Suppressing and Configuring Equations in SOLIDWORKS

This article discusses some of the issues related to the change from suppressing to configuring equations beginning with SOLIDWORKS 2014. It provides a workaround in case a user wants to restore the ability to suppress equations in later versions of SOLIDWORKS.

Background

Beginning with the release of SOLIDWORKS 2014, the ability to suppress equations from the equation manager was replaced with the ability to configure equations. In SOLIDWORKS 2013 and earlier versions, equations could only be suppressed or unsuppressed (like features). Users requiring equations to change their expression between configurations would need to create duplicates of each equation and ensure that each equation had the correct suppression state for a given configuration. This would often lead to long and confusing lists of equations. To avoid this, for SOLIDWORKS 2014 and above, equations became configurable (like dimensions), giving them the ability to have different expressions in different configurations and simplifying the list of equations in the equation manager. The image below shows the behavior in the different versions.

Problem Description

One downside of this new functionality is that the ability to suppress equations was removed. Some users may still need this functionality. An example of such a scenario is if an assembly has top-level equations that use parameters of the assembly components. If the assembly has a configuration in which a component with a parameter used in a top-level equation is suppressed, the corresponding equations will give an error in the equation manager and a warning in the feature tree. Although this error is valid, because the parameter cannot be identified, the equation may not be relevant to this configuration, in which case the user would likely want to suppress the equation to eliminate the error. In SOLIDWORKS 2014 and above, this is not possible.

To address this, SOLIDWORKS has created the following enhancement request. At the date of this article, the Development team is actively working to resolve this.

SPR 844968: “Ability to suppress/unsuppress equation that is related to part/parts in the assembly level in 2014”

To check on the status of this SPR, log into the SOLIDWORKS Customer Portal, click Knowledge Base, then search “844968”. To receive an e-mail notification when the status of the SPR changes, click Enhancement Requests, search “844968”, click on the search result, then complete and submit the enhancement request form.

Workaround

There is also a workaround if the user wants to restore the ability to suppress equations in SOLIDWORKS 2014 and above.

1. Make a new part/assembly in SOLIDWORKS 2013.
2. Go to Tools > Equations and create a dummy global variable (e.g. Eqn2EnableSuppression = 0).
3. Right-click the variable and click Suppress > OK.
4. Save the file as a new template in the template location for SOLIDWORKS 2014 or above (File > Save as > "Part.prtdot" or "Assembly.asmdot").
5. In the later version, start new parts/assemblies from this template. As long as there is a suppressed equation in the equation manager, the ability to suppress equations will be retained over the ability to configure equations.

In case the user does not have SOLIDWORKS 2013, ANSI/IPS templates created using the above method are attached to this article. Note that the equation functionality can only be suppressible or configurable, not both.

Further Information

Further information about this topic can be found at links below.

What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2014: Configurable Equations
http://help.solidworks.com/2014/English/WhatsNew/c_configurable_equations.htm

SOLIDWORKS 2015 Help: Configuring Equations
http://help.solidworks.com/2015/English/SolidWorks/sldworks/c_configuring_equations.htm

Relevant SOLIDWORKS Knowledge Base Articles:
S-064455
S-065358