SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 17: Using Hole Wizard and Toolbox

FIGURE 17.20

Organizing Toolbox parts into folders

The simplest setup that works

If you are a single user who does not share files over a network with other users, then installing

SolidWorks and Toolbox with the default settings should work for you. This appears to be the

arrangement that the developers had in mind when they programmed the tool, because it is the

only scenario in which it works as expected.

Be careful if you ever receive an assembly from another Toolbox user, because this is the one situa-

tion that can cause immediate trouble. If the user also sends his Toolbox parts, then I recommend

that you open all his Toolbox parts before you open his assembly so that the assembly is certain to

access his Toolbox parts instead of yours.

If you need to include materials and mass-populate custom properties, then I recommend that you

go through the exercise of building all the configurations of all the parts, and then use an auto-

created design table to drive the properties. If you have more than one user, then this technique

will not work for you, unless both users work independently from one another.

A complete setup that works

If you have multiple users that share assemblies, then you need to also share the Toolbox library. If

you share assemblies only among yourselves, meaning only with other users who are also sharing