Free SolidWorks from Performance Constraints (FSWPC-13-#19)

(Modeling Methodology - Save As Part)

The next tool that we are going to look at for reducing the level of detail in our parts and subassemblies is Save As Part. The ability to save an assembly as a part file gives us three different options; Exterior Faces, Exterior Components and All Components. Each of these options produces a different result so we chose to test each option and see which one gave us the greatest performance gain.

For our assembly once again due to the overall size we choose to use Save As Part on just the Cab Assembly. The stats on the Cab Assembly and its related files are the assembly file is 30.15mb and had has an overall folder size of 621mb.

Exterior Faces

This was the 2nd best option, our new part file size was 79mb and had 0 Solid Bodies and 8432 Surface Bodies.

Exterior Components

This was the best option, our new part file size was 120mb and had 1080 Solid Bodies and 225 Surface Bodies.

All Components

This was the worst option, our new part file size was 317mb and had 3668 Solid Bodies and 271 Surface Bodies.

You can by looking at our deltas see that paying attention to the options we have for different operations can either help or hinder our performance. On our Practical machine we gained as much as 25.9% total improvement and lost as much as 4.7%. If we look at the Typical machine we can see that the overall improvement is as much as 60% performance gain and took almost 3 hours off of our benchmark time or it cost us much as 95% adding almost 4-1/2 hours to our benchmark.

Please
check back to the CATI blog as we will continue posting our
series of articles that goes further into the details of each of our tests. All
of these articles will be stored in the category of Free SolidWorks from Performance
Constraints and links to each with their
release date are listed below:

• FSWPC-13-#1 Introduction (3/19/13)


• FSWPC-13-#2 RAM (3/21/13)


• FSWPC-13-#3 Processor Cores (3/26/13)


• FSWPC-13-#4 Processor Cores for Simulation
  and PhotoView360 (3/28/13)


• FSWPC-13-#5 Processor Clock Speed (4/2/13)


• FSWPC-13-#6 Hard Drives (4/4/13)


• FSWPC-13-#7a Graphics Cards-SolidWorks
  Functionality (4/9/13)


• FSWPC-13-#7b Graphics Cards-Hardware
  Comparison (4/11/13)


• FSWPC-13-#7c Graphics Cards-Model Complexity (4/16/13)


• FSWPC-13-#8 Files stored in an older version
  (4/18/13)


• FSWPC-13-#9 OS Visual and User Settings (4/23/13)


• FSWPC-13-#10 SolidWorks Options (4/25/13)


• FSWPC-13-#11 SolidWorks Image Quality (4/30/13)


• FSWPC-13-#12 SolidWorks RealView Graphics (5/2/13)


• FSWPC-13-#13 SolidWorks  Level of Detail (5/7/13)


• FSWPC-13-#14 SolidWorks Mates and Flexible
  Subassemblies (5/9/13)


• FSWPC-13-#15 SolidWorks Defeature (5/14/13)


• FSWPC-13-#16 SolidWorks Envelope (5/16/13)


• FSWPC-13-#17 SolidWorks Large
  Design Review (5/21/13)


• FSWPC-13-#18 SolidWorks
  SpeedPak (5/23/13)


• FSWPC-13-#19 SolidWorks Save as Part (5/28/13)


• FSWPC-13-#20
  SolidWorks Large Assembly Mode (5/30/13)


• FSWPC-13-#21
  Optimal Configuration and Conclusion (6/4/13)

Thanks,

Josh
Altergott, CATI Support Manager

Adrian
Fanjoy, CATI Technical Services Director