Part III: Working with Assemblies
Other special operations for assembly configurations in the Open dialog box include creating a
new configuration that has all the components suppressed. This enables you to see the structure of
the assembly without fully resolving all the components. Another option is to open the assembly
with a new configuration, where all the components are resolved. Beyond that, the Open dialog
box also enables you to select a specific configuration to open to so that you do not have to wait
for the last saved config to load and then make the change.Advanced Component Selection
The Advanced Component Selection dialog box was formerly called Advanced Show/Hide
Components. It is shown in Figure 14.5. You can access this dialog box by right-clicking the con-
figuration name in the ConfigurationManager and selecting Advance Select.FIGURE 14.5The Advanced Component Selection dialog box
This tool enables you to establish search criteria and show or hide parts based on the criteria.
Multiple criteria can be used, stored, and retrieved. This tool is generally underused, and in my
experience, users are always surprised to find it in the software. It has been there since about
1998, having undergone a face lift in the last two releases. The Category 1 options enable you to
search on things like document name, in-context status, part mass, and several other standard
SolidWorks info. Category 2 can be either custom property info or structured options for
Category 1 such as specific in-context conditions.