Folder Follies

I have been working on a project now for 3 days using SW2004 SP0.0.

The single part that I'm modeling is fairly complex and I'm currently about
1/3 complete.

As the amount of features continues to rise (~500 as of now) I have to use
the "folder" option in the feature manager.



Some questions/ comments:

Is there a limit on how many features can live within a folder?

What is the normal behavior of a folder?

After working for a while the folders will not stay closed (after a
rebuild).

Wouldn't it be useful to have a "Collapse Items" option on a single folder?

Sometimes dragging a feature into a folder shows an arrow with a circle
slashed out.

Sometimes SolidWorks will not allow me to drag a feature into a folder, even
though I'm NOT attempting to reorder it with it's parent feature.







Any thoughts?



Thanks

 

I'll take "Not staying open" for 10, please. Answer: Because it's not fixed
yet. Question: Why won't my folders stay closed?

This has been a problem since they were introduced. I worked on that one
quite a bit and never did find any pattern to describe the way they
deteriorate. Work just fine for a while, and then all of a sudden, won't
stay closed. Not even all of them, though - just some - some of the time.
It seems that once they won't stay closed the first time, they never will
again. Quite frustrating.

The other issue, that WAS fixed in 2004, was the ability to "see" a part in
a folder. In an assy, if you RMB on a part and choose "Go to in feature
tree" it would not do it if the part was inside a folder. At least that
worked the last time I tried it.

WT

 

Same sporadic behavior here. I love the concept of folders but what you see
is the way it is, for now.

- Eddy

 

API sometimes gives you an idea of how SW is engineered...
If you go through all features with the API, you will see that Folders are
delimited by 2 "Feature" objects with type = FtrFolder.

The funny things are:
1) all features are at the main level, meaning that features in the folder
aren't subfeatures of the folder...
2) the closing FtrFolder doesn't have a name that matches the opening one

The funny consequences:
1) you can't nest folders
2) you can't copy/paste folders, even made of copy/pastable features
3) folders require a bunch of specific (error-prone) code

Design... My God ;-)

 

Maybe SolidWorks Corp should hire you Philippe. Oh, wait, that would
mean you'd be working for people not as competent as you are. Never
mind!!

 

Everyone is good as something. They're good at selling.
Now I don't have enough money left to hire them ;-)