How to reduce regeneration time for large pattern in Creo Parametric 11.0.4.0

[Shafin]

A 3D model of a wire mesh net (1539.5 x 177.5 mm, wire diameter 0.5 mm). The pattern is created using 60 extrudes × 512 extrudes (total 30,720)

a. First pattern (512 instances, 177.5 mm each) I used "Identical"
b. Second pattern (60 instances, 1539.5 mm each) I used "General".

Whenever I change pattern options—switching between "Variable", "General", and "Identical"—the regeneration time is about 3 minutes. Is there any way to reduce the regeneration time from minutes to just a few seconds?

Note: I can't select both patterns as "Identical", because this prevents me from creating cuts/holes in the mesh model later due to self-intersecting surfaces. hence, I had to choose "General". But now regen time is too long.

[Van_AG]

it seems that the only way to radically reduce the regeneration time for your geometry is to make the first and second pattern in different bodies

[Shafin]

Thank you, Van_AG. Creating the patterns in different bodies is a helpful suggestion

[Chris3 · Accepted solution]

Is the issue the initial regen time or regen time from part updates?

In addition to what @Van_AG suggested:

1. If you don't actually need the mesh to be changed, you could make it once and then collapse the geometry. This will make a feature similar to a step import that is no longer parametric and will not have dimensions but also will not add regen time. It can be modified with flexible modeling if really needed down the road (although in your case this may be painful)

2. Set the features to read only so that they don't regen (operations -> Read only)

3. Do the features actually need to be solid? This will regen in seconds if they are just surfaces.

[Shafin]

Thanks for the detailed suggestions, Chris.

[Tdaugherty]

We have some start parts for wire mesh but we use a sketch instead of 3D geometry. Regardless of the regen time in part mode, large assembly performance will suffer because your graphics card will struggle to draw all that geometry. As mesh is pretty easy to imagine, we decided to trade model LOD for regen and large assembly performance. Not sure if this matches your use case but wanted to chime in.

This is a simple extruded part that has a partial mesh representation in the bottom corner. The user can adjust the sketch to change from 1x1 to 2x2 mesh, for example. 

[Shafin]

Thank you, Tdaugherty. Using a sketch for the starting mesh is a good idea.

[tbraxton]

If you actually need this wire mesh fully modeled, then you should consider using surfaces to build the geometry that is patterned and solidify the model after the pattern geometry is regenerated. This technique will generally regenerate much faster than using solid in the patterns.

This video will provide some details on options to try.

Turbo_Pattern

[Shafin]

Thank you for the advice and the video link.