Sustainability Task Pane - Task List

When you have an assembly open with components that do not have a material specified, the Sustainability Task pane opens with a Task List at the top to let you select components to specify a material or exclude the components from the sustainability calculation.

Not available with SustainabilityXpress.

To display the Task Pane, open an assembly and then do one of the following:

  • Click Sustainability (Tools toolbar or Evaluate CommandManager tab).
  • Click Tools > SOLIDWORKS Applications > Sustainability.

Message

Provides instructions about next steps:

  • When items remain on the Task List, the box is yellow to indicate that more components need a material assigned, or need to be excluded from the calculation.
  • When all issues are resolved, the box is green. Click View Results to calculate environmental impact.

Task List

List items Lists assembly components that are not assigned a material or that are assigned a material not supported by Sustainability. For each item on the list, select it and then assign a material or exclude it from the calculation.
Include Includes an excluded item in the calculation of environmental impact.
Exclude Excludes an item from the analysis. Sets the item's status to .
Set Material Assigns the current selected material to the active configuration of the model in the FeatureManager design tree. This material is then applied to all other aspects of the SOLIDWORKS software, such as mass property analysis, rendering, and so forth.

Status indicators for Task List items:

The component does not have an assigned material.
A material is assigned in Sustainability only but is not active in other areas of SOLIDWORKS. Click Set Material to assign the material in SOLIDWORKS.
A material is assigned in Sustainability and is available in SOLIDWORKS.
The component is assigned a material that is not supported in Sustainability.
This component is excluded from the calculation.

Material

To choose a material, select an item in the Task List.

The materials that are available include Sustainability data. You can add a custom material to this list by linking it to a material with similar characteristics in the default SOLIDWORKS Materials database.

See Adding Sustainability Data to a Custom Material.

Class Sets the major class of material, for example, Steel or Plastics.
Name Sets the specific material.
Recycled content Percentage of material that has been recycled.

If the sustainability database contains primary (virgin), secondary (recycled), and trade mix (default mix of virgin and recycled content) values, the percentage of recycled content is shown. If these values are not available, the recycled content is 0%.
Weight Displays the component's weight using the selected material.

Manufacturing

Region
Sets the region of manufacture, for example, Asia.

Use the Region list or click the map to set the region.
Available regions are North America, Europe, Asia, Japan, South America, Australia, and India. Data is not available for all regions. Regions that contain data are highlighted when you hover over them.
Built to last Length of time the part will last.

The numeric field and increments are editable.
Process Sets a manufacturing process. Availability depends on the selected material class.

The process you select populates the following fields with default energy usage values:

  • Electricity
  • Natural gas
  • Scrap rate (amount of the material discarded as scrap)

You can edit these fields to change usage amounts if you have more precise values for your manufacturing process. To return to defaults, reselect the process.

The totals below each field are based on the specified process and the weight of the material.
Paint Options Lets you choose whether to calculate the environmental impact for a part that has:
  • No Paint
  • Water-based Paint
  • Solvent-based Paint

The surface area of the part is used to determine the amount of paint and the environmental impact of painting the part.

Use

Region Sets the region where the product is transported to and used, for example, Asia.

Select a region from the list or click a region in the map to set the region.

Transportation

Shows the default mode of transportation and distance traveled from the Manufacturing region to the Use region.

Train Boat
Truck Plane

To edit these values, click a transportation mode's button and type in the field that is enabled. When you add values for a transportation mode or modify the default mode, the field turns yellow and a Reset to Defaults button appears to let you discard your changes.

End of Life

Shows default percentages for end of life disposal of the part. Default values are based on the part's material in the sustainability database.
Recycled
Incinerated
Landfill

The total of the values always equals 100%. If you change the recycled or incinerated value, the landfill value updates. If you change the landfill value, the recycled value changes.

When you edit a value, the field turns yellow and a Reset to Defaults button appears to let you discard your changes.