I tried to get SolidWorks to take over this type of parts library from 1997 to 1999, but they have chosen the Tool Box way. Changing components without loosing mates is essential to saving development costs. The setting up was time consuming and more expensive initially, but can save days when doing the next size of a large assembly where a few hundred components have to be changed. We even have standard mating geometry named so parts can be mated by picking from the feature manager. Any hydraulic cartridge valve is interchangeable with out loosing mates as are most components. Any lock ring is interchangeable with out loosing mates. Any brass fitting, or hydraulic fitting is interchangeable with out loosing mates. Any nut is interchangeable with out loosing mates. Any ball bearing is interchangeable with out loosing mates. Any bolt or cap screw is interchangeable with out loosing mates. The parts library we developed has all families of parts based off one original model. We gave up on Tool Box long ago for some of the same reasons and more. I'm looking to you for the right direction. I know whatever I do, it's going to take alot of time setting up standard hardware. So if changes to this, everyone will see the new parts, right? I made a copy of the "ANSI inch" area of toolbox and started renaming the configurations and descriptions.Īlso.what do think about the BOM tables in SW2004? Do I use the new SW BOM or keep using the Excel based table? Our SW Toolbox is now located on our server and everyone is mapped to that drive. We are currently having some issues with our PDMWorks not resolving part paths to the toolbox and takes alot of time fixing the assemblies. We use many NAS, MIL, AN fastners and would like to standize this for the end users when building an assembly/drawing BOM's and also not having conflicts with PDMWorks when chenking in & out parts and assemblies.ġ) Do I use the SW Toolbox and edit all the part no.s and descriptions?Ģ) Do I setup separtate part files and add configurations?ģ) Do I use the SW Library feature for this? I'm wondering what is the best way to set up standard parts/hardware for our company. By disabling the automatic update, you can improve performance by making it quicker to edit mates, add mates, and manipulate components.I would like everyone's opinion on the question I'm about to ask, so here we go.
SOLIDWORKS TOOLBOX COMPONENT NEW PART UPDATE
You can temporarily disable the automatic update of mates between a Toolbox component and a non-Toolbox component by clearing Automatic Update for Toolbox Mates. Disabling Automatic Mate Updates in Toolbox.You can update all Toolbox components in a single action. Updating Toolbox Components in Assemblies.This occurs even if you created the assembly from a separate Toolbox installation, for example, from outside your company. When you open an assembly, SOLIDWORKS ® automatically finds references to Toolbox components in your Toolbox folder. Opening Models with Referenced Toolbox Components.Use the Toolbox part PropertyManager to set part properties, such as sizes. You assign a part number and a description for each set of saved property settings. You can save part number property settings so you can easily select the same part size later. You can configure a standard, category, or type, or single component from the Toolbox Configuration tool or the Configure Component PropertyManager in SOLIDWORKS. Some Toolbox components can adapt to the size of the geometry to which they are dragged. The Toolbox Favorites folder is a local folder where you can store shortcuts to frequently used Toolbox components. You can add parts to existing Toolbox folders, or create new folders.