Page 366 - Mastering SolidWorks

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340 CHAPTER 11 Working With Part Configurations

Figure 11.3
selecting a configuration
from the open
dialog box

Creating Configurations
You can create configs manually using the Modify dialog box, using the Configure Feature/
Modify Configurations table (shown in Figure 11.4), or through Excel-driven design tables.
Design tables are extremely useful for situations where more than a few configs or more than a
few items are being controlled, and as always, the more people who will be working with the
data, the more tightly you need to control it. It would be a safe best practice to say that any time
you use configurations, and the items being controlled can be handled by a design table, you
should use the design table.

Figure 11.4
selecting a configuration
from the Modify
dialog box

For now, I’m going to focus on creating and manipulating configs manually so you can
become familiar with them without also worrying about Excel and design-table syntax. I will talk
about design tables near the end of this chapter.