Even though SolidWorks did not focus on new functionality for their SolidWorks 2010 release they did add some nice new functionality. One of these things I will cover today.
A new feature in SolidWorks 2010 is the Assembly Visualization tool. This new tool allows you to quickly display & sort the assembly components in a list and in the graphics area. You can find this tool on the Evaluate tab in your CommandManager as shown in the picture below.
The Assembly Visualization offers 2 different view options. The first is the nested view, which is shown below. This view shows only the top level assemblies and your subassemblies are indented. The other view is the flat view where your assembly tree structure is eliminated and you only see the part files.
You can also see in the picture below that there are value bars that overlay the part name. This get longer or shorter depending on the value that you are sorting by. You are able to turn these on & off as well.
There are a variety of preset categories that you can sort your assembly by but you are also able to create your own custom column to sort by. This also allows you to use an equation as shown below.
Some other cool functionality this tool allows you to do is:
- You can modify and edit properties from this interface
- You can save the list into a separate file such as a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet
- The graphics area colors correspond to the colors in the Assembly Visualization interface
