Using Tree Display to De-clutter the SOLIDWORKS Feature Manager

One pet peeve that I have with the SOLIDWORKS Feature Manager, is the need to scroll back in order to see long component names inside an assembly.

Long names – scroll required

The culprits behind this are Display and Configuration names of a component. I could expand the Feature Manager in order to display all of the components information, but this takes up too much screen real estate.

Wide Feature Manager

What I prefer to do, is set the Feature Manager Tree Display, to not show Display and Configuration names.

Names Hidden

I do not always need to see the Display and Configuration names and I can easily display these later if I wish. To remove the Display and Configuration names from the Feature Manager, right-click the Assembly in the Feature Manager > Pick Tree Display > and just Show the Component Names, and uncheck the other options as shown in the figure below:

Edit Tree Display

To retain these settings I then save my blank assembly as an assembly template.

Assembly Template