SolidWorks 2011 Assemblies Bible - Matt Lombard [73]
Getting familiar with the Advanced Component Selection
The Advanced Component Selection dialog box, shown in Figure 8.5, was formerly called Advanced Show/Hide Components. You can access this dialog box by right-clicking the configuration name in the ConfigurationManager and selecting Advance Select.
FIGURE 8.5
The Advanced Component Selection dialog box
This tool enables you to establish search criteria and show or hide parts based on the criteria. Multiple criteria can be used, stored, and retrieved. This tool is generally underused, and people are often surprised to find it in the software. It has existed since about 1998 and has undergone a facelift in the last two releases. The Category 1 options enable you to search on things such as document name, in-context status, part mass, and other standard SolidWorks information. Category 2 can be either custom property information or structured options for Category 1, such as specific in-context conditions.
Taking a look at the Isolate function
Isolate works like the inverse of the Show command. If you select multiple parts and click Isolate from the RMB menu, the selected parts remain shown, and everything else becomes hidden. A little popup menu gives you the option to show the removed components in a Wireframe or Transparent display mode, or to save the current display as a new display state. This is a very useful function, as shown in Figure 8.6.
FIGURE 8.6
The Isolate function can create display states.
Finding features with the Simplify Assembly tool
If you have the SolidWorks Office bundle, then you can activate the Utilities add-in. You can do this by choosing Tools⇒Add-ins, and then selecting Utilities. This displays a Utilities menu with the Simplify option. The Simplify Assembly tool is shown in Figure 8.7. (This tool appears in the Task Pane on the right side of the screen.)
FIGURE 8.7
The Simplify Assembly tool
The Simplify Assembly tool can help you find features in the parts of the assemblies that are under a certain size or that take up less than a certain percentage of the volume of the part. You can then suppress these features in special derived configurations.
Controlling display performance
Overall, SolidWorks performance is split into two categories: CPU processing and GPU (graphics processing unit) processing. Which of these functions your computer performs better depends on your hardware, drivers, and system maintenance, among other factors.
When trying to speed up the performance of an assembly, you can make the biggest impact by reducing the load on both the CPU and the GPU. You can do this by suppressing a part. When a part is suppressed, it is neither calculated nor displayed; this means the load on each processor for that part is zero.
When you hide a part, its parametric features are still calculated by the CPU; however, because the part is hidden, it does not create a load on the GPU. If you have a good main processor and a questionable video card, then you will achieve a greater benefit from removing graphics load from your display.
Using Lightweight parts settings
If you want to show a part, but not calculate any of its parametric relations, you can use Lightweight parts. You can access the Lightweight default settings by choosing Tools⇒Options on both the Assemblies and Performance pages. You can make parts lightweight through the RMB menu. The opposite of lightweight is resolved. Resolved means that the part is fully loaded, its parametrics are loaded and calculated by the CPU, and its graphics display data is calculated and shown by the GPU.
Working with SpeedPak
There is some confusion about where the SpeedPak functionality falls into this scheme of things. With a SpeedPak, the parametrics are not loaded, but the graphics are. In addition, some of the geometry is selectable, as if it were imported geometry (actual geometry but without rebuildable parametrics).