Hello
We are using Solidworks 2022 with a state-of-the-art machine.
We have problems transforming Soliworks plans into pdf or DWG files. This can take quite a long time, on the order of a day. Of course, these are general plans, but you can still open them in Solidworks in half an hour.
Everything works by the way: quite fluid assembly, simulation the same.
How can this be improved?
Thanks in advance
Hello;
If it already takes you 30 minutes to open your Assemblies or drawings, you should automatically expect a relatively long delay when converting your drawings to DWG...
We should be told a little more:
Do you work with a server?
The size of your *.slddrw files
The number of different components in your 3D?
Settings used in " save-as " *.dwg (Solidworks Options)
Do you use a transfer file for layers?
The average number of views of your assemblies?
Use of cups?
Multiple tabs?
Scales different from that of the cartouche on some views?
The level of detail (display style)
…
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2 tracks, the 1st check the version history of the basemap.
If your model basemap is in version 2004 and you are on SW2022, you will have to seriously consider modifying your model basemaps.
Personally we did it 3 years ago in SW2020 and we had switched and we had won strongly on pdf exports and also a little on dwg export.
Otherwise I personally record the view in dwg because it is extremely faster.
Even though I don't know why, it's an approved fact and verify!
You have to select the view (usually the top view) then:
And for some recordings that took several hours, it only takes a few minutes. On the other hand, no cartridge was exported.
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Our answers:
- We work on a server.
- The size of our *.slddrw files: 30,000 to 40,000 KB for 3D and drawing 200,000- 600,000 KB
Number of different components in our 3D: 24,000 (including screws)
Settings used in "save-as" *.dwg (Solidworks Options)
- We use a transfer file for the layers.
- The average number of views of our assemblies: about 10 views on the close-ups in question
- Use of cups: One in general
- 2 tabs, but export from one
- Scales different from that of the cartouche on some views? Yes often for detail view and for an iso view
- The level of detail (display style): For the visibility of our layout plans, we are obliged to put them in color and in high quality. "The colored wireframe" bugs less but the difference is not extraordinary.
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… These are large files!!..
for DWG options:
=> Disable End Blending.
=> Consider the need for the " TrueType " font versus " Autocad Standard only "
… To be consistent with your answer on the number of tabs: " 2 tabs, but export of one ":
=> Disable " Export all sheets to a file "
=> Enable " Export Active Sheet Only "
…
Another avenue (which saved us a lot of time on exports):
Try to remove as much as possible the "Tangent Edges" on all ISO views.
But considering the number of views of your MEPs, this shouldn't save you a lot of time...
There is also the updating of your document templates and especially of the Fonds-de plan (essential if not already done) mentioned by @sbadenis
Also try to use a Macro for your recordings, strangely enough it has reduced the recording time for a lot of our documents...
Note: Now that I think about it, the size of your *.dwg files must be considerable...
Do a test to see if your problems are not coming from your server:
Use Pack and Go to save the entirety of one of your cases to your local disk (with drawings and all library components) taking care to rename them all (add prefix).
And, on a big Drawing (still local), time the conversion time to a new dwg.
FYI:
2 Likes
Thank you for your feedback,
At the DWG level, they are about ten MB in size...
We will try your different tricks.
Hello
Maybe another parameter to check (not tested if it influences the export in pdf or dwg but since it impacts the display time of the Solidworks PDM archiving windows there may be a link).
In the document properties of the drawing, on the performance tab, disable " Save Model Data".
In addition, 600MB of drawing is heavy so the conversion processing is necessarily long.
If you really can't find anything, maybe make a ticket to Visiativ (if it's your reseller) so that they can analyze your files (they may not test on SW2022 anymore).
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In addition to @Cyril.F :
https://help.solidworks.com/2022/french/Solidworks/sldworks/r_document_properties_performance.htm?rid=184270
… Not at all sure that this will impact conversions.
What converting to DWG doesn't like:
The scales of different views.
Isometric views.
Shaded view views.
Isometric sections.
The images.
Specific fonts.
The sketches.
Hatching.
Too many layers (even if in the railway industry it is probably difficult to do otherwise)
(basically it doesn't like much).
To test:
Even though the *.dwg R2000-2002 format is the most common, possibly try with newer ones.
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Not better but hey with coders everything is possible 
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Indeed, in Solidworks there are more options to make things worse than to improve them! 
One day we will have to remind the Devs that time is money. An adage that seems to have fallen into disuse in their teams.
The only times you can open an MEP in SW is when you're on vacation:
" Boss, I just launched the opening of the drawing, I pose one day. See you tomorrow!"
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Let's say it's the Agile method in software development.
I'm laying you an unfinished software and I'm making iterations to correct it as I go along (you have to see some video games that were released just finished and that had big patches a few months later).
Edit: Not to mention a good number of smartphone applications that are full of bugs or even some updates are worse than others.
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Exactly that. Our wasted time is money for them. The sooner they take it, the more it grows. The logic is implacable, but immoral. Not to say amoral.
Finally, the games, at least, they end up being patched before the next opus is released. For software, this is rarely the case... We usually have a plethora of historical, even prehistoric, bugs; It's good to want to add functions, but it's better if the ones already in place work.
Of course, if SW were to be totally debugged before the next major version, it would not be released for 10 years but would really be more damaging?
PS: sorry for the digression.
Hello @Sylk ,
I totally agree.
In another life I did a bit of dev...
The release dates of software or operating systems are dictated by the sales/marketing team without taking into account the dev/test stages.
For the oldest among us, remember the commercial release of Windows 98 
, in my memories MS released Win 98 SE (second edition) within 6 months! So much the first one was buggy...
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Hello @a.eriaud
And yes my little man 
When we were kids 
, we still had patience, a quality that is lost by dint of bathing in the current instantaneity. We knew how to wait for the release of a game that the devs took time and application to produce, because at that time when they were released on cartridges, coded in an immutable chip (which was much more expensive to manufacture) and before the advent of the net, it was out of the question to consider updates every day, since it was not possible anyway.