SOLIDWORKS 2017 Assembly Visualization Sort Assembly Components by Open Time

A new capability to sort SOLIDWORKS components in the assembly tree by the time it takes to open the component file has been added to SOLIDWORKS 2017.

The file size of a SOLIDWORKS part file may not be considered very important unless many of them are inserted in a large assembly. Among many files found in a large assembly, some have a larger file size due to their specific design. Having a good understanding of which components take longer to load allows us to have a closer look at specific files; in order to simplify or even remove it from the top-level assembly. This will help you to decrease the overall time for opening your large assembly file.

Assembly Visualization

With an assembly file open in SOLIDWORKS, you can select Assembly Visualization from the Evaluate tab or under Tools > Evaluate > Assembly Visualization. As shown in the following screenshot, the SW-Open Time column shows the time in seconds to load each component. Plus, a Value Bar can be turned on to provide a visual indication of the open time to make identifying parts with the longest open time even easier.

SOLIDWORKS Sort Assembly Components by Open Time

Sort Components Based on Ascending/Descending Open Time

Clicking on the SW-Open Time column column header will sort the components by ascending values; and clicking on the column header for a second time changes it to descending values. In the figure below the values start from 0.23 sec. down to 0.02 sec.

Sort based on descending open time

Add More Columns to Assembly Visualization

As shown in the following image, it is possible, in the Assembly Visualization, to add various columns such as Total Weight, Density, and Volume. This capability allows monitoring the feature tree components all in one place. Clicking on the “More” will open up Custom Column window which allows us select a number of other possibilities for columns.

Add More Columns

Custom Columns

SOLIDWORKS 2017 Resources

Access our resources page to get everything you need to learn what’s new in SOLIDWORKS 2017; including tech tips, demonstrations, and upcoming product webinars.

WHAT’S NEW RESOURCES