Simplified Representations of Assemblies

When you want to work on a small subset of components in a large assembly, you can improve assembly performance by opening a simplified representation of the assembly. You specify which components to load; other components are not loaded and not visible, but the effects of their mates are retained.

You can specify to fully load the specified components, or to load them as lightweight.

You can specify components to load by selecting:
  • Individual components.
  • A display state where you previously defined the show/hide state of the components.
To take advantage of the Selective Open functionality (in which hidden components are not loaded), files must be in the current version of SOLIDWORKS.

To open a simplified representation of an assembly:

  1. Click Open (Standard toolbar) or File > Open.
  2. In the Open dialog box:
    1. Browse to the assembly you want to open.
    2. Under Mode, select Large Design Review.
    3. Click Open.
      The assembly opens in Large Design Review mode.
  3. On the CommandManager, click Selective Open or Selective Open in Lightweight .

    Selective Open in Lightweight is available when Manually manage resolved and lightweight modes is selected in system options. To select this option, click Tools > Options > System Options > Performance.

    The following appear:
    • The Selective Open dialog box.
    • A preview of the assembly.
    • A simplified FeatureManager design tree showing only components.
      In the FeatureManager design tree:
      • indicates a subassembly that was last saved in a SpeedPak configuration.
      • indicates a subassembly that has a SpeedPak configuration available, although the subassembly was last saved in another configuration.
  4. Make selections in the dialog box and click Open Selected or Open.
    When the assembly opens:
    • The components you have specified are loaded.
    • All other components are not loaded and not visible, but the effects of their mates are retained.
    • A new display state appears in the ConfigurationManager tab.
    Because hidden components are not loaded into memory, you might notice a delay when you first show a hidden component, because the software must load it then.