Group FactsConsulting Group Facts
• Employs 300+ Consulting Professionals with broad industry experience.
• Provided Clients with 450,000+ consulting hours in the last year.
• Executed hundreds of projects.
• 2003 Revenue of $100M.
• Acquired an offshore consulting business to expand our resources and to provide cost
effective services to our global clients.
Services offeredServices offeredServices offeredServices offered
• Product Design
• Automation / API Programming
• Modeling, Drafting and Analysis Support
• Legacy Data Conversion
• PDM Integration
• Controls Design – PLC, SCADA and Schematics
Representative ClientsRepresentative ClientsRepresentative ClientsRepresentative Clients
HANDLING LARGE HANDLING LARGE ASSEMBLIES USING ASSEMBLIES USING
SOLIDWORKS 2004 – TIPS SOLIDWORKS 2004 – TIPS AND TECHNIQUESAND TECHNIQUES
OverviewOverview
• 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 How do you define a large assembly?assembly?How do you define a large How do you define a large assembly?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 Problems encountered with large assemblieswith large assembliesProblems encountered Problems encountered with large assemblieswith 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 Understand the issues and reasonsreasonsUnderstand the issues and Understand the issues and reasonsreasons
But how?But how?But how?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
HardwareHardwareHardwareHardware
• 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 Modeling featuresfeatures
Resolved / Suppressed / Lightweight features
Modeling Features…Modeling Features…
Modeling Features…Modeling Features…Comparison of Components Suppression States
Resolved Lightweight Suppressed Hidden
Loaded in memory Yes Partially No Yes
Visible Yes Yes ** No No
Features available in FeatureManager design tree Yes Yes *** No No
Faces and edges accessible for adding mates Yes Yes *** No No
Mates solved Yes Yes No Yes
In-context features solved Yes * Yes No Yes
Assembly features solved Yes Yes No Yes
Considered in global operations Yes On demand ** No Yes
May be edited in-context Yes Yes *** No No
Load and rebuild speed Normal Faster Faster Normal
Display speed Normal Normal Faster Faster
* 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…Modeling Features…
Assembly Layout 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…Modeling Features…
Envelopes
• Advanced component Selection (inside, outside, crossing)
Modeling Features…Modeling Features…
Use Folders
Modeling Features…Modeling Features…
•Organize Features in Parts
•Organize Parts in Assemblies
•Organize Mates for better control
Drafting Drafting featuresfeatures
Drafting features…Drafting features…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…Drafting features…Drafting features…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…Drafting features…Drafting features…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 Productivity toolstools
Productivity tools…Productivity tools…Productivity tools…Productivity tools…SolidWorks Task Scheduler• Unattended Automation Of:
– Drawing creation– Publish eDrawings– File import/export– Printing– Updates– Custom scripts
Productivity tools…Productivity tools…Productivity tools…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 practicesBest practices
Fully Defined Sketches
• Use Fully Defined Sketches
whenever possible
• Do not use Over Defined or
Under Defined sketches
Best practices in part Best practices in part modeling…modeling…Best practices in part Best practices in part modeling…modeling…
Image Quality
• Use Lower settings for Image
Quality for faster loading
Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…
Rebuild Errors
• Always resolve rebuild errors
Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…
Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…
Shaded View
• Use shaded view without edges
Shaded view without edges
Shaded view with edges
Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…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…Best practices…Best practices…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…
Best practices…Best practices…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…Best practices…Best practices…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…Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…
External References
• Remove all external references once the design is completed
• Lock the external references whenever possible
Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…
Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…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…Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…
Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…
Helix
• Use only representation
Best practices…Best practices…Best practices…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…Best Practices…
Configuration Without Fasteners
Configuration With Fasteners
Lightweight and Configure Options
• Use lightweight & select configuration while opening an assembly
Best Practices…Best Practices…
System System optionsoptions
System Options…System Options…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 How to switch on/off large assembly mode??large assembly mode??How to switch on/off How to switch on/off large assembly mode??large assembly mode??
Other options to improve Other options to improve large assembly large assembly performance.performance.
Other options to improve Other options to improve large assembly large assembly performance.performance.• Verification of rebuild (Switch-Off)
• Image Quality Settings. (Set it as low as you can work with)
samplessamples
Rollstand frame and Splicer6000 components
Model II - Rollstand3000 components
Slitter Scorer MachineOver 5000 components
Process machinery lineOver 10,000 components
Wrap up..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 ?