Design Tables Flashcards

What is the recommended best practice when a Design Table grows very large and causes slow rebuild times?

Answer: Split configurations into multiple Design Tables or use SpeedPak configurations

For large Design Tables, splitting configurations across multiple tables or applying SpeedPak to suppress heavyweight configurations helps maintain acceptable rebuild performance.

A Design Table column header reads '$PRP@Color'. What does this control?

Answer: A configuration-specific custom property named 'Color'

The '$PRP@Color' header drives a configuration-specific custom property named 'Color', which can be referenced in a Bill of Materials or drawing.

When inserting a Design Table from an external file, what is preserved if the source Excel file is later edited?

Answer: Changes update the model when SOLIDWORKS reopens or the table is refreshed

An externally linked Design Table updates the model configurations when the file is reopened or the table is explicitly refreshed from the Edit menu.

Which of the following Design Table column headers would correctly control the suppression state of a mate named 'Coincident1' in an assembly?

Answer: $STATE@Coincident1

Assembly mates are treated like features in Design Tables, so '$STATE@MateName' controls whether a mate is suppressed or unsuppressed.

If you want to prevent the Design Table from being auto-expanded with new parameters when new dimensions are added to the model, which option should you use?

Answer: Disable 'Allow model edits to update the design table' in Design Table options

In Design Table options, unchecking 'Allow model edits to update the design table' prevents SOLIDWORKS from automatically adding new parameters to the table.

In a Design Table, what is the effect of entering the same configuration name in two different rows?

Answer: SOLIDWORKS uses the first row and ignores the duplicate row

If two rows share the same configuration name, SOLIDWORKS applies the first row's values and ignores subsequent duplicate-named rows without generating an error.

Which SOLIDWORKS feature allows a Design Table to display a preview image specific to each configuration?

Answer: Configuration-specific preview images set via the Configuration Manager, not directly in the Design Table

Configuration preview images are set through the Configuration Manager properties, not via Design Table headers — there is no Design Table syntax for embedding preview images.