Enhancement Request: Display of Configurations Used in Assemblies and Drawings

Hello-

I would like the ability to Display and Report which Configurations of
Assemblies and Parts are used in Drawings and Assemblies.

For example: An Assembly has 19 Configurations. It's Drawing has 4 sheets;
the 4 sheets each have 4 views for a total of 16 views. I will like to
Display and Report the Assembly file Name and Configuration Used for each of
the 16 Drawing Views.

If anyone else would like this function, please submit an Enhancement
Request like this one.

Best Regards,
Devon T. Sowell
3-D Design Solutions, Carlsbad, CA
760 809-9046
fax 760 434-0917

http://www.3-ddesignsolutions.com/
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/devonsowell/

 

Devon,

This could be a macro could it not? In the API help there is an example
that will traverse drawing views. But here is the kicker. It seems
drawings remember the past that created the views and not always the
current paths and names.

 

Devon,

If you use config-specific custom properties, you can have a different
"Description" or "PartNo" property for each config. This can be displayed
as note in each view (or in one view on each sheet).

Would that give you what you need?

Regards,
John H

 

Hello John-

Yes, that is a good suggestion for new Drawings. It's the hundreds of old
existing drawings that I'm concerned about.

Devon

 

John-

Your suggestion just helped me think of this;

I can modify the existing drawing sheet format to include the annotation
linked to the configuration specific information. However, because these
hundreds of drawings have many different non-standard views, and many
sheets, this still won't give me what I need, on a global basis, such as
"reloading" the sheet format with the new notes. Some assembly drawings use
different configurations for different views on the same sheet.

Devon
www.3-ddesignsolutions.com

 

Wonder if the api can actually pull this level of detail without
opening the file. I remember not too long ago when you couldn't get the
configuration properties without opening the file.

Configuration support has been lacking lately. It's one of Solidworks
strongest features yet isn't getting the attention it deserves. So
powerful yet so many holes left in it.

 

Devon,

Most of what you need is in the examples in API help and perhaps on the
SW website.

 

I actually have this as an internal standard. Then when I bring in a
part from the library and I desplay the "description" field in the BOM,
they are always automatically filled in and correct. Otherwise, many
of the parts that are down loaded etc. can have all kinds of strange
descriptions.

It would be really nice if a pseudo standard could be developed around
library parts. There are about three other ideas that would be very
helpful... but that is another topic.

Ed