Editing Assemblies in Large Design Review

You can use Edit Assembly to edit assemblies in Large Design Review mode. Additional features and tools are available when you edit an assembly in Large Design Review mode.

To use this functionality, open the assembly and component files individually and then save in SOLIDWORKS 2020 and later. Click File > Save All to save all the open files at the same time.

In the FeatureManager design tree, you can view the following features for top-level assemblies and components:

Features Top-level Assemblies Components
Standard planes
Origin
Mates folder  
Mates in assembly folders
Reference geometry, read-only Loads only some child components. See Reference Geometry below for more information.
Sketches, read-only  
Component Patterns, read-only  
Reference planes  
Axes - not temporary axes  
Reference points  
Coordinate systems  
On the Large Design Review tab of CommandManager, these tools are available:
  • Insert Components
  • Mate
  • Linear Component Pattern
  • Circular Component Patter
You cannot edit an assembly in Large Design Review mode if the top-level assembly contains a flexible subassembly or one of these features:
Belt/Chain Chamfer Circular Pattern (feature)
Extruded Cut Fillet Hole Series
Hole Wizard Linear Pattern (feature) Mirror (feature)
Revolved Cut Simple Hole Sketch Driven Pattern (feature)
Swept Cut   Weld Bead

Reference Geometry

When you edit an assembly in Large Design Review mode, reference geometry loads only for one:
  • The top-level assembly and the immediate child components.
  • Mates in lower-level child components where a top-level assembly mate references the reference geometry in the child component.

To load reference geometry for lower-level child components, right-click the component and click Load Reference Geometry. After you load the reference geometry, Load Reference Geometry is no longer available for the component.

For example, you mate the right plane for a child component in a subassembly to the right plane in the top-level assembly. For the child component, only the reference geometry for the right plane loads the next time you open the assembly for editing in Large Design Review mode.

Table Driven PatternFor lower-level child components mated to the origin in the top-level assembly, reference geometry loads for the origin and the front plane.