Folders, does anyone use these things...

It's taken be a while to figure out how I want to use them, but now I really like the folder feature in SolidWorks.  Here's some ways I use them.

In a molded or cast part I like to group my fillets and put them in a folder.  I also rename the folder so it's clear what's in there.  For a casting, I try to keep this folder at the bottom of the tree.  Having all the features in a folder makes it easy to roll back before it.

If it's a part with a particularly long feature tree I may consider grouping like types of feature together (i.e. tapped holes) or a group of feature that create a particular area of the part (i.e. profile feature).

For a part or assembly that has multiple configurations, I've found it useful to group items that are unique to a particular configuration in a folder.  This makes it real easy to suppress and unsuppress that group.  One word of caution you can suppress all the items in a folder and the folder still shows up unsuppressed (yellow).

In an assembly I like to group hardware together in a folder or other items I know I'll want to turn off and on in a group (i.e. internal components).  Sometimes I'll start with folders and turn them into configurations later.  For large assemblies, folder helps me find things faster. Especially after everything is given a number (non-descriptive name) that I don't want to memorize.

Comments

[Ricky Jordan]

Excellent tip Christine. Folders are one the best things that have been added to SolidWorks for "organizing" your work.

We use them so much in assemblies that it drives me nuts when I open an assembly with many components and NO folders.

One of the items on my "wish list" is getting the folders in assemblies to transfer to the E-Drawings model tree.

Best Regards,

Ricky Jordan
CSWP
Dynetics, Inc.
Huntsville, AL

check out my blog at http://www.rickyjordan.net

[rob rodriguez]

Great post Christine. We use folders in assemblies to group hardware and parts by material. It keeps our tree short and allows us to find things very quickly.

I use folders for a set of features that go together. I do a fair bit of surface work, and sometimes you can have 30 features that make a single area on the part. Rather than renaming all the individual features, I'll just create a folder and name it. You can suppress a folder and its contents at once, and you can also mass reorder a folder and its contents (as long as there are no feature history conflicts)

[Ken Maren]

We use folders for grouping together features of a revision. We have no PDM and have to make clear what we changed to our manf. partners overseas. Taking the handful of features we made to make the one revision and putting them into one folder and naming that folder accordingly is a big help in making sure everything is clear to those that might not understand a whole email about the changes.

[Rob Campbell]

I like to change feature names to something meaningful. This doesn't work for holes created with the hole wizard. You can change the name, but SolidWorks will overwrite your changes if you edit the hole. So I add the hole feature to a folder with a meaningful name.