TITLE : Increasing Performance when Working with Large Assembly Drawings

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Suggested Techniques for Increasing Performance when Working

with Large Assembly Drawings

This document is intended to outline some recommended practices in Pro/ENGINEER when working with
large assembly drawings.

General Drawing Practices

The following methodologies can be utilized in Drawing mode to increase drawing productivity:

● Set the line display of all views to Wireframe. Regeneration time will be faster than if the display of
the views are set to Hidden or No Hidden.
● Erase views that are not being used when detailing the drawing. By erasing a view, the display will
not be calculated by Pro/ENGINEER and this will decrease regeneration time. Use Views, Resume
View to resume the views before plotting.
● Move views which are complete to separate sheets of the drawing. The views can be moved back
to the original sheet prior to plotting.
● Use Z-Clipping to reduce graphical information displayed in an assembly view. All geometry behind
the Z-Clipping plane will be removed from the display. For more information on Z-Clipping, see the
Suggested Technique for Z-Clipping a Drawing View.
● Use Views, Dwg Models, Add Model for adding subassemblies to the drawing. Create views of
the subassemblies instead of creating views of simplified representations of the master assembly.
● Create separate drawings whenever possible, as this will prevent Pro/ENGINEER from retrieving
unnecessary models into memory.
● Use Pro/BATCH so all plotting can be performed outside of Pro/ENGINEER. For more information
on using Pro/BATCH, see the Suggested Technique for Plotting with Pro/BATCH.
● To minimize retrieval time when plotting, use View Only retrieve. The config.pro option
"save_display" must be set to "yes" prior to saving the drawing.
● The display of components in an assembly can be blanked in a drawing. Create layers to blank the
display of many components in an assembly. Use Views, Disp Mode, Memb Disp and Blank to
also blank the display of assembly components.

Assembly Manipulation Techniques

The following suggestions can be used in Assembly mode prior to Drawing creation:

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 TITLE : Increasing Performance when Working with Large Assembly Drawings

● Use Simplified Representations to prevent Pro/ENGINEER from retrieving unnecessary models into
memory.
● Replace models that are not referenced in a drawing view with Geometry Reps. Geometry Reps
take approximately half the time to retrieve as the master model.
● Use as few assembly features as possible because intersecting components creates hidden copies
of the model and this uses additional memory. When sketching assembly features, use closed
sections and manually select the components to be intersected. This will prevent Pro/ENGINEER
from intersecting extraneous components and will speed up drawing performance.

Config.pro Options

The following are configuration file options that relate specifically to large assembly drawings. Making use
of these options can significantly improve drawing productivity.

Config.pro Option Value Comment

Enables referencing to geometry reps in

Yes drawings. Modifying the model may remove
allow_refs_to_geom_reps_in_drw
model references and also remove referenced
entities in Drawing mode.
No Drawings will not automatically regenerate
auto_regen_views
when changing windows.
Yes Decreases retrieval and saving time when files
compress_output_files
are stored over a network.
minimal_wireframe Fastest display when creating a view because
display_in_adding_view
no silhouette edges are shown.
No Improves display time. Cylindrical edges are
display_silhouette_edges
not shown.
Speeds up display when placing a view
No
disp_trimetric_dwg_mode_view because no model appears until a view
name or Default is selected.
Yes Views appear in wireframe regardless of
force_wireframe_in_drawings
environment display settings.
Reduces plot creation time. There is no
0
interface_quality complex line checking performed when
generating a plot file.
Right Prevents the overlap of menus which causes
menu_horizontal_hint
Pro/ENGINEER to repaint.
Yes Decreases retrieval time for objects in
retain_display_memory
Pro/ENGINEER memory.
System saves display information when saving
Yes
save_display a drawing. This will improve retrieval time
when using View Only Retrieve.

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 TITLE : Increasing Performance when Working with Large Assembly Drawings

No Views are displayed quicker because tangent

tangent_edge_display
lines are not calculated.
no_window_overlap Prevents thermo scales from overlapping and
thermo_position_hint
main window from repainting.
.93-.95 Adjust so windows do not overlap and cause
windows_scale
drawing regenerations.

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