SolidWorks 2011 Parts Bible - Matt Lombard [159]
FIGURE 11.17
Suppressing a feature
Using Unsuppress With Dependents can save you a lot of time or the hassle of looking for all the features dependent upon a feature that has been suppressed. Because it is not available on the RMB menus, this function is used less than it might otherwise be.
You may also need more control than the use of the simple suppress and unsuppress features. Figure 11.18 shows a section of the Edit menu related to suppression. All three options (Suppress, Unsuppress, and Unsuppress with Dependents) each in turn have three options: This Configuration, All Configurations, and Specified Configurations. This is a case where the drop-down menu options offer more detailed functionality than you can find in the RMB menus.
FIGURE 11.18
Accessing more precise suppression functionality through the Edit drop-down menu
Controlling custom properties
Several reasons may compel you to use custom properties, including integration with searches for a Product Data Management system, automatically filling out drawing title blocks, or adding information to the BOM.
When you are using custom properties with configurations, you must use the Configuration Specific Custom Properties interface (or an appropriately configured custom property tab or the Modify Configurations dialog box), which enables you to have custom properties that change with each configuration. Standard custom properties apply to the top-level part and keep the same value for all configurations. The configuration-specific functionality is useful for situations such as different part numbers for configurations, and many other situations that are limited mostly by your use of configs. The Custom tab of the Summary Information dialog box, shown in Figure 11.19, still applies custom properties that do not change with the configurations to the part.
The interface for managing custom properties manually is shown in Figure 11.19. You can access this dialog box by choosing File⇒Properties from the menu.
FIGURE 11.19
The Configuration Specific tab in the Summary Information dialog box
You can also link custom properties to mass properties, model dimensions, link values, sketch text, and global variables by selecting from the drop-down list under the Value/Text Expression column, which appears when you select a cell in the column, as shown in Figure 11.19. To link a custom property to a model dimension, simply place the cursor in the Value/Text Expression box that you want to populate and click a dimension in the graphics window. Again, managing this data for a single config or only a few configs is easy enough; however, it can quickly become unwieldy, which is where using design tables can make a huge difference.
Controlling sketch relations
You can individually suppress or unsuppress sketch relations using configurations. Figure 11.20 shows the Display/Delete Relations PropertyManager interface, at the bottom of which is the Configurations panel. To suppress a relation, select it from the list and select the Suppressed option in the Relations section above the Delete buttons.
FIGURE 11.20
The Display/Delete Relations dialog box for configuring sketch relations
Tip
This is another situation where Delete is not used as an editing option. Using this technique, you can save sketch relations or activate different sets of relations in different configs; this technique allows a single sketch to react to changes differently.
Controlling sketch planes
You cannot configure the Offset distance in the From option for extrudes, but you can configure the sketch plane for the sketch that is used in the feature. The Sketch Plane PropertyManager interface expands when configurations are present, as shown in Figure 11.21.
FIGURE 11.21
The Sketch Plane PropertyManager interface for configuring a sketch plane
Tip
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