SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 10: Working with Part Configurations

FIGURE 10.27

The Add Rows and Columns dialog box

Caution
When working on design tables, it is a good idea to avoid conflicts with other sessions of Excel by closing any
other Excel windows. The combination of operating Excel spreadsheets inside both SolidWorks and Excel has
been known to cause crashes, or the “Server Busy” warning message. If you are diligent about having only one
session of Excel active at a time when you are working on design tables (or Excel BOMs), there is less likeli-
hood of a crash or conflict. n

Using the Configuration Publisher

The Configuration Publisher is the tool formerly known as Create PropertyManager. The

Configuration Publisher enables you to create an interface that creates configurations on the fly

based on rules that you establish. The interface that you create appears when you put the part into

an assembly, enabling you to create a custom size and a new configuration to go with it. This is

similar to putting a Toolbox part into an assembly, and getting a special interface to specify sizes

and create new configurations if necessary. In order to create a Configuration Publisher for a part,

the part must contain a Design Table with at least a single row. You can use an auto-created Design

Table if you need to.

You access the Configuration Publisher by right-clicking the name of the part at the top line of the

ConfigurationManager, and selecting Configuration Publisher from the menu.