5 FREE macros to reduce clicks for the common operations in SOLIDWORKS®
This is a first blog post of 5 FREE macros to... series. In this article I will share 5 free macros you can use to save few clicks when performing SOLIDWORKS® operations in your day-to-day job.
Please find the video demonstration and download links below:
Open Large Assembly In Design Review Mode From File Explorer
If you ever worked with large assemblies in SOLIDWORKS® you might be aware of Large Design Review mode. This is a fantastic feature allowing to open huge assemblies in a matter of seconds, not minutes (or even hours in some cases).
This option however can only be accessed from the Open File dialog within the SOLIDWORKS® application. While it might be very handy to enable this feature directly from the Windows File Explorer.
This macro does just that. It adds the Quick View command directly in the Windows File Explorer context menu and allows to open the selected assembly in the Large Design Review mode in SOLIDWORKS.
Close All Documents Except Active
Many editor applications, such as Google Chrome, Notepad++, Microsoft Visual Studio Code, etc. provide a Close Others... option which allows closing all documents except of the active one.
Unfortunately this option doesn't exist in SOLIDWORKS®. This macro implements this feature with a single click. This option can be useful as it can free resources occupied by the opened documents and potentially may improve performance and stability of SOLIDWORKS®.
Select Component's File In The File Explorer From Assembly
While reviewing assembly document it might be required to find the file associated with the component. SOLIDWORKS® provides a shortcut to navigate to the active document in the Windows File Explorer, however there is no option to do the same for the component in the assembly. And it is required to either find the path of the component to manually browse it in the File Explorer or open the component in its own Window to enable the Open In Folder shortcut.
This macro provides an option to select the file in the Windows File Explorer for the component selected in the SOLIDWORKS® assembly.
Delete All Features In The Folder
In most of applications deleting the parent group (e.g. folder in the Files Explorer) would delete (or have an option to delete) all the children. Feature folders in SOLIDWORKS® Feature Manager Tree, however, are not considered as parents of the features inside this folder, thus removing folder feature neither removes nor proposes to remove all the content features.
This macro provides an option to additionally delete all the containing features of the selected feature folder in a single operation.
Exclude Bodies From Cut-List From Graphics Area
Individual cut-list items in the weldment or sheet metal part can be excluded from the cut-list to not appear on the Bill Of Materials table. This option only available by selecting the cut-list items in the Feature Manager Tree and might be tricky when you are working in the graphics area as it is required to find the corresponding cut-list folder for the target entity.
This macro allows to exclude items from the cut-list by selecting entities (face, edge, vertex or body) directly from the graphics area. Macro also supports multiple selection for excluding items in a batch.
