I am looking to document the performance analyses of my company's parts and assemblies.
The idea is to comment on the number of functions of the parts with the longest rebuild/opening times.
Do you know (apart from machine performance) what are Solidworks' recommendations on the sequence of functions (bossing, removal, fillets, drilling, repetitions, etc.)?
And the number of functions beyond which it might be advisable to work?
These are 2 questions that call for more Dassault recommendations than sound advice (i.e.: supporting documents, if they exist)
I don't think such a document exists, it depends heavily on the machine used. And each reconstruction time depends on the number of functions but also on what constitutes the function, number of sketch lines, offset plane... So very complicated or even rather impossible to make such a document in my opinion.
Moreover, commercially it could show the limits of the software, which SW surely does not want!
When I started CAD (on Pro-Eng), the trainer told us to do the basic functions first (extrusion, revolution), then the shape functions and then the finishes (fillets, chamfers).
From my experience, I would add that it is better to have more functions based on simple sketches than few based on complex sketches.
Degrees of freedom left to the software should be avoided as much as possible: completely constrained sketches, parts stopped in rotation.
Depending on your activity, you will have special cases. For example, recently I had to make "mechanically welded" structures (in the sense of SW functions) based on complex profiles (ITEM/BOSCH systems). We realized that it was better to generate the bars by direction (one function following X, one following Y, etc.) and then making the length adjustments. I did a test piece, on an adjustment, the gain was significant (around 25%).
So if I may make a small clarification from recent experience...
The order of the functions is super important, in my case concerning repetition or symmetry.
I took over a colleague's grid the other day, to try to lighten it... After several tries with the "performance evaluation" function, I went from more than 1 minute to less than 10 seconds... I could have won again I think, but the result suited me.
I proceeded in this way because this grid is parameterized with equations and adapts to many configurations automatically...
I started with 4 squares in different material removal to then make a repetition for each one ... The fact of doing the rehearsals last saves me a lot of time, while saying that if I did a removal, then a rehearsal, the next removal of material would take much longer... As if Solidworks was reviewing the feasibility beforehand with all these squares repeated before...