Creating Multiple Configurations Using Design Tables in SOLIDWORKS

When you want to increase your assembly performance or your SOLIDWORKS efficiency, you need to look at using configurations. Configurations are a great way to represent different versions of a design within a single part file. Think of it as a way to manage variations in your part geometry. Once the design table is created, it can often be useful to show this in a drawing. In this video tech tip, we will show you how this is possible, and some techniques for displaying your configured parts in a drawing.

>> Click here to learn how to create Design Tables in SOLIDWORKS Drawings

There are two main characteristics we can control in configurations: the value of dimensions, and the state of a feature. Dimension values can be changed per configuration, regardless of whether they’re used for a sketch or for a feature, as in the depth of an extrusion. Features can be suppressed and unsuppressed per configuration.

As you can imagine, the number of potential configurations can grow dramatically. Any sketch or feature dimension can be changed to many different values. And this can be compounded with features that are suppressed or unsuppressed. Any easy way to manage this is with Excel design tables.

Excel design tables can be an extremely useful tool when creating parts with many different configurations, and with many different variations.

Creating Multiple Configurations Using Design Tables in SOLIDWORKS

For a closer look at how these work, check out our webinar “Configure Your Way to Assembly Efficiency”

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