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Beware of New System Option for External References in 2005

For those of you using SolidWorks 2005, especially those interested in in-context modeling, here's a heads-up:

There's a new System Option under "External References". It reads "Do not create references external to the model".

A co-worker of mine running 2005 SP0.1 (under Windows XP, SP2) was tearing his hair out today while struggling with trying to perform what should have been easy in-context operations within an assembly.

Little did he know that "Do not create references external to the model" happened to be checked ON.

This was apparently caused by the installation of SolidWorks 2005 0.0 or by the application of SP0.1, since the system option does NOT exist in 2004 (his prior version) and he wasn't even aware of the option until stumbling upon it during troubleshooting today. (I didn't know of it either until this afternoon.)

It's odd that this new setting seems be toggled ON or OFF inconsistently, since I also have 2005 installed and found my option "Do not create references external to the model" to be checked OFF (as it should be by default).

SolidWorks Corp. needs to carefully consider the effects of the software installer's routines upon users' pre-existing settings!

Many users have carefully tweaked their environments and shouldn't be forced to lose certain setttings. Any new option(s) shouldn't be set (by default) to the more restrictive mode(s)! On top of this, any changed or new (default) settings should be consistent on all seats of SolidWorks (at a given Service Pack level).

Per O. Hoel

Reply to
POH
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I just checked my setting and it was not checked. Since I'm still using

2004 for production, I've done little in 2005 but play and test. I have not changed any settings yet and this one was off.

Keith

Reply to
Keith Streich

That is a ball-buster, particularly for a new user such as myself. I too got snagged by this one. I could not understand why a simple relationship that I had been able to enter in prior sketches wasn't working any more. Of course, as a new user the first thing you do is doubt that you are doing it right! I easily burned an hour because of this, when I didn't have an hour to burn.

They should have something flash on the status bar to let you know. Maybe even have such important modes as indicators on the status bar. ACAD, for example, has several buttons in the statusbar that allow you to both set and see various settings.

-Martin

Reply to
Martin

haven't seen it yet but thanks for the heads up!

..

Reply to
zxys

Martin that is an excellent suggestion.

I would also appreciate it if SolidWorks had a more complete set of possibilities when you click on "What's Wrong" (no matter where in the program we need to answer that).

Offering the user a list of possibilities ought to be rather straightforward.

Reply to
Bo

A good reason to do an administrative install.

Reply to
P.

The other thing to keep aware of with this setting. There is an ICON in the ASSEMBLY menu that allows this to easily be toggled on or off. I removed the icon from the menu so I don't accidently pick it.

Reply to
j

J,

Thanks for mentioning the related new Assembly command ICON; however, on my system it was NOT included in the toolbar by default. I've checked other installations of 2005 and the Assembly toolbar on each of those seats doesn't carry the ICON either.

How did it end up in yours?

Per O. Hoel _______

j wrote:

Reply to
POH

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