New Progress Indicator for Opening Assemblies in SOLIDWORKS 2018

Article by Chris Briand, CSWE created/updated November 16, 2017

The new SOLIDWORKS Assembly Open progress indicator will resonate with anyone who has sat staring at their monitor wondering at exactly what stage, and exactly how long their assembly will take to open at any point.

SOLIDWORKS Assembly Open progress indicator

Assembly Progress Bar

It is the tip of the iceberg for some additional functionality contained within the Performance Evaluation Dialog.

The aim of this new dialog is to provide us with information that will ultimately keep us from killing the SLDWORKS.exe process from the task manager when we believe things are not taking too long or are “Frozen” while opening assemblies upon the system.

Open process complete

Open process complete

The indicator walks us through the time involved in opening the assembly, as well as which one of the three phases of opening the file we are currently in:

  1. Opening Components into RAM
  2. Updating the Assembly
  3. Updating the Graphics Display

PLEASE NOTE: The progress indicator dialog will only remain open when the assembly takes sixty seconds or longer to open.

Upon completion of the open process for an assembly file we gain an extra note that suggests we take a look at the Performance Evaluation utility to garner additional details regarding the assembly. If you miss clicking the link locate within the dialog, you can always examine the performance Evaluation dialog on your own:

 

 

Opening the Performance Evaluation Utility will allow you to examine a new section to the dialog which will show us summaries of:

  • Files that were suppressed during the opening process
  • Details for each file opened in the process
  • Which files were saved in specific versions.
Open Performance Results

Open Performance Results

Each dialog segment can be expanded into a summary dialog of the files involved by using the “SHOW THESE FILES” options below each of the sections.

Document open file details

Document open file details

Using the “Open Time” column and sorting by the opening times for each component, It should allow us to pinpoint any components taking an abnormally large amount of time to open.

These new options available in SOLIDWORKS 2018 provide us with a high-level and equally useful granular view of potential problems when opening our larger assemblies.

Stay tuned for more SOLIDWORKS 2018 What’s new content from the team here at Javelin Technologies.

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Chris Briand, CSWE

Chris has been educating and supporting Engineers, Designers and IT Personnel within the 3D CAD industry since 2002, and was adopted into the fantastic team of applications experts here at Javelin Technologies in early 2006.  Chris enjoys the continuous learning driven by the ingenuity and challenges Designers bring forward. Innovation using 3D Printing, 3D CAD and other technologies, combined with a diverse background as a technologist, allows Chris to find solutions that accelerate Designers, and take Design Teams to new heights. Chris is currently being held at an undisclosed location, near Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.