SolidWorks Tips&Tricks - Lightweight components

e85d5ce0

20 May, 2012 09:36 AM

You can load an assembly with its active components fully resolved or lightweight. Both parts and sub-assemblies can be lightweight.
You can improve performance of large assemblies significantly by using lightweight components. Loading an assembly with lightweight components is faster than loading the same assembly with fully resolved components. Assemblies with lightweight components rebuild faster because less data is evaluated.

1. Step 1:

   To set a component to be Lightweight, right-click on the top member on the tree and choose Set Resolved to Lightweight.
   

   

2. Step 2:

   And there's another option that let you set only a component to be Lightweight from an assembly.
   Just right-click on the desired component and choose Set Resolved to Lightweight.
   

   

3. Step 3:

   When a component is lightweight, a feather appears on the component icon in the FeatureManager design tree.
   

   

4. Step 4:

   To return back to the previous state, right-click on the Lightweight component and choose Set Lightweight to Resolved from the menu.
   

   

5. Step 5:

   You can perform the following assembly operations on lightweight components without resolving them:
   - Add/remove mates
   - Edge/face/component selection
   - Assembly features
   - Measure
   - Section properties
   - Mass properties
   - Exploded views
   - Physical simulation
   - Interference detection
   - Collision detection
   - Annotations
   - Dimensions
   - Assembly reference geometry
   - Section views
   - Advanced component selection