SOLIDWORKS 2017 What’s New: Toolbox Purge – #SW2017

Toolbox Purge

SOLIDWORKS 2017 Toolbox configure tool has been upgraded! Some of you have needed this in the past and it was not available. Now with 2017 you can purge inactive data!! There are multiple levels for this to executed at. The first one will purge ALL inactive data from the toolbox. (use some discretion here gang)

This one is at the standards level:

This is at the category level:

This is at the fastener group level:

And finally at the individual part level:

But what does it do??? Well, here we see that there are two materials set. Let’s say that the two materials are suffix S for steel and suffix B for Brass.

At one time in this toolbox, no suffix was used for a configuration name, and data was entered for part number and description and later was removed for whatever reason. Let’s say now we want to eliminate the S and just use no suffix for Steel then the toolbox still sees the blank suffix that was removed even though it is not in use anymore by the default configurations that were created when the toolbox was previously setup with an empty suffix. A warning comes up and says that there is duplicate information. What you are seeing is a ghost in the database from old entries. Previously that information was stuck in the database.

Run the purge and recreate the steel with no suffix and it clears it out.

The purge can:

Purge Inactive Data purges the following data from inactive configurations:

• Custom properties

• Configuration names

• Designations

• Part numbers

• Descriptions

• Comments

The command does not:

• Purge geometry data or active configuration data.

• Affect custom configurations you create using the Insert Component PropertyManager when you insert a Toolbox part into an assembly.

This will also reduce file size by eliminating any unused information.

I hope this part of the What’s New series gives you a better understanding of the new features and functions of SOLIDWORKS 2017. Please check back to the CATI Blog as the CATI and MCAD Support Teams will continue to break down many of the new items in SOLIDWORKS 2017. All of these articles will be stored in the category of “SOLIDWORKS What’s New.” You can also learn more about SOLIDWORKS 2017 by clicking on the image below to register for one of CATI’s or MCAD’s Design Summits.

John Van Engen
CATI Sr. Support Engineer
Computer Aided Technology