I’m having a little trouble with configurations and design tables. I came from Creo where it’s much simpler, where you create a family table, which drives how each instance is created. In Solidworks you can create a design table, or create the configurations in your model, and these two methods can step on each other’s toes. You often have to take an extra step to reconcile the two methods of creating configurations.

“It looks like you’ve created new configurations! Would you like me to add them to the design table?”

And you need to change settings on dimensions that might change in different configurations. This is complicated by Derived Configurations. 

Do you have any advice for a new user, to keep everything straight?

Why do entries I’ve made in the design table sometimes vanish? The next time I open it, a few fields will be blank. I assume this is something people just have to get used it. Is this glitch common, or am I doing something wrong?

What’s up with the first column in the design table? It doesn’t size itself to the number of characters in the field. I entered an eight-digit number, and it converted it to scientific notation because it didn’t fit. And of course when I fixed it SW then asked if I wanted to delete the old configuration.