SW help?

I have a customer who is using Solidworks and is having a HUGE problem.
I have been a SW user since 1996, and have never seen anything worse
than this, although I have seen many of the symptoms in the past. We
have to get some of this fixed TODAY. I have known about the problem
since only Yesterday.

The problems occur with multiple parts and assemblies. And alledgedly
also occurs on different machines although I have not seen that yet. I
also believe that is a user/modeling issue, that may or may not be
unrelated. SW2008 SP3.0. 64bit machine. Windows Xp. At least 2G ram. ATL
FireGL 5x00 graphics.

Symptoms:
1. When a part/assembly is opened it requires multiple rebuilds on some
features. The features are typically cavity features, but after
successfully rebuilding those parts/features there are others that
require rebuilding. Ctrl-Q does not help.
2. When in sketch mode, sometimes you cannot select sketch elements, or
hover over them and have them highlight.
3. Sometimes when editing/modifying features that are part of a cavity
function, the feature dialog box will close, when you click on OK, but
the green/red check in the corner stays active, as if the feature is
still trying to rebuild/solve. Clicking on the red X exits.
4. Sometimes the cavity design part is missing/lost after a feature that
impacts the cavity is modified. Restarting solidworks clears the
problem, and shows the revised cavity function.
5. Some parts take very very long to rebuild, although the file sizes
are only 30-50M, but the shapes are quite complex, and with multiple
cavity features.
6. The system seems to have hidden processes running in the background,
OS type stuff, or maybe SW, but there is very little 2-3% processor time
consumed. Just highlighting surfaces/features etc sometimes takes
unbelieve-able amounts of time.
7. Sometimes .STL files look fine on screen, but generate seriously
flawed parts. The .STL parts typically pass through the .STL diagnostics
on the RP system, but come out with bad/extra triangle surfaces...

Pretty JACKED up, I know. And I suspect multiple causes. BUT the
Multiple rebuild problem I HAVE seen, and Cavity slowness I have seen in
the past. I can't remember what causes the multiple rebuild at startup.
The files save without errors. But sometimes take forever to save. The
overall slowness is also something seen in the past, but that I think is
a very complex set of causes. (Hardware, graphics, memory, modeling
techniques, that I am working through) I do suspect there are some
graphics card/driver causes. I really don't like the ATI cards. But the
mutiple rebuild is something else, right? Or not?

CAn anyone address the multiple rebuild issue, and some of the rest? The
dealer has been somewhat involved. I don't know if SW corp has, Working
on that this morning. Also trying to get the files on a different
machine, but there are extraneous issues with that to be dealt with
today as well.

HELP? Please e-mail direct as I do not know if I will have newsgroup
access at the customer later this morning/today.

ca

 

ca,

I would suggest going to the VAR to see if the bugs are known and to
see if bug reports have been filed. There may be known workarounds.

Matt Lorono
http://sw.fcsuper.com
http://www.fcsuper.com/swblog

 

We have seen the multiple rebuild errors when using cavity features
before as well as the slowdown when using cavities. I had one mold that
I did all of the inserts by using the cavity of the part and it took
upwards of 45 minutes to make a sketch change. Is is possible that the
multiple rebuilds are due to circular references between the cavity
parts. We have since tried to avoid cavity features like the plague and
instead use offset surfaces with surface cuts. It makes a huge
difference in rebuild times doing it that way. This also seemed to
eliminate the extra rebuild lights as well. The other thing to check is
if you are making cavities from an imported model, make sure the
imported model is a good one. I had a different mold that I had the part
imported from Pro E with no red flags or errors of any kind but when I
closed the file and reopened it, all of the cavity features and sketches
related to the part model were dangling and red flagged. We've since got
in the habit of checking the imported model before using it for in
context design. Go to TOOLS > CHECK and make sure nothing is goofy with
the model.

 

my first thought is that you either have issues with some of the way it is
modelled or there are serious bugs.
in either case resolving the problem may not be done today so I have to ask
what is it that actually needs to be done today?
perhaps it functions correctly with those cavity features suppressed if you
just need to get a dwg of the assy out? or you can 2d draw some basic
details on the dwg referencing other sheets for the cavities themselves
which you do later? ...or... some other plan of rat-like cunning to get
something out the door...

re stl files I am surprised you would have them in the model
they bog down graphics cards and as you say there are frequently problems
with the triangles..if your graphics card is having to cope with a very
large number of tiny faces in the view I would suppose selecting something
would take a while
I would create the form in sw tools myself if I could..
I wonder how you have used them in this case and if you do not have several
million faces under SW consideration during rebuilds?...

Neil

 

I spoke with Clay this morning and the issue is probably BIOS related.
I also told him that you SolidWorks putz's ought to migrate to Catia - the
solution I use with Vero Internationals line - and wake up. I have
none -ZERO- of the issues that cost you guys thousands of hours of
productive time and billable hours.

The only reason you guys tolerate SolidWorks is the tremendous investment,
third party or otherwise, that you have in a rudimentary product. It's like
MasterCam users saying they can do any job with that product. The statement
is true but geeze, at some point you mature to fully configured software.

Or NOT.

 

We need to get a clean model in order to output .stl files, to be run
first thing monday AM. Not having cavities is NOT an option. The Cavity
is the basis of the final product.

The cavities work the first go round, Fails later during subsequent
feature revision. As if the stack of numbers gets more unstable and
eventually fall apart. I have done some incredibly complex SW models,
but there are definite techniques to avoid. There were some modeling
technique issues, that I have addressed. We will see if that works the
next go round. SW doesn't seem to know AFIK, what the cause is, and in
my experience addresses each situation separately. Anyone seen
Graphics/drivers affect this or related issues?

Working on the Bios issue. Mbit AMD 64bit MB. I can't find what rev the
bios is anywhere. Gotta find the Mbit utility to discover that.

ca