Free SOLIDWORKS from Performance Constraints (FSWPC-13-#14)

(Modeling Methodology – Top Level Mates and Flexible Subassemblies)

When an assembly is opened, all of the mates at the top level of the assembly are calculated as well as any mates that are involved in flexible sub-assemblies, you can see this in the AssemblyXpert screen shots below. Solving Subassemblies as Flexible adds a tremendous amount of extra calculations that would not be required if the flexible subs were turned off. In our tests setting our Flexible sub-assemblies to Rigid dropped the number of mates being evaluated at the top level from 1292 to 139.

Also when building your assembly you want to make sure that you structured it in a manner to minimize the need for top level mates. To accomplish having less mate in your top level assembly it involves utilizing more sub-assemblies than individual parts and taking advantage of other assembly features such as patterning components like bolts and screws.

You can by looking at our deltas see that on our Practical machine we gained almost 3.5% total improvement. If we look at the Typical machine we can see that the overall improvement is cut by just over 13% performance gain and took over 37min off of our benchmark time.

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