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regeneration of part with large pattern

It takes roughly a day and a half for an assembly containing two of that part and two other high-feature-count parts (but considerably fewer features than this part) to open.

Tracy

ouch... that hurt, I remember a time 11 years back at my first company we tried to open drawing for big valve housing(all drafts, rounds included, and so forth), and was something similar. If you`re paid for a time not for a result, it could be right way to follow :)
 
merge to empty part

If a complex pattern regenerates once, make a working assembly where you merge that part to an empty part. Now you have a dumb solid of the pattern. Use that dumb solid for all future modifications to the part. That way, if nothing changes before or inside the pattern, every time you open the part, as long as you don't open the original part or the working assembly, you save all that regeneration time.

The first rule of working with software is to learn how to lie to it to get it to do what you want. Kind of like working with some people.
 
ouch... that hurt, I remember a time 11 years back at my first company we tried to open drawing for big valve housing(all drafts, rounds included, and so forth), and was something similar. If you`re paid for a time not for a result, it could be right way to follow :)

Yeah, I'm paid by the hour, but while that's opening, I can work on other stuff, so it doesn't really matter. And the result we got from this does matter.

Tracy
 
If a complex pattern regenerates once, make a working assembly where you merge that part to an empty part. Now you have a dumb solid of the pattern. Use that dumb solid for all future modifications to the part. That way, if nothing changes before or inside the pattern, every time you open the part, as long as you don't open the original part or the working assembly, you save all that regeneration time.

The first rule of working with software is to learn how to lie to it to get it to do what you want. Kind of like working with some people.

I've got a family table with the pattern suppressed in the generic, that I can assemble to higher assemblies. For now, they're not sure that this pattern is what they want to end up with. The part is still in development stages, and this pattern is the major developmental thing. So far, as long as I don't have to open the fully-featured part, I'm good.

Tracy
 
So what was your final pattern design? Did you use the surfaces and convert to solids?

No, that didn't end up working. I ended up just making an extruded cut (it's not a round hole), and patterned that. I left the fillets off of the corners, because I didn't really need to show those. Due to the nature of the manufacturing process, the fillets are a fixed radius, anyway, so the DXF does not need to show them.

Tracy
 
No, that didn't end up working. I ended up just making an extruded cut (it's not a round hole), and patterned that. I left the fillets off of the corners, because I didn't really need to show those. Due to the nature of the manufacturing process, the fillets are a fixed radius, anyway, so the DXF does not need to show them.

Tracy

So basically, there has been no real solution to your original large pattern question - right?

Bob Schwerdlin
Design Engineer,
Dukane Corp.
 
So basically, there has been no real solution to your original large pattern question - right?

Bob Schwerdlin
Design Engineer,
Dukane Corp.

You are correct. I think there were some things interfering (Windows updates, etc.) that made it go off into the weeds or crash, but once that was fixed, it just took patience.

Tracy
 
I am surprised no one has suggested this fix. Just do a sketch without extrusion and pattern/mirror the sketch. This will visually show the pattern for your drawing without unruly regeneration times. I do custom chassis designs and use this in lieu of actual model features because of the regeneration problems mentioned earlier in this thread.
 
I am surprised no one has suggested this fix. Just do a sketch without extrusion and pattern/mirror the sketch. This will visually show the pattern for your drawing without unruly regeneration times. I do custom chassis designs and use this in lieu of actual model features because of the regeneration problems mentioned earlier in this thread.

I'll have to try that. I'm not convinced that it would cut regen time, but I'll give it a try. Thanks!

Tracy
 

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