Helical Sweep

[ptc-1589706]

Hopefully somebody can help me out with an issue I'm having related to a model and graphics performance. I'll describe the problem below.

Modeling a helical sweep at a length of 6.000 in., 0.085Ø., pitch 0.075 in. and section profile Ø0.010 in. This is a resistor coil used inside an electric resistance heater element and when I manipulate the model(zoom, move, regenerate and etc...) It takes several seconds/minutes.

Does anybody have any idea on alternate method of created this type of a feature which will not significantly slow down Creo 2.0? I've duplicated the feature creating a helical cure using an equation and sweeping it but I did not see any improvement in graphic performance.

This is something I lived with for several years, usually I suppress the feature or hide the component until needed but I thought somebody may have discovered a work around or better practice and would be willing to share. Searching these forums or the Internet yielded no results for me.

Thanks!

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[BrianMartin]

Hi Stacy...

My advice on this would be ... stop making this thing!

I know it's not popular and you wanted another answer but you're making a 6" long coil made out of something about twice the thickness of a human hair and wrapped around something the diameter of a toothpick. Let's visualize what you're trying to do here... and ask the important question Why do you need to model this?

It's going to take quite a bit of horsepower to model such a thing. Your best bet is to eliminate the problem... perhaps swap in a cylinder instead and do a simplification? If you need it for a pretty picture, use a texture on the cylinder to make it look like a coil. If you don't absolutely have to have it in the model... eliminate it.

Of course I know how this goes... I may as well save my breath. If I can't sell you on eliminating that coil, you might try these ideas:

1. Use surfaces. Surfaces always regenerate faster than solid geometry. Create your sweep or coil as a surface and then solidify.
2. Make the coil "read only" so it doesn't regenerate
3. Construct on small section of coil and then pattern to create the entire length. Set your pattern to type "IDENTICAL" to speed up this process by a factor of 4 or more over a general pattern.
4. Use a texture to simulate the coil
5. Use simplified reps to swap in a less intense piece of geometry

[ptc-1589706]

Brian- Item 3 is interesting, I haven't thought about that one and I'll try it out today.

Yea I wish I could get rid of it completely unfortunately I can't, but I have been using simplified reps to speed up the process.

[TomD.inPDX]

There is a couple of things you might try but the real question should be focused on what the bottleneck really is. Is it the graphics card, CPU, or configuration problems.

I'll play with your numbers in a little while but if it is graphics, look at the config.pro settings for shade quality and maybe activate the levels of detail. Also have a look at graphics driver and make sure it is set appropriately for performance rather than detail.

If it is CPU bogging, then you need to get drastic with the feature. Obviously, a simplified rep using a "tube" would simplify things a lot. You can change the rep to the detailed coil when you need it.

Another possible CPU update may be to make a small coil and simply pattern it. If it is indeed CPU, this might solve the computation lag-time.

Config settings will lead you to accuracy settings. Is the part or the using assembly overly confined with high accuracy?

I'm sure you've been to many of these options but these are what come to mind at first glance.

[JonathanHodgson]

For graphics update (spinning the model on screen), we've found that turning off edge display (View->Display Settings->Model Display, Shade tab, disable With Edges (in WF4)) makes a significant difference for complex models. Use Shaded view, not a wireframe or hidden line.

[TomD.inPDX]

So I tried this and the coil is not the problem. The problem is internal to Creo. The lag time is most notable with annotation. Each time you highlight the annotation, the associated feature highlights. Then when you select the annotation feature, it re-highlights. Nothing else about this model causes my CPU or graphics card any grief.

Stacy, can you explain with a little more detail in what you are experiencing?

Creo 2.0 file attached.

[ptc-1589706]

Antonius- Problem seems related to current visibility state of the model. I tried Franks recommendation below and it has significantly improved the performance when zooming/moving the model. Prior to making changes to my config.pro the model would stutter when rotating and freeze for several seconds I guess for regen.

The problem I had seems directly related to the visibility selection for the models. I'm going to close this discussion for right now and flag his response the answer for this issue.

Thanks!

[Bari]

Just a thought, are you using silhouettes turned on? Check this in Model Display and in Entity Display in config options and turn them off.

Or in your Config.pro file:

DISPLAY_SILHOUETTE_EDGES NO

SPIN_WITH_SILHOUETTES NO

[Patriot_1776 · Accepted solution]

First, try always manipulating in shaded mode. If not, use the config.pro setting: "fast_highlight" and "fasthlr" set to "yes".

Also, use the config.pro setting: "lods_enabled" with a "lods_value" of 75 or less

[BrianMartin]

Hi Frank...

Levels of detail doesn't really do anything unless you've assigned colors from the palette with LOD values active.

Or am I wrong here? Levels of detail in a graphics engine (like for a video game) actually does something. In Creo and Pro/E it's really dependent upon the settings of colors in the palette, isn't it?

Am I missing something?

[TomD.inPDX]

LODs do work in Creo with geometry. It is actually based on the polygon size in relation to the current zoom state. I confirmed that even on mine, it helps. I remember using them in interactive VRML environments from a past life.

[BrianMartin]

Wait... what?!

Okay so I just went back and looked at this in Creo... then Wildfire 5... then Wildfire 3...

Apparently they changed the way LODs worked a long, long time ago and I just never noticed. It was practically useless before. I guess when we made the leap to Wildfire things changed. Having no use for the OLD levels of detail, I never noticed it had been changed.

They don't often slip one by me like that. Uh oh... I must be getting old. 😕

[Patriot_1776]

Getting old..... Tell me about it.....I got the dreaded first AARP letter in the mail the other day.......ouch.........

Well, hopefully this can help some of your users out as well. I can't remember when I first played with that setting. Probably the first Wildfire release.

[Patriot_1776]

WooHoo! Happy to help!