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How do you get info out of SolidWorks models? Threats and candy don’t do the trick, but bring out a steamy bowl of button clicking and you’ll be in statistical, property enhanced euphoria to break up the vapid atmosphere of deadlines and cold pastries.

If you’re like me, you like your fill of statistics and finding ways to automate getting information. I’d give all of the items in these tools below a custom property. Even though only some provide usable properties, you can find ways to speed up your design and get the info you need without questioning your morality.

1. AssemblyXpert
   This is new in 2008. It’s in Tools, AssemblyXpert. It’s a souped up version of Assembly Statistic in the 07 days. Along with how many parts you have you can snuggle up with how many mates are rebuilt, files that may affect performance, and how many resolved components you have. Not much else you can do but say that neat and show it off to your manager.
2. Feature Statistics
   This is the most useful tool to find how you can save some rebuild time. It�s on a part-by-part basis, so you�ll have to open up that part with all the complicated cuts and patterns to get the goods. This is also located under Tools.What you need to do here is run it and look at those top features that are taking the most time. I’ll usually make a “Simple” configuration to eliminate those or try to move the features around to get a better rebuild time. This alone can save you loads of time in large assemblies.
3. Mass Properties
   Pretty common tool I imagine found under Tools, Mass Properties. You’ve probably used this to get the weight of an item, but you can also pull out some info to aid in your design. What’s nice and a little different is using it in an assembly when designing top down and using it to find how your Center of Mass is distributed across components.Additional all of these have an associated custom property that you can pull into your document notes, bill of material and design tables.
4. Summary Info
   Under File, Properties, there’s a Summary Tab that has info you can use against other people when you find a model that’s been jacked up. You can see when it was saved last and who saved it.
5. Component Properties
   You can right-click (left-click in 2008 also) on parts in an assembly and get component properties. This is useful when you need to know what something is, where it’s located and if it has any configurations.

It’s an interesting thought though…These are five things you may have used, but don’t you wish some of this was combined together though or quicker to get to?

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