Beware of New System Option for External References in 2005

For those of you using SolidWorks 2005, especially those interested in
in-context modeling, here's a heads-up:

There's a new System Option under "External References". It reads "Do
not create references external to the model".

A co-worker of mine running 2005 SP0.1 (under Windows XP, SP2) was
tearing his hair out today while struggling with trying to perform what
should have been easy in-context operations within an assembly.

Little did he know that "Do not create references external to the
model" happened to be checked ON.

This was apparently caused by the installation of SolidWorks 2005 0.0
or by the application of SP0.1, since the system option does NOT exist
in 2004 (his prior version) and he wasn't even aware of the option
until stumbling upon it during troubleshooting today. (I didn't know of
it either until this afternoon.)

It's odd that this new setting seems be toggled ON or OFF
inconsistently, since I also have 2005 installed and found my option
"Do not create references external to the model" to be checked OFF (as
it should be by default).

SolidWorks Corp. needs to carefully consider the effects of the
software installer's routines upon users' pre-existing settings!

Many users have carefully tweaked their environments and shouldn't be
forced to lose certain setttings. Any new option(s) shouldn't be set
(by default) to the more restrictive mode(s)! On top of this, any
changed or new (default) settings should be consistent on all seats of
SolidWorks (at a given Service Pack level).

Per O. Hoel

 

That is a ball-buster, particularly for a new user such as myself. I too
got snagged by this one. I could not understand why a simple relationship
that I had been able to enter in prior sketches wasn't working any more. Of
course, as a new user the first thing you do is doubt that you are doing it
right! I easily burned an hour because of this, when I didn't have an hour
to burn.

They should have something flash on the status bar to let you know. Maybe
even have such important modes as indicators on the status bar. ACAD, for
example, has several buttons in the statusbar that allow you to both set and
see various settings.

-Martin

 

haven't seen it yet but thanks for the heads up!

...

 

Martin that is an excellent suggestion.

I would also appreciate it if SolidWorks had a more complete set of
possibilities when you click on "What's Wrong" (no matter where in the
program we need to answer that).

Offering the user a list of possibilities ought to be rather
straightforward.

 

A good reason to do an administrative install.

 

J,

Thanks for mentioning the related new Assembly command ICON; however,
on my system it was NOT included in the toolbar by default. I've
checked other installations of 2005 and the Assembly toolbar on each of
those seats doesn't carry the ICON either.

How did it end up in yours?

Per O. Hoel
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