SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 12: Building Efficient Assemblies

FIGURE 12.13

Component name options

However, you can assign a component name for a component that is different from the filename

only if a special setting is turned off. (The setting defaults to on.) You can access this setting by

choosing Tools ➪ Options ➪ External References ➪ Update Component Names When Documents

Are Replaced. What the name of the setting has to do with showing a component name in the

FeatureManager is not exactly clear, but these are the steps that you have to go through if you want

to change how the part and subassembly names display in the assembly FeatureManager.

After going through the preceding steps, you still receive the warning message about the filename

and the component name. This is apparently an “unintended feature,” or bug, and should likely

say that you cannot turn off both the component name and the component description at the same

time.

There may be a situation where you want to show a name other than the filename in the

FeatureManager. For example, your company may be using sequential part numbers for the

filenames that are difficult to read, and you want something descriptive in the design tree so that

you do not need a cross-reference sheet next to your computer that equates filenames to

meaningful descriptions.

If you prefer, you can avoid a lot of problems by just using the part description instead of the

filename or the component name. The choice is up to you.

One of the problems with using the component description is shown in Figure 12.14, where the

user did not enter proper descriptions for the parts, and SolidWorks used the default description

in the templates. The tire and spokes use configurations, which display in the figure.