6 Replies Latest reply on Sep 30, 2014 12:08 PM by Kelvin Lamport

    Design tree

    Brian Warthen
    Brian Warthen Sep 26, 2014 5:07 PM

      Hi,

      The design tree should have a method to lock assemblies from expanding. My drawings have around many parts and assemblies and after clicking for dimensions the tree expands to the endless list of items I don't need to focus on. A lock would keep closed the items supposedly finished.

       

      In an assembly when top down edit of a part is selected, turn it blue, move it to the top of the tree display field and expand it. This will make it much easier to use.

       

      Thanks,

      Brian

        • Re: Design tree
          Jerry Steiger
          Jerry Steiger Sep 29, 2014 3:47 PM (in response to Brian Warthen)

          Brian,

           

          Posting an idea here will do almost nothing to get it done. Making an Enhancement Request is the first step. Once you do that and it gets converted into an SR, you can post the SR number here and try to talk other people into voting for it. If enough people vote for it, SolidWorks will feel pressured into working on it.

           

          Even better is to bring it up during the time before SolidWorks World when the forum votes on the top 10. If you can get it into the top 10 it has a pretty good chance of being implemented.

           

          Jerry S.

          • Re: Design tree
            Jim Wilkinson
            Jim Wilkinson Employee Sep 30, 2014 8:40 AM (in response to Brian Warthen)

            Hi Brian,

             

            There is an option to control whether the tree scrolls/expands based on selections, which is I am guessing is the behavior you are speaking about. So, you can turn that option off if you don't like the behavior. It is the first option described in the help link below:

            2014 SOLIDWORKS Help - FeatureManager Options

             

            I don't know what version you are using, but in SOLIDWORKS 2014, we modified the behavior so that if this option is turned on and the tree scrolls based on a selection, it will scroll back again once the selection is cleared. It does not however, collapse anything that was automatically expanded. This is described in the following help topic:

            2014 SOLIDWORKS Help - FeatureManager Design Tree Response to Selections


            As Jerry mentions, if there is additional behavior or options you would like (like if you want the items that automatically expanded to collapse again once you unselect the item) you should submit it as an enhancement request.

             

            I hope this helps,

            Jim

              • Re: Design tree
                Kelvin Lamport
                Kelvin Lamport Sep 30, 2014 8:28 AM (in response to Jim Wilkinson)

                Jim Wilkinson, Do you know of an option or registry setting which would prevent the auto-collapsing of the tree?

                That function has never worked on my clean install of SW14.

                  • Re: Design tree
                    Jim Wilkinson
                    Jim Wilkinson Employee Sep 30, 2014 8:51 AM (in response to Kelvin Lamport)

                    Hi Kelvin,

                     

                    My mistake. It looks like that new functionality does not collapse items that automatically expanded. It only reverts any scrolling of the tree that happened based on the selection. I have modified my original response to reflect that so people that find this thread in the future get the correct information easily. I am investigating why it does not collapse in addition to scrolling and will post back. My guess is it is technically difficult and may require additional work.

                     

                    Thanks,

                    Jim

                      • Re: Design tree
                        Jim Wilkinson
                        Jim Wilkinson Employee Sep 30, 2014 11:35 AM (in response to Jim Wilkinson)

                        Hi Kelvin,

                         

                        As suspected, collapsing items that automatically expanded is technically a lot more difficult than scrolling the tree back to where it was before the selection. The scroll information is just a single tree node that has to be stored to know where to go back to. Getting back to the previous state of expanded/collapsed tree nodes after the selection operation is more difficult because we would need to store the previous state of all of the expanded tree nodes to make sure we can get back to it. If users would like this behavior, they should vote for SPR# 653252 in the enhancement system.

                         

                        Thanks,
                        Jim