CAD Forum

Hello all,

I have received a model of a new "energy-saving" motor from a supplier.
The energy that the motor saves in operation is consumed several times during the design in CAD, because the model is so detailed that it turns up the computer to maximum power at the latest during assembly.
Unfortunately, the supplier cannot provide me with a simplified model.
What do you do with such a killer model?

Making a speedpack out of the assembly is unfortunately out of the question because of the missing geometry when exporting in step format.

I also tried to delete at least the fillets via Surfaces; Delete surface, I succeeded with some of them, but unfortunately not with the majority of the fillets.
My last desperate attempt was to run feature detection hoping to find a way to delete the fillets, but apart from locking up my computer for half of lunch and running up the electricity bill, the attempt did nothing.

What other way is there to simplify this model?

Would defeature work for you?

Get some general dimensions and model a block that fits the size. If that is all you need is an envelope of the model, just model that. But keep the supplier's model on hand so that you can do a final check before release.

Here is a very rough attempt at how I would solve it. I didn't do the whole thing, and without knowing what is critical, I may have buried features you need.

Is this small enough?

Just as a general suggestion to people posting models as answers, it would be helpful if you changed the name of the part so that we can have both the original and the answer up at the same time. I usually just put my name at the end. This doesn't work as well with assemblies unless you use pack and go on it and add a suffix.

The download probably takes care of this because you get a Motor.sldprt and Motor(1).sldprt, but still, it's helpful to have a reminder of who did what.

Just a suggestion.

Building off of what others have posted, here's what I'd do. First try Defeature. In this case I couldn't get it to work. Then try Featureworks, to see if you can get it to recognize the fillets/chamfers and holes, and maybe some extrusions. In some cases, you can use Delete Face to get rid of a selectable number of faces (this depends mostly on your patience). You can also use Delete Face to get rid of holes, extrusions, and just about anything. If you really don't need a solid model, you can also use Knit or Offset Surface to get a skin or outer boundary of the part. And as @kawuser did, you could also extrude a block over the part.

If you add features to the imported model, make sure to use the Freeze bar (or export/import or insert body into another part) to kill the history.

If those don't work, or if they take too long, I'd get a general spec of the item and just remodel the parts that you need - overall size, simplified shape, mounting points, and any important connections. Library stuff should be reference and make things simple, not complicate stuff.

Hansjoerg wrote: ↑Thu Aug 05, 2021 9:36 am Hello all,

I have received a model of a new "energy-saving" motor from a supplier.
The energy that the motor saves in operation is consumed several times during the design in CAD, because the model is so detailed that it turns up the computer to maximum power at the latest during assembly.
Unfortunately, the supplier cannot provide me with a simplified model.
What do you do with such a killer model?

Making a speedpack out of the assembly is unfortunately out of the question because of the missing geometry when exporting in step format.

I also tried to delete at least the fillets via Surfaces; Delete surface, I succeeded with some of them, but unfortunately not with the majority of the fillets.
My last desperate attempt was to run feature detection hoping to find a way to delete the fillets, but apart from locking up my computer for half of lunch and running up the electricity bill, the attempt did nothing.

What other way is there to simplify this model?

There's a bragillion different things I've done to make an imported part into something less monstrous.

1) Solidworks offers Simplify and Defeature as tools for this.
2) If this is an assembly delete all the little bits and pieces that don't offer you much.
3) Extrude big chunks thru any internal cavities that aren't needed to make it solid.
4) Nuke any appearances unless you want/Need them
5) If it's an Assy, save it as a part, combine, do whatever you can to make it on contiguous chunk. Export that part as a STEP or whatever. Import that back in. Rinse and repeat step three. I have no idea why but I have had parts shrink 2-3 times just by repeated exporting and importing.
6) Rerun Simplify/Defeature on the imported part.

In short just keep doing these things until you get it manageable. I will often save these as different versions between steps just in case I nuke something I wanted and didn't notice it for a couple steps later.

MJuric wrote: ↑Thu Aug 05, 2021 11:24 am There's a bragillion different things I've done to make an imported part into something less monstrous.

1) Solidworks offers Simplify and Defeature as tools for this.
2) If this is an assembly delete all the little bits and pieces that don't offer you much.
3) Extrude big chunks thru any internal cavities that aren't needed to make it solid.
4) Nuke any appearances unless you want/Need them
5) If it's an Assy, save it as a part, combine, do whatever you can to make it on contiguous chunk. Export that part as a STEP or whatever. Import that back in. Rinse and repeat step three. I have no idea why but I have had parts shrink 2-3 times just by repeated exporting and importing.
6) Rerun Simplify/Defeature on the imported part.

In short just keep doing these things until you get it manageable. I will often save these as different versions between steps just in case I nuke something I wanted and didn't notice it for a couple steps later.

I cannot emphasize 4) enough. Here is a video from @Alin Vargatu showing the impact of face appearances. I think many people underestimate the impact.

@MJuric , great list

berg_lauritz wrote: ↑Thu Aug 05, 2021 12:03 pm I cannot emphasize 4) enough. Here is a video from @Alin Vargatu showing the impact of face appearances. I think many people underestimate the impact.

@MJuric , great list

I agree. I've downloaded models that were essentially "Presentation level" models. Appearances, Colors every little detail for appearances. Simply nuking them all with the single "Remove all appearances" has almost always made a very noticeable difference.

Take that full blown appearance part and drop it in a large assembly a dozen times and it can bring the assembly to it's knees.

This is a very interesting topic. The funny thing is that I am writing right now Part 5 of the Import Geometry Optimization series which addresses the Multibody part optimization. It should be published next week on Engineersrule.com.

Until then, feel free to read the Part 4, which covers assembly optimization (for models originated from STEP, IGES and other non-SOLIDWORKS files):

https://www.engineersrule.com/the-ultim ... ssemblies/

The latest article in The Ultimate STEP… series has been published:

https://www.engineersrule.com/the-ultim ... ody-parts/