Page 364 - Mastering SolidWorks

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338 CHAPTER 11 Working With Part Configurations

component configurations could not be found [component configuration name]. If the configura-
tion was renamed the same configuration will be used, otherwise the last active configuration
will be substituted for each instance.”
You can delete groups of configs using Windows select tools (Shift+select or Ctrl+select) in the
ConfigurationManager. You can also use the right mouse button (RMB) menu, much like regular
features in the FeatureManager. None of the configurations selected for deletion may be active or
referenced by other open and resolved documents.

Sorting Configs
In the ConfigurationManager, configs can be listed in one of five ways:
Numeric: Sorts in ascending numeric order
Literal: Sorts ascending alphabetical order
Manual: Allows you to determine the order by drag-and-drop

History-based: Sorts by creation date
Design Table: Sorts by the order in which they are found in the design table
To control which sorting option is used, right-click on the name of the part in the
ConfigurationManager tab and select Tree Order.

TIP if you work in excel and drive the configurations with a table, all of excel’s sorting options will be
available to you.

Enhancing Alphabetization
This alphabetized order is significant because many other sections of the SolidWorks interface are
not alphabetized, which causes problems when you are browsing for items in larger lists.
Sections that are not alphabetized include Help/Contents, Files Of Type lists in Open and Save
dialog boxes, the File Locations settings (Tools ➢ Options ➢ File Locations), Entity Color lists, and
several others. If you are inclined to submit an Enhancement Request to SolidWorks, alphabetiza-
tion of lists is one topic that would benefit everyone and should be easy for SolidWorks to
implement.

Naming Configs

In order for this sorting and alphabetizing to work, you must first properly name the configs.
For example, if you have a list of sizes or config names from 1 to 100, then you should use 001,
002 . . . 100 as your syntax. This makes it easier to browse the config names. Syntax becomes
most important when you place a part with many configs into an assembly, because you must
select a config from the list, and typing the first few numbers is often faster and easier than
scrolling to it.
To understand this technique better, you can open the part called Chapter 11 Config
Names.sldprt from the download files, split the FeatureManager area, and change one of
the panes to display the ConfigurationManager. Click one of the configuration names and
type a number between 001 and 100. The highlight will scroll to the number that you typed.