Suppose you have had difficulty improving your assembly model performance and embedding a large assembly into another assembly. In that case, you should try out SolidWorks Speedpak to solve any dilemma during the embedding process. SpeedPak is a more detailed graphical representation of SolidWorks assembling. When working with big congregations, you may improve speed by using the Solidworks gathering file, which contains all the information connected to SpeedPak. The ideal tool for simplifying sub-assembly components is SolidWorks SpeedPak, which does this by swapping out complex geometry for a graphical representation of the exterior faces. Creating SpeedPak configurations is an excellent approach to improving performance while working with assemblies (or drawings of assemblies). A single SpeedPak can be assigned to each Solidworks gathering arrangement. The graphical representations of assemblies and subassemblies known as SpeedPak configurations only provide the data necessary to make selections (such as mates) and take measurements. Continue reading this article to learn how to use SolidWorks Speedpak. 

SpeedPak

With no references lost, SpeedPak streamlines the setup of an assembly. When working with the assembly and its design, adopting a SpeedPak configuration can greatly enhance performance if you deal with very big and complicated assemblies. Large and complex assemblies are where performance improvements in assemblies are most obvious. An assembly’s parts, faces, reference geometry, drawings, and curves are all included in a SpeedPak configuration. SpeedPak simplifies without suppressing, unlike standard setups where you can only reduce an assembly by removing components. 

Once you’ve learned how to utilize SolidWorks Speedpak, you may replace the whole assembly with a SpeedPak configuration to prevent losing references in higher-level assemblies. You can improve the performance of various processes since less memory is utilized since just a portion of the components, faces, reference geometry, drawings, and curves are used.

Even when you rebuild the assembly, modifications you make to an assembly—such as adding, removing, or shifting components—are not immediately reflected in the SpeedPak configuration. The improvements need to be manually incorporated by updating the SpeedPak settings.

When to Use SpeedPak

If you want to see the complete SpeedPak assembly but only need to mate and dimension a few spots, use SpeedPak to insert the huge, complicated assembly into a higher-level assembly.

You can enable file sharing using SpeedPak as well. The assembly file contains all of the SpeedPak data storage. As a result, when sharing an assembly, you may transmit the assembly file, and complementary files are not required. As an illustration, let’s say you create an engine component and need to share it with your client’s design team so they can include it in their car concept.

1. With all the faces, bodies, reference geometry, drawings, and curves your customer intends to use as references in their car model, you generate a SpeedPak configuration of the engine assembly.
2. The engine assembly file is all you send them. For any of the engine’s component pieces, you don’t need to supply any files.
3. They merge the assembly file for your machine with the file for their car. Each item you listed in the SpeedPak specification can have additional mates and dimensions added.

SpeedPak in Drawings

Only the edges contained in the SpeedPak, are shown in black when dimensioning SpeedPak variants in drawings, and gray is seen on boundaries that are not part of the SpeedPak. All of the lines in the design print in black when you print it unless you choose Color/Grayscale in the Page Setup dialog box.

SpeedPak designs do not enable exporting to DXF or DWG files.

When you produce a bill of materials in a design document for an assembly whose active configuration is a SpeedPak configuration, you can include columns for additional configurations in addition to the SpeedPak configuration.

You can only include the active SpeedPak configuration in the bill of materials (BOM) you prepare for an assembly in an assembly document whose active configuration is a SpeedPak configuration.

All of the elements in a SpeedPak assembly can have balloons added to them using the Balloon (Annotations toolbar) command. However, the Auto Balloon command is not supported.

Managing SolidWorks Design with SpeedPak

An assembly from SolidWorks is graphically represented simply in SpeedPak. The SOLIDWORKS assembly file contains all the information related to SpeedPak, which is utilized to speed up operations while handling large assemblies. One SpeedPak is the maximum allowed for any SOLIDWORKS assembly setup.

Creating a SpeedPak

You can follow these procedures to add a SpeedPak configuration to an existing setup:

1. Make a standard SOLIDWORKS assembly and include configurations. Config1, Config2, and Config3, for instance.
2. Click “Add SpeedPak” from the context menu when you right-click an active configuration.
3. Choose a few surfaces, bodies, or reference entities if you want to.
4. Click the OK button. As a derivative configuration under the chosen design, SpeedPak for the assembly is now prepared.

You can also make a SpeedPak configuration from a parent assembly:

1. Choose a sub-assembly or sub-assemblies inside an assembly. You will lose the dependency if you try to change the default configuration after selecting it to build a SpeedPak.
2. Use the right mouse button to select “SpeedPak Options.”
3. Decide on one of these – Create Graphics SpeedPak and Mated SpeedPak. Windchill SpeedPak Management.

As a standalone CAD document or family table instance, Windchill does not enable maintaining SpeedPak setups. With a SpeedPak-derived design and SpeedPak sub-assembly, Windchill does, however, let you manage assembly. You can read the Best Practices and Limitations section while handling assembly using SpeedPak or SpeedPak sub-assemblies.

The parent configuration of a non-managed SpeedPak configuration is shown in the PTC Windchill Status pane and the assembly structure when it is utilized as a component in an assembly.

Tips for Using SolidWorks Speedpak and Its Limitations

Best Practices 

• SolidWorks SpeedPak does not require the creation of a CAD document. For SpeedPak, for instance, set PTC IS INSTANCE to No.
• To prevent preserving SpeedPak as a distinct family table instance, set the option to exclude.derived.configuration.management to SpeedPak.
• In SolidWorks, under file, select Open, and choose the Use SpeedPak option to retrieve an assembly using the SpeedPak. Even though the previously stored configuration was a parent rather than a SpeedPak, it opens the top assembly with the SpeedPak of sub-assemblies.
• Managed non-default setup is required for SpeedPak use.
• Whenever the settings change, update the outdated SpeedPaks. When editing an assembly with a SpeedPak configuration managed by Windchill, set the option to exclude.derived.configuration.management in the wgmclient.ini File to None to keep the SpeedPak configuration.

Limitations

• SpeedPak is not visible and is shown empty when accessing an assembly with a SpeedPak setup in Creo View.
• All dependencies are downloaded automatically to the workspace when a SpeedPak-configured assembly is retrieved from Windchill.
• The import of the sub-assembly may fail when transferring assemblies that contain SpeedPak as an assembly component.

How to Exclude a SpeedPak Derived Configuration Management

1. When adding a SpeedPak to a format, the attributes of the parent configuration and the PTC IS INSTANCE property and its value are repeated when the Windchill side option Manage new model instances by default is set to true. Yes, you may unintentionally save an example of SpeedPak as a family table.
2. The exclude.derived.configuration.management setting in the wgmclient.ini. The file determines which SolidWorks-derived formats are excluded from Windchill management.
3. If you choose SpeedPak as the exclusion for derived configuration management, no family table instance is produced for SpeedPak. Even if PTC IS INSTANCE is set to Yes in the figure below, Windchill is not managing the SpeedPak setup.

Conclusion

It is easier to work with large assemblies and improves performance thanks to SolidWorks SpeedPak, a useful SolidWorks feature. You can reduce your CPU and graphics card stress while maintaining functionality, and SpeedPak configurations are a good choice. In turn, this accelerates and smooths out the operation of the assembly. I hope this was helpful.