I'm sure the users here can fill in any blanks I miss, but here is my take on your models and workflow.
Models:
The first one is not very big. If you are experiencing freezes while editing it, please let me know. I may want a copy of it to investigate.
The second one is much larger, but not overly so. I'm still worried that it's just your video card at this point.
With Overrides: LeafOccurrences 372: Bodies 1083:
VisibleLeafOccurrences 10: VisibleBodies 91:
LeafOccurrencesWithVisualMaterialOverrides 0:
OccurrencesWithTransformOverides 385
This tells me you have 372 components and they contain 1083 bodies. ~3:1 ratio of bodies to components.
Visible components and bodies are 10/91. So you must be modeling with bodies that live on the root of your browser, makes sense by your description of moving bodies out later into components.
Workflow:
Rule #1: If you are working with multiple components, you must first make a new component and activate it before adding sketches and bodies to it. Ensure it is active when you are working on it.
"I initially waited to convert bodies to compenents until I'd ensured they worked together in one file or design "
This works fine if you don't have a giant design (>3k bodies/components), and do not plan to use the parametric aspects of these components (sketches mainly) in other designs. The reason is that by doing a dedicated "top down" design, your sketches stay behind when you "save out" a component for reuse. See rule #1 above.
"perhaps I should have designed and built up the overall design in different files and then combined / copied their finished compenents into the full design?"
This is bottom up design and works really well for two major things: if you don't need to relate components while you model them (related sketches, parameters, etc) you can do this easily, and also if you plan to use these parts in multiple designs. If you then edit the design, it will update in all assemblies that reference it.
"anyway I'm planning to convert most bodies to compenents in the 'full design' file soon and maybe insert these into seperate files / designs to output drawings etc - do you think this is advisable?"
In order to insert them into other designs, you will need to save a copy outside of this "home" design. When you do, they will show errors for the sketches, and will be essentially history-free. They also will not be related to the "home" design where they started. I can't say if it's advisable, but it's certainly possible as long as you realize the limitations.
Hardware:
- Are you using a secondary monitor?
- Can you isolate a particular model/workflow that freezes regularly? If so, I would appreciate a model and some steps to reproduce it. This makes fixing problems a lot easier. 🙂
Thanks,
Phil Eichmiller
Software Engineer
Quality Assurance
Autodesk, Inc.