Creo Large Assy Loading Speed

[SharmaKona-Adro]

Hey folks!

Need a bit of help...
So I’ve got this huge assembly in Creo that takes forever to open — like 30-40 mins easily. When I peeked into the task manager, I noticed it’s only using a single CPU core, even though the machines/workstations have quad-core and some even octa-core processors. Is this normal for Creo? Or is there some any setting or config tweak I may be missing that can make it use all cores and speed things up?
Many thanks in advance.

Ciao,
Srikar

[tbraxton]

Creo Parametric is in general a single thread application. For loading models there is no way to enable multithreading within Creo AFAIK.

[kdirth · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, Creo is mostly a single core program.

Here is a collection of articles that discuss techniques for managing large assemblies:

Article - CS133707 - [Knowledge Hub] Creo Parametric - Large Assembly Management

[Chris3]

Adding on, starting in Creo 11 there is a new performance reporting tool:

https://support.ptc.com/help/creo/creo_pma/r11.0/usascii/index.html#page/assembly/asm/using_performance_reporting.html 

In general these are poor performers:

1. Family Tables
2. Assembly level cuts (which are really family tables behind the scenes)
3. Harnesses
4. ECAD assemblies
5. Large "general" patterns

See if you can eliminate any of those and or use interchange assemblies to swap out complicated assemblies for simpler representations. Attached is a PTC/User presentation that might be helpful.

[SharmaKona-Adro]

Hey Mr. @Chris3 & @kdirth ,

Thanks a lot for you support. This issue/question was eating our team`s brains almost since a week. Now it`s clear for all of us!!
Much appreciate your efforts in addressing this.

And of course, a special mention to @Chris3 & who ever created that presentation. It was smooth and pretty easy to understand. 

Ciao,
Srikar.

[ArnoldCollett]

There is a config option for setting the number of cpu's. I'm not sure how much it helps. It defaults to 6, so even if you don't specify it in your config.pro file it should still pull into your session.

cpus_to_use 6

[MartinHanak]

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@ArnoldCollett wrote:

There is a config option for setting the number of cpu's. I'm not sure how much it helps. It defaults to 6, so even if you don't specify it in your config.pro file it should still pull into your session.

cpus_to_use 6

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Hi,

AFAIK cpus_to_use is related to Simulate app, only.

[StephenW]

I spend most of my days in large assemblies and sometimes the wait time if significantly more than the work time, it can be extremely frustrating.

There really is no one option that makes it all work faster but as mentioned, there are lots of tools within creo to improve the situation

Any time we upgrade, I tend to try to evaluate config.pro options again, this is my current list of options (we are currently using Creo 8 to help our users who deal with large assemblies :

I have tried to make notes to help with understanding but over the years, I have forgotten the reason why the option was added. I would suggest you read the documentation for each and thoroughly test each option to make sure it doesn't cause other problems for you or your company or your assemblies.  

OPTION	VALUE	REASON
allow_freeze_failed_assy_comp	yes	REQUIRED
atb_auto_check_on_retrieve	off	this should be off, it is on by default
auto_place_max_number	1	this has to do with auto placement of interface components and can slow down assy of hardware with interface enabled
auto_regen_views	no	REQUIRED - you must manually regen sheets/views, otherwise it causes significant delays
autoplace_single_comp	no	Autoplace interface components can significantly slow assy times
check_interference_of_matches	no	it is possible this option can slow assy times when set to yes (default it yes)
comp_assemble_with_interface	none	comp assy is an interface option that may significantly slow assy times
create_temp_interfaces	no	temporary interfaces can significantly impact assy performance
enable_auto_regen	no	enable auto regen Yes (default) has potentially negative large assy effects
fasthlr	no	unknown effects
interface_quality	0	this option when set to anything other than zero can seriously affect print time. It is really for PLOTTING, where a pen would got over and over  the same line.
open_simplified_rep_by_default	yes	recommended so you don't accidentally open the master rep on a large assy
shade_quality	3	shade quality is EXTREMELY DETRIMENTAL TO LARGE ASSY PERFORMANCE
smooth_lines	no	unknown effects

[SharmaKona-Adro]

Hey there @StephenW,

The comment you mentioned looks precisely detailed. Let me try this and I`ll get back to you on how it worked for me and then possibly we may discuss a bit more in depth !

[StephenW]

@SharmaKona-Adro  Yes, definitely. Just keep posting on this thread. Anything you find will very likely help me and others also.

I did just notice that in my post, the editor converted  Creo "8" to an emoji. But I do have access to Creo+ (creo 12) to test new options too.

[Chris3]

@StephenW here are some that we set that it looks like you do not. Also we have a mapkey that loads and unloads these in with a button in the GUI for them.

Setting	Value	Comment
Display_in_adding_view	Minimal_wireframe	Sets view displace when auto_regen_views is set to no
Create_drw_sheet_thumbnails	No	Prevents the pop-up preview when hovering over a drawing tab
Dwg_show_screentip	No	Turns off hyperlink screen tips
Enable_fsaa	off	Turns off edge smoothing
Fasthlr	yes	No performance numbers, but PTC managers have said this provides improvement
Edge_display_quality	Low

[StephenW]

Thanks @Chris3 my testing has begun.

Some of these I already had, likely from our Admin guys but they don't think in terms of large assembly management.

I'm especially intrigued by edge_display_quality because mine was set to VERY_HIGH.

I think fasthlr for me wasn't a performance thing, I think it was odd anomaly things, I just don't remember right off hand.