In a previous Tech Tip, Network Slowdown, we discussed some options to help your SolidWorks performance when operating over a network. One of the options garnered some interest: How to dedicate a processor/core solely to SolidWorks to help keep it from fighting or the processor. Well, here’s how
you do it!

First, Open the Task Manager and go to the Processes Tab:

Right Click on SldWorks.exe and click Set Affinity:

Then, select the CPU/Core you wish SolidWorks to use.

If you want to make that processor completely reserved for SolidWorks, it will take a bit of manual effort. You’ll have to go down the list of other processes and turn off their affinity for the processor you want
SolidWorks on. If you’re not running many other things that are eating CPU time that might not be as critical.

There are also Third Party programs out there you can download to help manage this as well.

This alone is definitely no fix all in the world of SolidWorks performance. However, if you’re looking for every ounce of extra performance, this can help a little!

Does SolidWorks sometime feel like it’s working at a turtle’s pace? The problem might stem from being connected to a network!

Working on a network is great, and in today’s age it’s basically required. Unplugging from the network could solve a lot of issues, but usually isn’t feasible. The problem is that so much stuff is looking to the network it can sometimes slow down SolidWorks. There can be a ton of reasons for this, some can be fixed! Here’ are a few tips to make your performance a better while working with SolidWorks.

• Don’t work over the network!!! One of the biggest slowdowns you can cause in SolidWorks is by trying to work with files that are located on the network. If the files aren’t on your local computer, every time you open them, temp version of them are made in the directory they’re opened in. Every change you make has to get written to those. Every time you save the main files get written to. All of that going over the network is going to slow down SolidWorks. Copy files locally to avoid those issues.
• Backup/Auto-Recover: You should not have these locations be on the network. If these locations aren’t local, SW will again be constantly working and writing over the network and slow down. The backup option to put the backups in the same place as the original file can double the issue if you’re working on files over the network as well.
• SolidWorks Search: The SW Search is useful, but if you don’t use it, turn it off. If you do use it, make sure to set the indexing to “only when the computer is idle.”
• News Feed: Turn off the option in the general area of the options to “Show latest news feeds…” It may be minor, but it’s one more thing to slow down SW.
• Stop Streaming: Turn off things like streaming audio, unneeded web pages, and any other non-essential programs. The less trying to fight for resources the better.
• Stop the CPU War: Everything you’re running on a computer is constantly fighting for you CPU. When you’re on the network, even more things are fighting for it. If possible, dedicate a CPU core to SolidWorks. Windows defaults everything to the first core, once that’s full, it’ll start using other cores. Most of SW can only use one core, so the more it’s trying to fight with the slower it will run. If you can dedicate a core, it will reduce the chances of a slow down.

Mirrors can be your friends and your enemies both on the wall and in SolidWorks. If you’re making a part that’s symmetric, mirroring can save you a lot of time building matching features on both sides of the part. However, if you don’t do things correctly it can lead to lots of nightmares.

The biggest complications can stem from the base sketches of your part. Mirroring in a sketch is handy to create symmetric entities, but why not just mirror the feature instead? As a general rule, the more entities you have in a sketch, the more chances you’re giving your model to go wrong. Everything might be symmetric when you start, but if you go back in and edit something later it could all blow up.

Another headache can be due to how you’re defining your features. Mirroring “Blind” features is usually no problem. If you start using more advanced definitions like Up to Vertex, Up to Surface and the like the mirroring the feature may not work because it can’t find the appropriate geometry or extends to the wrong place to really be a “mirror.”

Some features like fillets and chamfers are really picky about the geometry they’re made with. If you try to mirror them, and the faces they’re being mirrored to aren’t exactly the same, they will likely fail.

There are so many ways to have issues! Why not just skip all of them? The solution: Mirror Body. Skip all the headaches of trying to mirror sketches and features and just model half your part, mirror the body and be done. Less sketch entities, less features and less hassle. If you want to ensure total symmetricity that’s your best way to go.

There’s a general mindset with most of us techie types out there that new is always better. People stand in lines to be the first get the next new smartphone. They brag about having some brand new 12 core super computer.  Your car still runs on gas? You need something NEW! Well, when it comes to SolidWorks, sometimes brand new is not the way to go.

The main example of too new is with your graphics card drivers. Sure, everyone knows that having really old graphics drivers can cause issue with SolidWorks. If you run into graphics problems, running an RX to check your drivers should be the first thing you do. But hopping onto the NVIDIA or ATI website and getting the newest driver can cause issues, too.

SolidWorks tests each new driver the companies put out and eventually certifies them for use. That can take time though. Your best bet for getting the correct, current certified driver is through RX. When it checks your drivers, if there are new ones it will usually provide a link to download the newest certified driver. If it doesn’t, you can find them at:
 http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/VideoCardTesting.html

The certified drivers are usually the way to go, but in rare occasions even those are “too new.” If your computer is having a problem hanging when trying to close files, you might want to try rolling back your drivers to one version previous. Occasionally the graphics card doesn’t release some of the graphics data and SolidWorks hangs. Rolling back sometimes fixes that.

Next time you’re having graphics issues, remember: cool new things are great, just make sure they’re certified!

Have you found that some of your SolidWorks files have just been getting bigger and bigger? No, it’s not because your files have been snacking on all of those computer cookies.

The problem is due to excess display data. Basically the files are so concerned about how they used to look, they’re not concerned about how big they’re getting. What used to be a light file is now a 140MB behemoth. Like anything trying to move something heavy, SolidWorks (and likely your network) will bog down under all that weight.

I recently had a customer that had a 50Mb file that was a sheet metal plate with 4 bends and about 20 slots. The older version of the file was about 5MB, but every time he saved the file it gained 300-500KB. Even with 8GB of memory, his computer would slow to a crawl when any assembly with parts like that was running.

The good news is, SolidWorks 2011 SP3 has introduced a feature that can get rid of that excess weight. It’s easy to use, but does have some side effects. The feature is “Remove all display states.”

You can find it by right-clicking in the Display States area of the Configurations Tab. Using this feature not only removes all of the display states and custom appearances and other visuals, but it also removes all of that background display data that has been piling up. Rebuilding those visual features may take some work, but any diet usually does! After rebuilding the display states and appearances, your file will still be much smaller.

The 140MB behemoth? After the “Remove all” diet it went from 141MB to 4MB. Happy dieting!