Take control of your assembly cuts and holes with Feature Scope

Did you ever want to make an assembly cut or hole in which feature only affected certain components in the assembly? Many companies ask me about applying manufacturing features at the assembly level and how to manage what components will be impacted. The Feature Scope functionality in SolidWorks 2006 lets you do this. For extruded and revolved cuts, simple holes and Hole Wizard holes, you can specify (in the Property Manager) the components that are affected by the feature.

The “Selected components” option will allow intersection of only the selected components. You can select the components manually or pick “Auto-select” and the system will automatically decide which components will be intersected by the feature.

Use the “All components” option to intersect all components in the assembly, even components that will be added after the feature is created.

This is a great example of the flexibility that SolidWorks provided with top down design in assemblies