Loading big assemblies into one project: limitations

The list below provides an approximate value of allowable geometry complexity:
  • The total size of all source files (the assembly and all dependent files) should not exceed 200 MB
  • The assembly should contain no more than 100 000 parts
  • The assembly should contain no more than 2000 unique parts (different part numbers)
  • The number of triangles in the assembly should not exceed 3 000 000 and
  • The number of triangles per part should not exceed 200 000

The parameters of the 3D models, specified above, are approximate. Much more complex models can be loaded into RapidAuthor, but acceptable authoring performance cannot be guaranteed for such projects performance almost entirely depends on the hardware.

The aforementioned parameters are based on the following minimum hardware requirements:
  • PC with 2.5 GHz or higher processor clock speed; Intel or AMD family, or compatible processor
  • Random Access Memory (RAM): 4 GB
  • Graphics card: 3D Accelerator DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card with at least 1 GB of video RAM
Below are hardware requirements for viewing RapidAuthor HTML5 plugin-less publications (also based on the aforementioned parameters):
  • PC with 2.0 GHz or higher processor clock speed; Intel or AMD family, or compatible processor
  • Random Access Memory (RAM): 1 GB
  • Graphics card: 3D Accelerator Direct3D compatible graphics card with 128MB video RAM

We suggest creating separate RapidAuthor projects for different parts of assemblies. One RapidAuthor project should represent one operation in your manual (e.g. bulkhead replacement, which references smaller operations to other RapidAuthor projects) or one simple part catalog section (e.g. left wing aileron hydraulics system).

Please refer to this article for our best practices for working with large assemblies