complex models loadtime and efficiency

[Anonymous]

Hi

I have put together a rather complex model of about 1000 parts, mostly nuts and bolts, my inventor is chugging because of the high amount of parts and constraints associated with them, ive done everything i can i.e. use patterns and mirrors whereever i can, but it is not helping enough

can this be solved by increasing your computer RAM and video memory, or is it a setting in the software that is limiting the ram used or something

Thanks.

[blair · Accepted solution]

You haven't posted any system spec's to determine your possible problem area(s).

My system spec's are posted in my user signature. It takes just under 5 seconds to load Inventor 2013 Pro. The load times are based on my hard-drive. If you have Windows7, you should be able to get a performance rating for your system from the Control Panel>Performance Information and Tools.

Autodesk also has a hardware requirements page on their website: http://usa.autodesk.com/autodesk-inventor/system-requirements/

[Anonymous]

Ok, my specs are as follows

Intel Core 2 duo  CPU E7200 @ 2.53GHz

2.00 GB of RAM

running on windows XP SP3

im running inventor 2012 professional

so it seems my system needs upgrading

thanks, but is there anyway of making the software more efficient? ive turned down the graphics but it doesnt help much

[JDMather]

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deltaproj wrote:

 my inventor is chugging because of the high amount of parts and constraints .....

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What and how you constrain is critically important.

Search here for Walt Jaquith's "House of Cards" essay.

The only way I know of solving these problems (assuming it isn't a hardware problem) is by having an expert look at the assembly.

[Anonymous]

It's very likely that you need a computer upgrade.  1000 parts is a large assembly.  I used to run a Xeon processor with 4gb of ram and had trouble with assemblies of that size.  If you're on a 32 bit system then you can only upgrade to a max of 4gb of ram though.  If you're going to work with assemblies of that size on a daily basis it would be worth the upgrade.  I found a new PC on Dell's outlet site with an i7 processor and 8gb of ram that was under $800.  This PC has never given me any issues with running large assemblies.

[blair]

You didn't give full spec's with respect to the graphics device on this machine, but I would probably be looking at a new machine.

You could upgrade from your 2Gb of memory to 3 or 4Gb (depending on motherboard configuration). 4Gb would be better, it would give you 3Gb (if you don't use the 3Gb Switch).

I would be looking at a system with at least 6Gb of memory and a 64bit operating system along with an above board graphics card (not a built-in graphics card).

Look for a good "gaming" PC.

As JD stated, you might be able to gain some performance from efficient modeling and assembly methods as well.

[stevec781]

Or it could be that your complex parts are too much for inventor to handle.  I have an I2700 cpu running at 4Ghz with 16Gb ram, SSD disk,  GTX 560 card with 1GB ram and Inventor struggles with my assemblies which are less than 500 parts.  It takes 30 seconds for it to think after a simple component drag, no edits just a position change.

I have lots of surfaces in a top down work flow with lots of derived parts and references and Inventor just cant handle it, even when subst LOD's and all the other tricks are used.  My VAR has spent 4 hours going over my models and has no solution.  One problem I showed them is how inventor rebuilds parts that it shouldnt because it seems to follow the mates.  Even with no references it still rebuilds parts that are only distantly related by mates.  eg Part A mated to part B, part C mated only to part B with no references.  Change part A and part C rebuilds even though part B has no change.  After 4 hours of trying to stop this my VAR was literally lost for words except to say that my work flow was fine and can he have a copy of the asm to send to Autodesk.

With your specs a machine upgrade will definately help, but but if your parts are complex it wont surprise me if its not the improvement you are hoping for.

Maybe as well as looking at your hardware you should look at other software...that's what I'm doing now and its not a question of will I change, its just a question of what will I switch to, most likely Catia at this stage.