{"id":22996,"date":"2019-03-07T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/?p=22996"},"modified":"2019-03-05T15:26:31","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T20:26:31","slug":"using-defeature-in-2019-to-speed-up-assemblies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/2019\/03\/using-defeature-in-2019-to-speed-up-assemblies.html","title":{"rendered":"Using Defeature in 2019 to Speed Up Assemblies"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you have been following the blog you may know that we are preparing to renovate our training room and have been using SOLIDWORKS to assist with the task! Last time, I used 2019\u2019s new Large Design Review to add components and mate them in place<\/a> with magnetic mates functionality. It worked well for me, but now I need to fully resolve my assembly. What are the things I can do to predict and prepare for any performance remissions in the software?<\/p>\n

Let’s Start with Performance Evaluation<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s suppose that I am in my fully resolved assembly and I experience some stuttering when I rotate my model. Now what? First thing I do is open up the Performance Evaluation<\/strong> Tool<\/strong> which is found in the Evaluate<\/strong> Tab<\/strong> in assemblies. The dialog contains diagnostic information about my assembly, which is good, but what exactly am I looking for? The nice thing about the tool is that it points out performance outliers in all aspects. Consider the problem at hand:\u00a0 stuttering when rotating. When you rotate, the model does not need to rebuild, so we can ignore Rebuild Time<\/strong>. Since the model is fully loaded, we can ignore Open Time<\/strong> as well. Something that does stand out to me though, is the Graphics Triangles<\/strong> count for all the components. Have a look:<\/p>\n

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We can see two outliers immediately: DESK72 and DESK30. They are two variations of the same desk, so both are practically the same component. By a huge margin, these components dwarf all other components in number of graphics triangles. So, why do these components have a large triangle count? Let\u2019s get them open and have a look.<\/p>\n

At first glance, nothing seems out of the ordinary, but zoom in to any corner and the issue is apparent\u2026there is a lot of detail orientation here. This desk has been modeled with near perfect characteristics. All the screws have actual geometric threads (which takes a bunch of triangles to represent) and there is a representation of every end cap and every decorative piece of plastic.<\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s suppose that this level of detail is necessary (maybe we need to fabricate a copy of this desk in its entirety and need a cut list). Are we out of options? Well, turns out there is a way to get both an exact copy and a simplified version of this desk without having to do a lot of work.<\/p>\n

Let’s Check Out the 2019 Enhanced Defeature Tool!<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

As the name implies, the Defeature Tool<\/strong> takes a component and greatly simplifies it. It\u2019s extremely beneficial, not only in performance increases but also in protecting intellectual property (i.e. remove all internal mechanisms). To use it, I\u2019ll go back to the assembly and isolate one of the desks by right clicking the desk in the Design Tree > Isolate<\/strong>. This makes it easier to see what\u2019s going on. Next, I\u2019ll go to Tools > Defeature<\/strong> to launch the tool.<\/p>\n

When the tool launches the option to choose the defeature method appears. The method that was added to 2019 is the second option Silhouette<\/strong>. It offers a whole new way to simplify components versus just suppressing features.<\/p>\n

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Once that is selected, hit the Next<\/strong> arrow on the top right.<\/p>\n

Now, all we have to do is select bodies and choose how we want to simplify them. The simplification method depends on the overall shape of the model and how much detail we want to remove. There are so many options\u2026<\/p>\n