Selecting Configuration When Opening [VIDEO]

Configurations are a great way to control your models in SolidWorks.  But when you have an especially large assembly that takes a lot of time and system resources to load, it can be frustrating if, once the model finishes loading, the active configuration isn’t the one you wanted to work on.  Then you will have to wait again as the configuration you want is rebuilt.

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to just load the configuration you want, right away, when opening the file?

Well you can.

Pre-selecting which configuration to load before opening a file is done through the Open dialogue.  This can be done for both Part and Assembly files.  In the drop down list for “Configurations:” you can select from any of the configurations available and have that be the one that gets loaded when the file opens.

This can also be a useful tool for troubleshooting issues with assemblies.  Sometimes components of assemblies can become corrupted preventing the assembly from opening in SolidWorks.  In the “Configurations:” drop list there is an option for “<Advanced>”.

Selecting this option then clicking “Open” will launch the “Configure Document” dialogue box.  One of the options in the dialogue is “New configuration showing assembly structure only”.

This option will create a new configuration with all components suppressed.  Loading these components one at a time can help to identify which components may be corrupted or experiencing issues.

Watch this video for a demonstration of this functionality: