Welcome to the Onshape forum! Ask questions and join in the discussions about everything Onshape.
First time visiting? Here are some places to start:- Looking for a certain topic? Check out the categories filter or use Search (upper right).
- Need support? Ask a question to our Community Support category.
- Please submit support tickets for bugs but you can request improvements in the Product Feedback category.
- Be respectful, on topic and if you see a problem, Flag it.
If you would like to contact our Community Manager personally, feel free to send a private message or an email.
How to improve STEP Import performance? Is there a way to freeze features?
armandoRR
Member Posts: 18 PRO
I work with a lot of STEP files that are outputs from Altium and I'm looking to improve the large regen times.
The workflow is:
- Import STEP, wait for translation
- Delete Parts that I don't need
- Composite Part
- Add Mounting Holes
- Export DXF back to Altium
- Place STEP file in Assembly where used
As you can see, the main import is 9.78s. Every new feature add requires a rebuild, meaning that just adding a sketch is painful. The Part Studio is sluggish, rebuild time is not great, and otherwise not a fun time. I would love to be able to "Freeze" the Import feature as I really don't care about the linked functionality that comes with updating the imported STEP file. This is known as "Freeze Bar" in SOLIDWORKS (https://www.goengineer.com/blog/solidworks-feature-freeze)
I tried Deriving the part into another Part Studio, but that resulted in even worse performance of 21.89s regen.
Any advice on how to improve this performance?
Comments
Create a version and reference the version in the import
Have you tried IDF in/out of Altium and PCB Studio in Onshape? First import might take a while as it builds the component library in Onshape, but much quicker thereafter.
I'm unsure how to choose a version in the import. I tired referencing a version in the Derive and that somehow made the performance worse.
PCB Studio has been bug ridden since we switched over to Onshape. I tried again today and can't get passed the setup steps due to "internal error". I have opened a support ticket.
Odd that using a version for the derive doesn't help…
I guess the derive still has to create the bodies/faces in your new part studio but it shouldn't need to regen the "source" so it really shouldn't be any longer than the original import when using a version!